Commissioning High Performance Residences in Hot, Humid Climates

Since 2001, the authors have engaged several builders in the Gainesville, FL area to build over 500 high performance new energy efficient homes in multiple sub divisions. The builders keep building to increased levels of energy efficiency. Each home is individually designed, inspected, rated and commissioned for optimum performance. This paper summarizes the experiences to date with two production builders who have cost shared with the Building America program to deliver these outstanding results. Keys to success are commitment from the final decision maker; scopes of work for subcontractors with specific performance criteria; clear communication with the trades often accompanied by training and education activities; independent third party testing, commissioning and feedback to building; ongoing training of sales staff and model center displays and finally extensive marketing that educated the consumers about the benefits of high performance homes