Can you cut building energy use in
half while holding construction costs
steady? Well, that's the goal of participants
in the Building America Initiative,
a nationwide demonstration program
sponsored by the Department of Energy
(DOE) and the National Renewable
Energy Laboratory (NREL).
Building America projects aim to produce
homes that use half the energy of a
typical home for heat, cooling, hot
water, and lighting, but at a square-foot
cost in line with ordinary houses. Along
the way, DOE and its private-sector partners
hope to step up the pace at which
new building ideas develop and spread.
Projects in the program are now off
the drawing board and into the field. In
fact, Building Science Consortium
(BSC) of Westford,