Hovnanian Breaks Ground on Home to Study
Energy Efficiency, Other Facets of Sustainable Building
OCEANPORT, NJ -- (Marketwire) -- K.
Hovnanian Homestoday began building a home that will help builders
learn more about constructing homes
with increased energy
efficiency, better interior air quality and sustainable building
practices.
Commissioner Joseph Fiordaliso of the
New Jersey Board of Public Utilities and Joe Wiehagen of the
National Association of Home Builders Research Center joined K.
Hovnanian officials in the ceremonial start of construction. The new
home is being built in conjunction with the U.S. Department of
Energy Building
America program and
the
Prior to turning over the
first shovel of dirt, Fiordaliso congratulated K. Hovnanian on the
forward-thinking leadership demonstrated by the company with the
construction of the home.
"A recent study said that by the end of this century, the sea
level will rise one to two feet," Fiordaliso said. "
Wiehagen
explained some of the features of a high performance home, including
better insulation, an improved duct system that delivers air more
efficiently and makes the home more comfortable overall.
"Efforts like the one K. Hovnanian is
making with the construction of this home will lead us toward our
ultimate goal of Zero Energy Homes," he said.
Dean Potter, vice president of quality assurance for K.
Hovnanian Homes, said the high performance home is not a one-time
initiative, but a part of the continuing path towards making every
home more energy efficient.
Barry McCarron, division president of K. Hovnanian Homes, said
it is more important than ever to explore ways to build additional
value and quality into homes.
"Today value and quality mean making
sure that our homes use resources efficiently, provide healthy
living spaces and that our building methods, while also efficient,
reflect the concern we all share about our environment."
McCarron said the Building America
home is the latest in a series of study homes and experiments the
company has been conducting. The home is being built at K.
Hovnanian's Jockey Club, the first community by a major builder
to offer solar panels. In addition, a home built in Barnegat was
designed to meet several standards for sustainable building and
universal access. Most K. Hovnanian homes built in
The new home is based on the popular
Monmouth floor plan, one of the homes offered in the 44-home
active-adult community. The standard home offers about 2,350 square
feet of living space on one floor, including three bedrooms and two
baths. The home also has a two-car garage.
The modified home, which will be sold
with the same warranty as every other home in the community, will
have more efficient windows, more insulation, low-flow faucets and
toilets, highly efficient heating and air conditioning and will use
compact fluorescent light bulbs. The home will be structurally
modified to allow the heating and cooling systems to fit into the
environmentally conditioned parts of the home, although the changes
won't be intrusive or noticeable. In addition, some of the
construction processes and materials will be a little different from
the usual homes built.
"The trick to this kind of program is
to take products and processes and evaluate them before you use them
so you know you can trust them in a home with your name on it," said
Dean Potter, vice president of quality assurance for K. Hovnanian
Homes. "The bottom line on this home is it must be competitive and
must meet the expectations of a homebuyer who is purchasing a K.
Hovnanian Home."
McCarron and Potter said the next step
for the company is to evaluate what has been learned from the
different study homes and determine what lessons can be incorporated
into the company's building practices.
"This has been an ongoing process
since our company was started 50 years ago," said McCarron. "There's
a lot more attention on what we're doing these days because of the
interest in sustainability. It's healthy that people are taking an
interest in how their homes are built."
Building
K. Hovnanian Homes is the largest
homebuilder in