Meeting Consumer Home Demand
February 22, 2011
Unlike the last 40 years, consumers buying a new home are not just focused on home availability, financing, and quality, but in establishing an entirely new expectation on how the American home is built.
Meritage Homes has spent the last few years working with customers, scientists, and suppliers to reinvent the American home. The result is not a choice between being comfortable and reduced utility bills, but superior construction that provides superior benefits to the people who live in our homes.
For years, buyers have been asking for improvements in the lifestyle available in new homes. According to consumer advocate surveys, home buyers are searching for:
- Better utility cost savings
- Reduced impact on the environment
- Improved quality
- Reduced use of water
- Increased value of their homes
To accomplish this, Meritage Homes redefined the way homes are built by better understanding how our customers live and how they need their home to function. The result is s new strategy that includes building the right homes in the right locations, incorporating open and flexible floor plans, and providing superior components that function better and add more benefits to the people who live in our homes.
One of the largest partners we have in building better homes is the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and US Department of Energy (DOE). Both the EPA and DOE have national research programs dedicated to reducing the amount of wasted energy that comes from inefficiently built homes. These partnerships have allowed Meritage to build homes that function very differently from conventional construction.
The building industry is the largest consumer of energy in the US today, and half of the energy and water each building consumes doesn’t benefit the homeowners, it is just waste that adds to the utility bills each month.
In addition to being a DOE Build America Partner, Meritage Homes was the first national company to build 100% of its homes to exceed the EPA’s Energy Star Standards. As a part of our partnership with Energy Star, a RESNet certified building expert inspects and certifies every home we build, and provides an energy label (HERS score) on every Meritage Home.
With this label, a consumer can compare between homes to better understand what they cost to operate month to month. Our HERS score demonstrates that our homes consume up to 80% LESS energy than that of the typical US home.
To truly be better, better homes also need to be more affordable, not less. We approached improving our homes as a change in the who, what, where and why we purchased materials and built our homes. In that research, we built entire communities throughout the country with:
- Redesigned Building Envelopes including Polyurethane Spray Foam, Thermal Breaks, and Low E2 Windows;
- Redesigned HVAC including SEER 14, Pressure Management, Fresh Air Management, Advanced Thermostats;
- Technology Leading Renewable Energy including integrated Solar Electric, Solar Thermal, Water Heating, HVAC, Fresh Air Management, thermostat, and energy management system.
The end result is homes that are unlike the homes of the last 40 years. Not only are these homes more efficient, but the improvements result in homes that are cleaner, quieter, safer, healthier, and more comfortable.
Our new homes represent the way I, after building homes for 26 years, would demand my home be built. I expect the same thing for the people that live in any Meritage Home.
