New Home Buyers Increase Demand for Energy Efficiency Features
From the way that the house is placed on its lot to the light bulbs used in the custom lighting package, home buyers have become very sensitive to the use of energy efficient home building techniques, and many local St. Tammany Parish builders have stepped up to the challenge. The footprint of a house on a lot determines how the sunlight will
affect all rooms of the home which not only helps with heating and cooling but also maximizes the offering of natural lighting which can reduce the consumption of electricity used to light your home. Therefore, builders now carefully review floorplans for lot placement when they are trying to offer the most energy efficient structure possible.
Home buyers also express interest in many different green building techniques which included spray foam insulation to “envelope” the house, sealing out air and moisture but still allowing the house to “breath” to expel any humidity which could get trapped in the walls. They also preferred now triple pane, low E windows – some even with a glaze – to block out light in rooms that would tend to heat up. In 
townhomes and condos, buyers considered planting rooftop gardens to encourage the absorption of moisture for plants and reducing the amount of heat that a traditional shingle roof would absorb in the hot southern months.
Regarding electrical fixtures inside the homes, new home buyers, especially Millenials who are now entering the home buying market because of improving employment and economic conditions, prefer all of their appliances to be Energy Star rated appliances. It is now pretty much standard for builders to install electronic, programmable thermostats to control the heating and cooling of homes to match the homeowner’s life schedule.
New home buyers who are able to completely customize their home buying experience may also be dedicated to a complete green building experience from the ground up. Structural foundational parts of a totally green home could include ground source heat pumps, solar energy for both electricity as well as hot water heaters, displacement ventilation, and water conservation through the use of underground irrigation tanks or insulated rain barrels for outdoor watering needs.
In many markets new home buyers increase demand for energy efficiency features, and new home builders are stepping up to the challenge of offering buyers the benefit of green building techniques. They are providing a way to reduce utility bills and offer a more quality-built new home, sealed from the elements that could last much longer than new homes built even 20 years ago.
Ron Lee Homes is currently building new homes for sale at Bedico Creek Preserve, and Ron Lee has held the National Association of Home Builders’ designation of Certified Green Professional since 2009. For More Information on homes for sale, Contact Us at 985-845-4200 or E-mail [email protected].
