When Jon Blumenauer moved into his EA Platinum certified home during the chill of December 2012, he was worried that there might be something wrong with it. Despite running the furnace only briefly in the mornings and evenings, the temperature would never drop below 68 degrees. At first he thought the furnace might be broken, but he soon realized it was simply a reflection of how well-built the home was. The tight building envelope and energy upgrades kept the house comfortably warm with minimal heating use. Jon cites the home’s outstanding energy performance as just one of the many benefits of Earth Advantage certification.
“First and foremost, our new home is healthier and more comfortable, which simply makes it a better place to live,” he said. “ Additionally, the high energy and water efficiency mean immediate savings on utility bills. And because I don’t expect these prices to drop in the future, it will make our home even more valuable down the road.”
The home’s Energy Star and EA certifications were important to Jon, although meeting the requirements was a big challenge in the process, as Jon had no home construction background and his builder had little experience with Energy Star and EA specifications. Jon credits the builder, Neil Thogerson of Kimco Properties Ltd., for his willingness to investigate options and experiment with alternative building methods.
“It involved considerable time spent analyzing alternatives and examining cost-benefit tradeoffs, and I feel good about the choices we made,” he said. “We were shooting for Gold certification, but our home achieved Platinum – and within our budget – which affirms to me that we made the appropriate choices.”