The United Veterans Beacon House is a green home and career-maker.

"Everyone deserves to live in a healthy home.” This has become the operating slogan for United Way of Long Island Housing Development Corporation, a nonprofit organization that builds homes for local governments and several of the 126 agencies funded under the United Way of Long Island (UW-LI) umbrella. To fulfill this “healthy housing for all” vision, United Way began constructing homes to meet the guidelines of the U.S. Department of Energy Zero Energy Ready Home (ZEHR) program in 2014 and has certified five homes so far, including the United Veterans Beacon House, a 3,719-square-foot, two-story home in Huntington Station, N.Y.

Researchers at the University of Cambridge are using microencapsulation technologies developed by Dolomite Microfluidics to develop self-healing construction materials. 

As highlighted in recent BBC News broadcasts, the Department of Engineering’s Geotechnical and Environmental Research Group is developing microcapsules containing ‘healing’ agents – such as minerals, epoxy or polyurethane – which can be added to building materials to allow self-repair of small cracks which develop over time.* Dr Livia Ribeiro de Souza, a postdoctoral researcher in the group, explained: “Many composite building materials used in the construction industry – such as concrete – suffer fatigue over time, developing small cracks. We are hoping to overcome this problem by adding microcapsules filled with ‘healing’ agents to the concrete before it is used. The idea is that, as cracks begin to form, they rupture the microcapsules, releasing their payload and stabilizing the material.”

Heavy insulation, top-notch air sealing and energy-miser appliances make Courtyard Rows a crowning achievement in multi-family living.

Thrive Home Builders could rest on its laurels. After all, the Denver-based company has won grand awards for housing innovation from the U.S. Department of Energy four years in a row. Thrive has built more DOE Zero Energy Ready-certified homes than any other builder in Colorado and has the second-highest number of homes certified nationally, with 280 as of August 2017. Gene Myers, the owner and CEO of Thrive Home Builders, was awarded the Denver-area Home Builders Association 2016 Builder of the Year Award. Thrive was the first “solar standard” builder in Colorado and the first production home builder to include DOE Zero Energy Ready Home (ZERH) certification as a standard feature for an entire series of houses.

For Greenhill Contracting, building zero-energy-capable homes are an everyday thing.

Nearly 10 years ago, homeowners of one of the nation’s first zero-energy homes, built in the Green Acres community in New Paltz, N.Y., posed the question, “Why isn’t every home built this way?”

While many are still pondering that question, builder Anthony Aebi of Greenhill Contracting in Esopus, N.Y., is doing his part to make sure more homes are built that way.

Amaris Homes goes right to work saving energy and cutting waste with its Afton, Minn., project.

Few builders are bold enough to offer even a one-year guarantee on their homes. Raymond Pruban of Amaris Homes offered a 10-year guarantee on his model home in Afton, Minn., promising that it would be a net-zero-energy performer, producing as much energy as its occupants used each year, for a decade.

RESNET Offers New Video and Infographic Directed at Builders

RESNET has created new resources to explain why builders should have their homes HERS rated.

The manufacturer claims the new grout is less corrosive on the environment, yet still superior to standard grout.

Here's the release. We followed up with some questions (below) - Editor

A new free ebook covers the important systems and products that are designed to manage the building envelope, insulation, and indoor air quality. Here's some of the most advanced of these building science concepts being used in new homes today.

Because most Americans spend two-thirds of their lives inside their homes, it’s important to continue making those buildings and the systems inside them as energy efficient—and healthy to live in—as possible. This ebook provides a roadmap to getting this done, including information on:

Contractors can now continuously monitor their tankless water heater installations with the upgraded mobile Noritz PROCard app. Features include a live map displaying each installation’s location and error code alerts, prompting the installer to schedule a visit with the affected homeowner.

This first in a four-part blog series on how to construct buildings to manage moisture addresses finding the elusive “sweet spot” for building wrap permeability.

Water is an elusive foe for builders. It can find its way into a building envelope in a variety of ways. According to Bijan Mansouri, Technical Manager, TYPAR Construction Products, a key area of concern is flashing. “Bad flashing installation at punched openings such as windows and doors as well as balcony and deck interfaces are the places where water typically finds its way into a home.”

One of the most challenging situations to manage moisture is in areas with annual rainfall of 20 inches or more and a reservoir cladding like fiber cement, brick, or stone is specified and where air conditioning is often used¾which is most of the United States. When these types of claddings get wet and then are warmed, the vapor pressure of the stored water increases, driving it both inward and outward from the cladding material. Where that moisture ends up, and how quickly, is a function of how permeable the adjacent materials are within the assembly.