High Performance Building 101
- What is high performance building?
- What are the technologies used?
- High performance programs available
- Benefits of high performance building
- Standard building practices
- What incentives are available?
- Training and Continuing Education Opportunities
A high-performance building or home is a building with energy, economic and environmental performance that is substantially better than standard practice. High performance building practices incorporate energy efficiency into the design, construction and materials used for a project with an end result of using less energy from lighting, heating, cooling and general electricity use.
What are the technologies used?
A few examples of high performance building technologies include:
- Proper site selection and building orientation, which can help reduce heating costs in the winter and cooling costs in the summer.
- Higher levels of ceiling and wall insulation (R-40 or higher) coupled with advanced framing techniques to minimize thermal bypasses.
- Radiant barrier installed on the inside of the roof to reduce solar heat gain and help keep the attic cool, particularly in hot-dry climates.
- High-performance windows with spectrally selective glass, which reduces solar heat gain in summer and reduces heating costs in the wintertime.
- Use of thermal mass for improved heating and cooling performance, including additional insulation in ceilings and walls, and use of 5/8” drywall instead of ½” drywall in ceilings.
- Properly designed and installed heating and cooling systems that help keep energy costs low and improve indoor air quality.
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Highly-efficient heating and cooling systems, including:
- Engineered HVAC (proper sizing and diagnostic testing of HVAC systems by mechanical engineers)
- Advanced evaporative cooling systems such as direct-indirect evaporative cooling systems
What programs are available?
There are a variety of resources available to assist home and business owners, contractors, builders, architects, and developers in designing and constructing buildings that provide high quality energy performance for years to come. Programs include:
What are the benefits of high performance building?
High performance building practices such as building or retrofitting more efficient homes and businesses, and buying more efficient products and appliances, save energy and money throughout the lifetime of that home or building. In addition to saving homes and businesses money, high performance buildings save energy, improves our energy security, and provides employment opportunities in the energy efficient building construction and maintenance industry to boost our economy and our quality of life.
Standard building practices in Utah
For more information on building practices, please visit our Energy Codes 101 page.
What incentives are available?
Apply for rebates and tax credits available for energy efficiency projects such as:
- Questar ThermWise Residential Programs appliance rebates are available for high efficiency appliances such as furnaces, water heaters, boilers, Weatherization rebates include insulation, windows and duct sealing. Rebates can range anywhere from $30 to $750 per installed item.
- Rocky Mountain Power Home Energy Savings Program and Cool Cash Incentive Program offers incentives for ENERGY STAR appliances, evaporative coolers, certain air conditioning units, electric water heaters, lighting fixtures and ceiling fans. Rebates are also available for home improvement, heating and cooling including insulation, windows, duct sealing and insulation. Rebates range from $20 per $1,000 per installed item.
- Federal tax credits are available for many energy efficiency projects through December 2009. Eligible projects include insulation, replacement windows, water heaters and certain high efficiency heating and cooling equipment. Visit the ENERGY STAR website for more details.
Training and Continuing Education Opportunities
Energy Center University is offering free access to the Master Speaker presentations from the 2010 Better Buildings: Better Business Conference. These workshops were recorded at the conference and are now available at no cost as on-demand webcasts. Click the links below to watch these outstanding presentations by leading experts in the residential building and energy efficiency field.
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HVAC for High Performance Home
Presented by Gord Cooke, EEBA -
How to Stay Alive in Business
Presented by Mike Gorman, TechKnowledge -
Passive House Case Study
Presented by Katrin Klingenberg, Passive House Institute -
2010 Ventilation Technology Updates
Presented by Joe Nagan, Home Building Technology Services -
Building Science and Renewables: The Perfect Energy Efficient Solution
Presented by Mark Klein and James McKnight, Gimme Shelter -
Solving the Wet Attic Problem: Insulating and Air Sealing
Presented by Keith Williams, Building Services & Consultant LLC
