When Artistic Homes sought new ways to set themselves apart from the competition in 1999, they signed on with the Department of Energy’s Building America Program. By working with Building America team member Building Science Corp., Artistic Homes was able to make their homes more safe, healthy, comfortable, durable, and efficient—and their sales have soared.
“We made a conscious decision to build better and have done everything we could to make that goal a reality,” says Max Wade, one of the sons in the father-and-sons team that owns New Mexico-based Artistic Homes. “We needed to have a product that would create longevity for the company in the Albuquerque marketplace, and we’ve succeeded.”
After constructing a few Building America pilot homes, Artistic re-engineered each of their 16 plans to include features like advanced framing techniques, blown-in insulation, high efficiency mechanicals, airtight construction, mechanical ventilation, low-emissivity windows, and proper flashing around windows and doors. Artistic Homes is the first New Mexico builder to offer 100% of their homes under the Building America Program.
In addition to partnering with Building America, Artistic Homes is also involved with the American Lung Association’s Health House program, the Energy & Environmental Building Association (EEBA), and the Home Builders of New Mexico’s Green Builder program. The requirements of these programs vary, but the goals are complementary: to increase combustion safety, indoor air quality, building durability, and energy efficiency, and to use fewer natural resources while doing so. Artistic Homes is able to meet these goals by using a systems approach that considers how the functions of every system in the house interact with others. |
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An example of using a systems approach to meet several performance goals was switching from evaporative cooling systems (a.k.a. swamp coolers) to traditional air conditioning systems. Swamp coolers pull warm, dry air through a water-soaked pad to cool air. This process adds humidity to the home. Following a complete HVAC re-design, Artistic Homes began installing high efficiency air conditioning systems to maximize efficiency, improve air quality, and conserve water as well (swamp coolers use about 5,500 gallons of water per year).
Raising the performance level of their homes, though, wasn’t a walk in the park. Says Jerry Wade, Max’s father and the company’s founder, as quoted in Professional Builder Magazine1, “This isn’t easy. In fact, it’s a total pain, and there is a big learning curve. It’s been tough on our subs, retraining the framers, plumbers, HVAC contractors, electricians, everyone. All along the way there is resistance to these changes because we’re creatures of habit. Nobody wants to say, ‘We’ve been doing it wrong all these years,’ and yet we have. We have succeeded in building houses that are unhealthy.”
Efficient Homes, Efficient Practices
“Jerry Wade feels efficiency is the key to building affordable homes, where the profit margins are slim,” says Kathleen Guidera, Executive Director for EEBA, who supports Artistic Homes in improving home performance. Artistic Homes builds about 900 homes a year, priced from $80,000 to $115,000. “He makes it work with strict scheduling and an assembly-line approach to building a house. From framing to finish takes about 35 calendar days,” explains Kathleen.
Another efficient practice is chipping their own waste, which enables them to send less to the landfill and reduce the tipping fees from $300,000 to $20,000. They reduced the trash crew by five people and use the grind for on-site landscaping.
The Energy Cost and Comfort Guarantee
Artistic Homes knew that consumers may not care about high performance unless they understood what it means in dollars, cents, and degrees. All their homes come with an energy use and comfort guarantee that promises a set heating and cooling cost and guarantees that temperatures won’t vary between rooms more than three degrees. Providing that level of comfort required significant air sealing in both the building envelope and the duct systems. Because the homes were being built so tightly, the HVAC equipment could be downsized. Unfortunately, Artistic’s HVAC contractor was skeptical.
“Our HVAC contractor said that he’d install them the way they were specified, but that he’d have to charge us to come back in and fix them later,” Max recalled. “Not once did he have to come back and make any adjustments.”
Teach Them and They Will Buy
A major part of Artistic’s marketing efforts is centered on their consumer seminars. Beginning in 2000, Artistic held one building science seminar each month for anyone interested in attending, including prospective homebuyers, other builders, and media representatives. Month after month, the seminars were packed with over 200 people. The key to the seminars was bringing in a knowledgeable person who could talk to a varied audience about why building higher performance homes is important. Mark Laliberte, a building specialist and trainer for Building Knowledge, Inc., was just the person they were looking for.
“It’s a pleasure to work with a builder who has done everything in their power to build homes that are of the highest quality and efficiency,” says Mark. “They embraced the attitude necessary to make the changes, and realized the next step was education. These seminars play a key role in teaching people about the importance of these kind of homes.”
Artistic has had some challenges communicating the benefits of their homes to their largest group of prospective customers: first-time homebuyers. Max admits that most of them would rather see top quality carpet and granite countertops than an efficient HVAC system and advanced framing. The tides are turning though, he says, and more and more people are asking for high performance housing.
“We’re ahead of the curve now. All of our products are built to a standard that we’re proud of. The only direction from here is up.”
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