Homebuilder's Corner

EPA Releases Final Specification for WaterSense New Homes
WASHINGTON — The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released its final WaterSense single-family new homes specification today, creating the first national, voluntary, water-efficiency specification for an entire new home. “Home builders can now partner with EPA and earn the WaterSense label for their newly built homes, helping to create livable communities and quality homes that are easy to maintain,” said Peter S. Silva, assistant administrator for EPA’s Office of Water. “These homes will save homeowners as much as $200 a year on utility bills compared to their current homes.” More at www.epa.gov/watersense/spaces/new_homes.html

Tulsa Homebuilders to Launch Green Council

TULSA – The Home Builders Association of Greater Tulsa will launch its Green Building Council on Jan. 1, enabling both residential developers and homeowners to use more environmentally friendly products. “I think it’s the coming thing,” said Phil Rhees of BMI Properties, who helped create the Tulsa council. He expects it to help advance construction of environmentally friendly homes in Oklahoma’s second-largest metro area. “I think we’re five years behind the national trends.” Larry Cagle of Cagle Construction will preside over the 25-member Green Building Council, which will partner with the interest group Sustainable Tulsa to help educate people on recycled and environmentally friendly product and construction options, connecting them to contractors, suppliers and service companies. Sustainable Tulsa unveiled its 2010 Tulsa Area Green Directory Tuesday to help fulfill that goal. “There’s some things we can do that will be short term, and a lot of things we can do long term,” said Rhees. “We have to start somewhere.” More here ::: http://www.journalrecord.com/article.cfm?recid=104729

OG&E Selects Norman for Jan. 2010 Smart Meter Energy Efficiency Project

Norman, Oklahoma has been selected to be the first city to participate in OG&E’s Positive Energy Community program. As a result it will become one of the country’s first cities to be blanketed with smart meters and hundreds of “energy portals” located in homes. Within the next couple of years OG&E will install 42,000 smart meters in the city. About 2,000 homes will have a programmable thermostat installed and other devices that are designed to help consumers monitor and control their energy usage.

With the new meters OG&E can remotely connect and disconnect electrical service and is notified immediately if there are problems occurring in the power grid. The programmable thermostats and graphical display units allow customers to easily understand how and when they are using energy and can help them make decisions that save them money. On average, customers who used the displays were able to save between 10 and 15 percent off their electric bills during the test in 2008. They did so by using power during off-peak times when the cost of energy is cheaper.

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