How Are Energy Efficient Homes Designed Differently?

For many people, investing in a home is the single most important investment of a lifetime. If you’re ready to make that investment, though, you may wonder what you can do to create a healthier living environment for you, your family, and your community as a whole. That desire is pushing many to look into the energy efficient home designs Florida companies like Synergy Homes. You’ll also see significant savings thanks to reduced energy costs. But what makes a home energy efficient, and are they really designed differently? 

How Do Companies Design an Energy Efficient House?

While homes can be retrofitted to include energy saving features, many builders today have asked themselves “How do you design an energy efficient house?” and the answer to the question has changed the way companies like Synergy Homes do things. 

Energy efficiency in new home design actually begins with the planning process. The home design itself maximizes energy with careful room placement and layout. Many of the home’s components make use of recycled and sustainable building materials. Above all, the home is carefully placed on the lot to ensure the home can take advantage of both the sun’s energy and the landscaping of the area to help keep it cool. 

Many energy efficient home designs Florida is known for also feature a tighter thermal envelope. This is the idea that pieces of the home serve to shield your living space from the elements, and creating a tighter thermal envelope means designing the entire space to maximize internal airflow and minimize moisture, adding insulation to ensure no heat or cooling coming from the home is lost, and using better window and door choices to help enhance the energy balance of the home. 

Builders also typically incorporate cool roofs into these designs. This type of roofing works to reflect the sun’s heat instead of absorbing it. That not only keeps the home itself quite a bit cooler, but it can actually lower the temperature of the area around it too. 

Design features typically don’t stop there, though. In energy efficient home designs Florida companies optimize the HVAC unit, carefully choosing them to help lower the energy bill. And options like tankless water heaters, which naturally use less energy when heating water for the home, come standard. Along with that comes Energy Star rated appliances to help keep the overall costs down in the home. Energy Star appliances are rated by the United States Department of Energy, and they use up to 50% less energy than their more-traditional counterparts. Nearly every appliance is available as an Energy Star rated appliance, helping smart home designers use better options inside these homes. Even the lighting changes with these designs! Typically LEDs and natural lighting are employed throughout the home to help lower energy use at every turn. 

Saving water is part of the package with this kind of home design as well. Efficient showerheads, faucets, and toilets are added to bathrooms, laundry rooms, and kitchens to help reduce water usage in these kinds of homes.

Almost as important are the smart features that are built into these home designs. Things like programmable thermostats that can be controlled from an app and other devices like smart plugs and switches also help to reduce energy usage throughout the home, creating an overall better design. 

Financing Your Energy Efficient Home

If you’re in love with the idea of an energy efficient home, you may be wondering how to move your ideas toward reality, and many find that using a specific mortgage is the quickest way to make that happen. Many lenders offer Fannie Mae’s HomeStyle Energy Mortgage or Freddie Mac’s GreenCHOICE Mortgage or other financing options designed specifically for energy efficient homes. 

Before you can qualify for one of those choices, though, you’ll need to work with a green inspector to help establish the home’s energy rating. Typically homes are rated on a scale of 0 to 150, with 150 being the least energy efficient. A green inspector can produce a Home Energy Rating System (or HERS) report to help you establish that you’re purchasing a new energy efficient home. If you’re purchasing a home that is older but has energy efficient upgrades, you can still qualify for this type of mortgage. In most cases, you’ll need a DOE Home Energy report to qualify. 

Ready to Get Started? 

If you’re looking for energy efficient home designs Florida’s Synergy Homes is here to help you find the most efficient home possible. Browse our full catalog of designs now, and get ready to come home to something that’s a bit more efficient than your average home.