What It Means to Have a High Performance Home

High Performance building is defined as “A building with energy, economic and environmental performance that is substantially better than standard practice. It is energy efficient, so it saves money and natural resources. It is a healthy place to live and work for its occupants and has relatively low impact on the environment. All this is achieved through a process called whole-building design.” The term “High Performance Building” or “Green” has been used in the building industry recently to promote this idea of a more energy and resource efficient home.

There are numerous High Performance Building programs around these days. Local home builder associations as well as nationally and internationally recognized programs account for the hundreds of programs seen in the marketplace. At Riverbanks Construction we strive to stay on the cutting edge of new practices and technologies, emerging almost daily, in Green Building practices. We have partnered with the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) and their Green Building Program as well as the NC State Solar Center’s Healthy Built Homes program. The NAHB program is nationally known and on the forefront of developing trends and standards for American builders. The Healthy Built Homes program is a statewide program that includes elements specific to the North Carolina building environment. Most of these programs contain the same elements.

Primary areas of concern are:
1) Lot design, preparation and development
2) Resource efficiency
3) Energy efficiency
4) Water efficiency
5) Indoor air quality
6) Operation, maintenance, and building owner education.

When attention is paid to all of these areas the result is a whole house “systems approach” to home building. The end result is a “High Performance” home that has a high level of energy efficiency and durability.