As a national leader in residential green building, BPC Green Builders incorporates the latest advancements in energy efficiency and sustainable home construction into all of our projects. A key element of our process is advanced air sealing that creates a virtually airtight building envelope—an essential component of a high quality custom green home.
Whether you’re interested in a net zero ready home, a LEED-certified home, an ENERGY STAR-certified home, or a passive house, here’s how (and why) advanced air sealing significantly enhances your home’s energy efficiency and indoor air quality (IAQ).
The Benefits of Airtight Homes
Airtight houses substantially reduce heating and cooling costs by preventing conditioned air from leaking out and external air from seeping in. This means less energy is required to maintain your home’s temperature and keep your indoors comfortable, resulting in lower energy bills and a home that’s better for the environment.
An airtight home also improves indoor air quality by preventing outdoor pollutants, allergens, and moisture from entering the house. This limits the potential for mold growth by reducing moisture infiltration, creating a healthier living environment that is especially important for those with allergies or respiratory conditions. Indoor air quality is a key element in most contemporary home construction, and green building is no exception.
How Do Airtight Green Homes Work?
“To build it right you must build it tight” is an adage we often use at BPC Green Builders. Air sealing works alongside insulation to create a powerful barrier that keeps air and heat from moving in and out of your home. Being able to control air infiltration is an essential first step towards creating a healthy, energy-efficient house.
Air sealing the right way means paying attention to the entire envelope of a home, which includes the foundation, exterior walls, framing, attic, exterior windows and doors, attic and/or roof, and more.
But we don’t just stop at air sealing. All BPC’s green homes use mechanical ventilation and high performance air filters to address not only outdoor air pollutants but indoor pollutants as well.
Passive House Air Sealing
In the construction of passive house homes and other types of green homes that BPC builds, advanced air sealing is absolutely crucial. With proper air sealing, we can create homes that maintain comfortable temperatures with minimal active heating or cooling systems, thus reducing energy consumption. The advanced air sealing of these homes ensures an essentially airtight environment, which is fundamental to the passive house concept.
Our Commitment to High Performance New Home Construction
Every single green home we build in western Connecticut and the neighboring New York counties involves our rigorous attention to air sealing details, setting the foundation for a highly energy-efficient and comfortable home.
Airtightness is just one of the many ways that BPC Green Builders sets itself apart from other homebuilders. We also use sustainable building practices at every step of our process, including design, construction, selection of building products, and materials sourcing. We create green new homes that are not only healthy, comfortable, and energy-efficient, but high quality, durable, and long-lasting.
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