Watch the video on Designing for Performance.
Whenever the phrase "too many cooks spoil the broth" is applied to a project, it usually means that somewhere along the way confusion, conflicting priorities, and a lack of communication resulted in an unsatisfactory end product. With all the designers, engineers, purchasers, and trades involved in the process, too many cooks often spoil the broth when it comes to home performance. Builders often design and install home systems without considering how those systems will work together, leaving issues like safety, health, durability, comfort, and energy efficiency to chance.
Today's home is a complex set of systems, and without an overall strategy for home performance, these systems can actually work against each other. For example, if the furnace isn't properly rated for the amount of insulation installed in the home, neither the furnace nor the insulation will perform to optimum standards. The result is a home with reduced levels of energy efficiency and comfort. To produce high-performance homes, builders need to take what engineers call a "whole-house approach" to design and construction, looking at all of the home's systems together and coordinating them for the best overall performance.
By viewing the home as a single system and taking a whole-house approach to the home's design and construction, builders can set high performance standards, design homes with those standards in mind, and implement those standards with their trades in the field. Here are four essentials for building high-performance homes.
1. Set home performance standards
Define your performance standards based on the end product you want to market to potential customers. For example, if you're marketing energy-efficient homes, one way to establish and implement energy efficiency standards is to build your homes to Energy Star standards. For more information on Energy Star standards, visit www.energystar.gov. Or if you're marketing basements as usable living space, you'll need to establish performance standards for ventilation and waterproofing, which require that the structural and mechanical systems be designed and installed to provide comfortable living space in the basement.
2. Develop an integrated design process
Traditionally, the marketing department gives specifications to the architect, who designs floor plans based on features the marketing department wants to sell. After the design phase is complete, the purchasing department decides what materials will be installed. When the construction phase begins, the construction managers and trades are expected to make the floor plan work, even if the design requires installations that reduce home performance. For example, the design might require the HVAC contactor to run ductwork through the attic, reducing the home's energy efficiency and comfort level. The best practice is to design the home with input from all of the key players involved in delivering the home. Including construction professionals in the design process gives them a chance to point out potential performance problems with the design.
3. Document what you expect in the field
Provide your trades with specific construction details and scopes of work so that they know exactly what you expect. Detailed scopes of work give builders an accurate and powerful tool to use when checking installations in the field. The scopes of work should include drawings showing exactly how you want particular details installed.
4. Measure the results
To achieve a high performing end product, you need to check each installation using a detailed scope of work and then communicate clearly with your trades about any aspect of the installation that doesn't measure up to your expectations. Your trade partners play a critical role in the performance of your end product, so be clear with them about what you expect. If the details aren't clear enough for your trades to understand, continue to revise your scopes of work until they truly communicate your expectations for home performance.
Every builder must build to code, but building to code is really just building to the lowest acceptable standard. Without a specific plan to ensure comfort, durability, and energy efficiency, builders can't guarantee that they're meeting specific performance standards. The traditional approach to homebuilding can lead to unhappy customers down the road when the home doesn't perform as expected.
By setting performance standards for your homes, developing a design process that integrates all of the home's systems, documenting your performance standards, and communicating those standards to your trade partners, you can deliver higher performing homes, market those standards to potential customers, increase customer satisfaction, and differentiate yourself as a high-performance homebuilder in your market.
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