One of the biggest advantages of a new build home is the ability to customize it to your needs and wants. You can build a model of energy efficiency — saving you money and reducing your environmental impact — by optimizing the following elements of your new home:

• Site location to factor in natural shading and protection from the elements.
• Orientation to take advantage of seasonal sun angles for both passive heating and cooling.
• Building materials for maximum energy efficiency.

Here are a few of our top recommendations when it comes to making energy efficiency a priority for your new build home.

1. Conduct An Energy Audit

Before you decide on a particular home comfort system for your home, an energy audit should be conducted. It’s a great way to pinpoint areas where heat loss is occurring, get professional recommendations, and qualify for home energy rebates.

We recommend working with home building companies that specialize in energy modelling or energy audits. They will have experienced technicians that use the latest technology to expose points of heat loss as well as air and moisture infiltration.

2. Consider Multi-Zone Heating & Cooling

Multi-zone heating and cooling offers several important benefits, including significant energy savings over time. This type of heating and cooling system allows you to control the temperature in different areas of your home. For example, the system could allow your bedrooms to stay cooler while your kitchen and family room are warmer.

Using this system, you will find energy savings because your system isn’t heating and cooling all the areas of your home equally. Rooms or spaces that are used infrequently, such as guest rooms or storage areas, don’t need to be the same temperature as the rest of the house. Using multi-zoning, you will save energy in those spaces.

3. Use an air-source heat pump

Air-source heat pumps with an electric back up are up to 3 times more energy efficient than combustion-based systems. They move energy found in the air instead of generating it from a combustible source, and thus dramatically reduce carbon emissions.

Another option is to have an air-source heat pump paired with a gas or propane furnace to supplement your heating and cooling needs with a more sustainable source. When properly installed, an air-source heat pump can deliver one-and-a-half to three times more energy to a home than the electrical energy it consumes.

4. Go Geothermal

Put in the simplest form, a geothermal system uses the earth as its source for heating and cooling your home, instead of other non-renewable forms of energy such as propane or furnace oil . The system is a pump that can transfer heat from the earth into your home or transfer heat from your home back into the ground. The benefits of geothermal include efficiency, safety, and a reduced carbon footprint.

A new build home presents an ideal opportunity to incorporate sustainable technology. By working with Bryan’s Fuel, we can provide advice about alternative solutions that can enhance your home’s building design, lower your energy bills, and optimize your HVAC system for energy efficiency. Contact us today to learn more.