New homebuilder program a blueprint for building green homes.

This week in Los Angeles, GE and Masco Contractor Services' Environments for Living® division announced their collaboration on the new Ecomagination^sm Homebuilder Program. The program helps residential developers and builders design homes that not only are comfortable, but are more efficient in their energy consumption and indoor water consumption than industry–accepted average new homes.

According to a report in Energy Source (March 2007), in the last two years, natural gas costs have risen 42 percent and electricity costs have risen 17 percent. The same report noted that 86 percent of recent homebuyers said they would choose an energy–efficient home over one that was not energy–efficient.

Versus industry–accepted average new homes, a home built to GE ecomagination Homebuilder Program specifications is designed to achieve:

• at least 20% household energy savings
• at least 20% savings on household indoor water consumption
• at least 20% fewer household emissions of CO2, SO2, and Nox

Some of the GE products used in the program include the new SmartCommand™ Dashboard, an interactive wall panel that provides current and historical feedback on electricity and water consumption, and GE’s Brilliance™ Solar Electric Power Systems.

Homes built to ecomagination Homebuilder Program specifications will be built with an Environments for Living Certified Green classification. This standard employs advanced building science techniques in order to deliver both comfort and energy efficiency. Environments for Living offers a guarantee to the original homeowner that there will be no more than a three degree temperature differential from the center of any conditioned room within each thermostat zone.

For more information about the ecomagination Homebuilder Program, visit: http://www.geappliances.com/energy_efficient_home.