EnergyWise House: An EnergyWise House Takes Smart Building

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An energy-efficient home is more than just a shell filled with energy-saving products and appliances. It is wise in its approach to the building site, the building materials used, the siting of the house, its approach to natural heating and cooling, and the technology and appliances that enable an energy-efficient lifestyle within. That was the goal of the EnergyWise House—to create a home that functioned on all levels as an energy-conscious and responsible building. We hoped the project would benefit builders and consumers looking to build efficient housing, affordably. The House and Its Site Building a house in paradise means siting the house to take advantage of views and shade from the hot desert sun. This Palm Springs home was designed to take advantage of the heating and cooling cycles of the desert. Cool mornings and evenings, and blazing sun in the afternoons are the norm here. Heat-absorbing surfaces and windows would not be facing South or West. Instead, view windows of varying sizes peppered the walls of the stairway facing southwest, allowing framed glimpses of the mountains but protection from heat loading windows. The EnergyWise house was designed to work with the elements not against them. It is self-shading on its sunniest side, with overhanging decks and extended rooflines. It was constructed with a heat-beating cool-roof design to discourage heat buildup within the home along with structured insulated panels (SIPs) on the exterior walls and insulated concrete forms (ICFs) for the foundation. The result is a house that saves energy in the building process and in its heating and cooling loads. An insulated home is a more stable home in terms of temperature. The insulated walls help the house retain its heated or cooled air, thereby reducing energy consumption and lowering energy bills. This home also boasts concrete floors that, like the walls, collect and store heat or cool temperatures. Thermally insulating the house all around is an easy, energy-efficient building technique for any climate. Efficiency and Technology Reduce Energy Demand No matter how high the R-Value of your walls, windows will decrease it. Any opening in a wall, especially one made of glass, is going to reduce the efficiency of the exterior walls. Since Palm Springs is a natural wonder, there's no living without windows. So, the answer was to look for technology that would allow for windows by making them as efficient as possible. Since it is heat gain more than heat loss that impacts this desert home, the goal was to purchase windows that would battle solar heat gain. The low-e coating on the exterior pane blocks rays that increase heat gain, while separate panes act as traps to hold back the heat from the interior space. In tandem, this double-paned, coated window is able to reduce solar heat gain significantly and, if used with shades, screens, or overhangs, will minimize the heat gain and the subsequent demand on the cooling system.

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