Palm Harbor Earns Energy Star Accolades

People may not realize it, but one of the emerging trends in factory-built housing is the use of new building technologies to produce more environmentally sustainable homes.

A leading builder in this effort is Palm Harbor. Last year, the US Environmental Protection Agency made Palm Harbor Homes (PHHM) its Energy Star Partner of the Year.

Energy Star is a rating system. It is one of several green building standards. Others include United States Green Building Council’s LEED and the National Association of Home Builder’s Green Building Guidelines. Energy Star homes generally save each household between $200 and $400 per year on utility costs. Since about 500,000 homes already meet the Energy Star standard, EPA estimates that this new building trend accounts for savings that mitigate the carbon impact of as much as 25 million cars.
Palm Harbor’s homes feature energy efficient heat pumps and energy saving design features. The company has built its efficiency around the EnerGMiser system. This is a series of design features that collectively lower costs.

• A SEER-rated 13 High Efficiency air conditioner
• programmable thermostats
• graduated air delivery
• sealed duct systems
• mini blinds on windows

The EPA’s standard in giving an Energy Star rating is for homes to reduce their energy demands by about 30 percent. Palm Harbor estimates that its homes cut utility costs by between 20 and 40 percent.

Palm Harbor has spent some effort measuring the energy saving impacts of its homes.

In 1994, Duke Energy did a study of a Palm Harbor home. The study estimated that its energy efficient features would save a household $40,000 over course of the next 20 years, according to Gary Neff from Palm Harbor.

More recently, the Department of Energy and Palm Harbor have spent several years working together on an energy experiment at North Carolina A&T University. The test features two homes located in Greensboro, North Carolina. One home is built to Palm Harbor’s energy saving specs, while the other is built to 1993 HUD code energy standards. The 1528 square foot homes are not occupied, but timers control the use of appliances and lights as well as heating and cooling.

Below is a picture of one of Palm Harbor’s custom modular homes — the Cambria. It is 2,640 square feet with four bedrooms and 2.5 baths. It comes set up with air conditioning, plumbing, Moen faucets, 9 foot ceilings, and ceramic floors for $205,000.

The results of the NC A&T study show that the energy efficient design standards save a lot of energy — at least 33 percent for most of the year and as much as 70 percent in the winter. Overall, the combined heating, cooling, and water loads in the two homes differed by 55 percent.

Homes like the Cambria are important. The ability of the industry to maintain a place in the mind of consumers concerned over energy and sustainability could grow in significance.

As well, the Cambria represents the kind of higher-end product that contradicts the negative perceptions that sometimes cloud factory-built housing. This is a home built with top specs, in a direct-to-the consumer sales format, with a warranty.

It would be a mistake, too, to link only the high-end custom made modular homes with green building. Many manufactured housing builders offer Energy Star homes at much lower price points. The New Hampshire Community Loan Fund provides singlewide HUD code manufactured homes that meet Energy Star standards at its Pepperidge Woods site in Barrington, New Hampshire. Those homes come with membership in a cooperative that controls the land where the homes are located, in a region with very high land costs, and yet the prices are under $165,000.