If you are looking to build a new home, you could enjoy the comfort and energy savings of a Touchstone Energy Home … whether your blueprints are for an “executive mansion,” a more modest ranch, or anything in between.

That’s because the Indiana Touchstone Energy Home Program isn’t about the style or shape of the home, or even about how much square footage is in the living spaces. It’s about what’s unseen inside the walls, around the windows, under the roof and the floors. It’s about the entire envelope that separates the homeowner from the outside elements.

The Indiana Touchstone Energy Home Program is a list of prescriptive standards builders, or even remodelers (if you want to make your existing home more energy efficient), must follow to make a home “perform.”

The standards use the latest technologies, building techniques and materials — such as upgraded insulation, doors and windows, all-electric heating and cooling and mechanical ventilation equipment — to create a tight thermal boundary for a tightly-controlled inside home environment devoid of air leaks and drafts.

Once built, the home is tested and scored for its air-tightness and performance based on the home’s individual characteristics by an independent rating service.

A typical Indiana Touchstone Energy Home exceeds performance levels set by the likes of Energy Star by as much as 30 percent and can approach 50 percent or better efficiency than the same home built just to code.
Some results of homes already built:
• a 5,000-square foot home in Warsaw has a $500 annual heating/cooling cost guarantee;
• a 3,200-square foot home in Depauw has a $300 annual heating/cooling cost guarantee;
• a 4,890-square foot home in Ferdinand has a $262 annual heating/cooling cost guarantee.

The program was developed by Indiana electric cooperative power supplier Hoosier Energy and is available to most electric cooperative members statewide.

Before you build, contact your local electric cooperative for more information, or visit
www.itehome.com.

The program was featured in the June 2010 Electric Consumer. Click HERE to read the full story.