How does house size affect certification?
The bigger the home the more energy it will use. The smaller the footprint and the less the exterior surface area of your home the more energy and resource efficient it will be. Big homes use more natural resources for materials and more energy to produce those materials. Each of the three certification programs addresses the issue of house size. LEED for Homes and Vermont Builds Greener each use a house size chart that rewards homes below an “average” house size by making a deduction from the number of points a home must score to meet the entry level certification and by requiring homes above an “average” house size to increase the number of points a home must score to meet the entry level certification. Vermont Builds Greener excludes space used for a home business or unconditioned space. LEED for Homes calculates home size using the “ANSI Standard Z765, but includes all directly conditioned square footage, whether finished or not, that meets building code requirements for living space (e.g., head room, egress, etc.).”
In the National Green Building Standard, dwelling unit size is “calculated using ANSI Standard Z765, where only the conditioned floor area for stories above grade plane is to be included.” The NAHB Model Green Home program doesn’t adjust points awarded or additional points required in relation to the number of bedrooms. The points system works as follows:
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