EEBA Academy

As societal forces shift, new buying behaviors emerge and consumers are becoming more educated about the place they call home. Builders must also shift the way homes and communities are designed and built. High Performance Homes, in particular, are in demand, but must be designed differently to perform at levels which meet or exceed homeowner expectations.

A subject of conversation amongst builders as we come out the back end of the COVID era, is how we build healthier homes.  The reality, however, is that much of what builders are currently doing is already creating a healthy home. Most just don’t know how to talk about it and/or market it. In this podcast style live conversation join Joe Medosch, Healthy Building Scientist at Hayward Score, and Robby Schwarz, BUILDTank, for a conversation on Healthy or Healthier Homes.  We will explore all the great things builders are already doing and how to communicate those things to buyers. Then we will move forward to what is next that could make our home healthier.

Webinars 2 and 3 explore the 11 critical steps involved in building a house as a ‘system.’ Customer comfort is paramount and we have to consider how the client will use their home. We must ask ourselves one simple question: “Am I making the homeowner’s life easier or harder?" Webinar 2 looks at how to avoid improper planning and design from the outset, both of which can impact the entire home and create costly errors and rework.

This 1924 Colonial home had fallen into severe disrepair before coming up for sale. As part of the muchneeded renovation, the new homeowners (two Steven Winter Associates, Inc. employees) wanted to eliminate onsite combustion and produce as much of their operating electricity as possible. Other goals included lower embodied energy materials and a healthy indoor environment. LEED v4.1 for Homes offered one platform to address energy, health, and materials. The home was gutted down to the foundation, framing, and floors before the year-long renovation. After the first 8 months of occupancy (July-February), the home produced 14% more energy than it consumed.