Advice provided by: Sarah Gudeman, LEED AP, EIT, Morrissey Engineering, Inc.

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Karin asks: When building a home approximately 2000 sq ft using the SIP wall panels and roof system, incorporating green flooring products, Energy Star appliances, and complying with all current building codes for the San Antonio/Bexar county. Would this home be rated as a level 3 and what rebates at city, state and federal level for the builder are applicable?

Answer: Hi Karin, thank you for your question. Your home sounds like a very sustainable home! Small footprint, energy-efficient building envelope, and sustainable flooring… were you considering applying for LEED for Homes certification from the US Green Building Council? This jumps ahead to your first question; I’m not sure what you mean by ‘Level 3’ rating. I was able to locate a website in the UK that had a reference to ‘Code Level 3’ as meeting the following criteria:

- Has to be 25% more energy efficient than one built to the 2006 code. This could be achieved by...

- Improving the thermal efficiency of the walls, windows and roof

- Reducing ventilation air intake to the minimum code level

- Installing a high-efficiency condensing boiler

- Designing the home envelope to avoid thermal bridging

- Using renewable energy

The criteria go on to list water savings strategies and other minimum requirements such as surface water management, materials and waste management. However, since you noted you’re in San Antonio/Bexar county (in the great state of Texas), I can only assume that by ‘Level 3’ maybe you weren’t referring to the aforementioned criteria listed in the UK Government's online planning and building regulations resource.

So now I’m thinking maybe you meant LEED for Homes Gold (as in Certified, Silver, Gold, Platinum)? If so, LEED for Homes only certifies new construction projects and you have to include a LEED for Homes provider in the process relatively early on, as I understand it. I’ve personally never been involved in a LEED for Homes project, but that’s the impression I get.

All that being said – and still not thoroughly knowing what you mean by Level 3 – here’s my assessment of your home from what you describe. I can only assume that you also included energy-efficient glazing, HVAC equipment and hot water heater as well. So I would anticipate your home might be saving an average of 20% compared to a ‘typical’ home that would just meet minimum codes in your area. This is, of course, making some very vague assumptions. To get a very accurate idea, a building energy model could be created, or you could check out the Home Energy Saver, Developed by the Environmental Energy Technologies Division at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. The Home Energy Saver quickly computes a home's energy use on-line based on methods developed at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Users can estimate how much energy and money can be saved and how much emissions can be reduced by implementing energy-efficiency improvements, available online at http://hes.lbl.gov/.

And finally, most rebates and incentives have to do with energy savings. My favorite resource is the Database of State Incentives for Renewables & Efficiency (DSIRE), http://dsireusa.org. DSIRE was founded in 1995 and is an ongoing project of the North Carolina Solar Center and the Interstate Renewable Energy Council (IREC). It is funded by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), and administered by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), which is operated for DOE by the Alliance for Sustainable Energy, LLC. It’s a great resource for someone in your position. There are several loan, financing and tax incentives and many, many utility loan programs available.

I’d recommend you check into the site above and leave a comment below to let me know what you meant by Level 3 so I can better answer your question.

Thanks!