Building America Case Studies

These six case studies have been developed and written to represent the builder's perspective on what it means to build high performance homes under the Building America program. The case studies are meant to inform and motivate other builders (and buyers) in constructing (and buying) high performance homes. The case studies are linked to the climate-specific Designs that Work - distillations of construction details, methods, and building science from the Building Science Corporation's Builder Guides by Joseph Lstiburek. Reviewing all of the Designs that Work is a great start in understanding what aspects of construction change from one hygrothermal zone to the next, and why. They are also linked to other BSC technical information resources for those of you who want to delve into the building science in even greater detail.

The case studies from across the country are as remarkable for their similarities as their differences. In addition to meeting the specific performance targets of Building America, all of the builders:

• Employ advanced framing and do it for the systems benefits-better thermal performance, fewer drywall problems, and cost savings.
• Employ the fan cycling and outside air damper cycling controls, a fully commercialized ventilation innovation developed by Armin Rudd, Principal Engineer at BSC. 
• Have had to work hard to bring on board at least one major trade contractor, most notably the HVAC contractor. 
• Have been very successful at marketing their high performance homes. 
• Have made at least some changes from prototype to final product, indicating that Building America is as much about process as it is about product.

It's not easy to select a single set of case studies from the host of innovative and leading production builders with whom BSC (not to mention the builders working with other Building America teams) has worked. We ended up with three different divisions of the national production builder, Pulte Homes, simply because these divisions from very different climates best represented the Building America changes, technologies, and features we decided to highlight. We encourage you to check out the web sites of all the BSC builder partners to learn more about how they build and market their industry-leading product.

Suwannee River Administration Building
Georgia Department of Natural Resources, Clinch County, Georgia
PDF - 1.9MB

• Mastering Light & Air - PDF 1.7MB
• Mastering Power Demands - PDF 575KB
• Mastering Solar Energy Systems - PDF 218KB

Green Building Meets Building Science Case Study
EcoVillage Cleveland - Cleveland, Ohio
PDF Version - 748KB

 

Very Cold Climate Case Study
Oakbrooke Patio Homes - Pulte Homes - Minneapolis, Minnesota
PDF Version - 1.1MB

Cold Climate Case Study
Prairie Crossing - Prairie Holdings Corporation - Grayslake, Illinois
PDF Version - 674KB

Mixed Humid Climate Case Study
Fairburn - Health-E Enterprises - Atlanta, Georgia
PDF Version - 1.2MB

Mixed Dry Climate Case Study
El Rancho Grande - Artistic Homes - Albuquerque, New Mexico
PDF Version - 1.8MB

Hot Dry Climate Case Study
Copper Moon - Pulte Homes - Tucson, Arizona
PDF Version - 916KB

Hot Dry Climate Case Study
Sun Lakes - Pulte Homes - Banning, California
PDF Version - 153KB