Providing superior indoor environmental quality (IEQ) is top of mind for consumers, who understand health starts in the home. 

While hydronic radiant heating has been around since the Roman times and has been the main form of heating homes throughout Europe for decades, the United States has lagged behind in adopting this technology. Currently, only about 4% of homes are heated using hydronic radiant systems while the majority use forced-air HVAC.

Innovations in modular and prefab homes and 3D printing are projected to disrupt the housing market, gaining market adoption due to resource and labor efficiencies. 

According to COGNITION Smart Data, Green Builder Media’s suite of market intelligence services, the modular, prefab, and 3D printing sectors are mushrooming.

If buyers will pay 1% more for healthy home solutions, what should you offer? Here’s what Thrive Homes is doing.

The coronavirus has unleashed an explosion of interest in healthy homes. But unfortunately, many newly constructed and existing homes suffer from a range of problems that negatively impact indoor air quality. In a recent interview, pioneering high-performance builder Gene Myers, CEO of  Thrive Home Builders, offered some interesting insights about creating healthy environments.

Join an engaging webinar with DOE expert Heather Goetsch and learn specific ways to reduce the overall life cycle impact of a building.

On August 13 at 2:00 p.m., Heather Goetsch, PhD., AAAS Science & Technology Policy Fellow at the DOE Building Technologies Office, will talk specifics on how the building industry can reduce the embodied impacts of our built world. Click to reserve your spot. 

The new I-Codes are out. Here are the highlights of the biggest changes and two important reasons every jurisdiction should update. 

The 2021 edition of the I-Codes includes updates and changes that will impact building professionals in all areas of the industry, from new wind maps to EV charger requirements to the ban of commercial cooking appliances in dwelling units. 

Carrier’s brand-new Infinity® 26 air conditioner and Infinity® 24 heat pump with Greenspeed® Intelligence answer homeowner demand for the highest quality indoor air, comfort, and unparalleled energy efficiency. Come check out all the new features!

What’s so revolutionary about Carrier’s product? A lot. So much, in fact, we detailed it in this quick-read downloadable eBook so you can learn why the Infinity 26 and Infinity 24 with Greenspeed Intelligence is the best option for today’s high-performance homes.

Research shows that closed-cell spray foam insulation creates a highly effective barrier against radon gas in both new and remodeled homes.

More than half of the United States has a problem with invisible radon gas in buildings. 

Despite the ongoing surge in coronavirus cases, the housing market seems to be the bright spot in the economy—at least for now. Home buying activity is hitting record levels, even in the most unlikely places, turning all the rules of the game upside-down.

Health concerns from the runaway pandemic have created an exodus from cities across the country, upending traditional housing market dynamics in urban and close-in suburban areas.

Buyers are flocking to less dense outer suburbs and even rural markets, some of which have been suffering from declining home values for years, in order to find reasonably priced homes with lawns, gardens, and room to move.

The concept of work is rapidly transforming as people decide that they are ready to abandon the traditional office model in favor of telecommuting.

According to COGNITION Smart Data, Green Builder Media’s suite of market intelligence services, nearly 75% of Americans who have been able to work remotely during COVID-19 say that they don’t want to return to an office full time. Rather, they want to maintain the healthy work-life balance they have created while working from home during the pandemic, spending more time at home and less in the office. 

Ted Clifton, Owner/CEO Clifton View Homes and Zero-Energy Plans, Bellingham, Wash., has proof his zero energy home line is what buyers want in uncertain times.

GB: Is the coronavirus changing your business?

TC: We are in Washington, which has shut down all non-government residential and commercial construction, so yes.

The rise of net zero housing will likely accelerate in wake of the pandemic.

The net zero energy building (NZEB) movement has hit critical mass. After decades of being considered a fringe goal and showcased in the media as maverick, net zero housing has earned its place in the mainstream. It’s slated to become the way all homes will be built in the near future.

This new resource provides an overview of performance path options for meeting IECC requirements.

What is the performance path to energy code compliance? It is a way for building professionals to use cost-effective alternatives to traditional compliance paths to meet energy code requirements. 

Around the nation, states grapple with energy code adoption. Here’s a report out of New Mexico.

In his July 25 The New Mexican column, Kim Shanahan, a Santa Fe builder and former executive officer of the Santa Fe Area Home Builders Association, addresses proposed revisions to the New Mexico Efficiency Code. He calls the state’s potential adoption of an amended 2018 model code--which will impact both residential and commercial buildings--a  good compromise.