Actual Energy Cost Data For Comparison Between Eco-Panels SIPs and Stick Construction

It is not often that we obtain energy consumption data for two identical model homes, one built with our unique polyurethane injected Eco-Panels sips and one built out of stick construction.  Actually the 2×4 stick construction home was built using advanced stick framing methods to a “beyond” Energy Star standard.  These homes were built in 2009/2010 and the data was collected over 2011 and 2012.  We received this data this summer.  Quite impressive.

Since we know from US Dept of Energy estimates that homes built to their standard will “out perform” a traditional stick-built home by around 20%, and we have the actual energy performance data of the homes, we have estimated the energy consumption of a traditional stick-built home (the way most builders build stick homes) simply by discounting the performance of the “beyond” Energy Star home by 20%.  You’ll see that the Eco-Panels home will out-perform the traditional stick-built home by more than 70% – and this home only used our wall panels – both homes in this model used traditional insulation in the roof deck and were otherwise built identically by the same organization.  Our major complaint was that the HVAC sizing for the two homes was identical – 2 ton for a 1,300 sqft home – when the Eco-Panels home should have been downsized to either a 1.5 ton unit (the smallest the market currently makes) or even a mini-split for even better energy savings.  Having the oversized 2 ton unit in this home actually makes our performance worse because the unit will tend to cycle on and off more often leading to inefficient performance.