Independently-certified savings you can count on

The SunSmart Energy Initiative from LifeStyle Homes is all about living better at lower cost. With recent advances in building science, performance gains and cost savings can be quite accurately determined for individual homes through a testing process that yields a score on the EnergySmart Home ScaleSM from the U. S. Department of Energy.

Each SunSmart home is tested on behalf of the Department of Energy, either by the scientists at the Florida Solar Energy Center in nearby Cocoa or by DOE-Certified independent home energy raters affiliated with RESNET, the national NETwork of Residential Energy Specialists. Each home is certified to deliver a targeted score of 60 or better on this scale, and will be awarded a individual certificate of performance like this.

This measurement standard works like gasoline mileage estimates for automobiles – helping consumers compare homes and find builders who build the most energy efficient homes. Note, the certificate shows that to qualify for Builders Challenge certification, a home must score at least 70 (lower is better) on the scale. The certificate also shows that conventional new homes typically score 100 on the scale and average existing homes score an astounding 130.

A score of 60 on this scale for your SunSmart home means you should expect your annual electrical bill to be 40% less than it would be if you bought a conventional new home of the same size from another builder. The savings would be even greater if you chose a SunSmart home instead of a typical, same-size, re-sale home built a few years ago – a whopping 70% less.

That’s true even if we built that re-sale home.

For a SunSmart home of about 2100 square feet in living area, that 40% saving over a typical new home could be as much as $750 per year, or about $63 per month. You’d stand to save about $1,360 per year over the typical same size re-sale home. That would put just over $100 worth of extra cash in your wallet each month. Think what that extra $100 every month could do for your family!

Best of all, those savings will start for you on day one and come to you month after month, year after year, for as long as you live in your SunSmart home. And when it comes time to sell, don’t you think your documented monthly savings on energy costs could add extra value to your home?

Now, can you see why we are so excited about our SunSmart Energy Initiative?