GE Announces New ‘Green’ Homebuilder Program

GE is leveraging its powerful brand name and multiple product divisions' offerings into a single program targeting homebuilders with a twinge of "green" to it.

GE and Masco Contractor Services' (MCS) Environments for Living division has unveiled ecomagination Homebuilder Program, a blueprint for building "green" using GE products ranging from lighting control to solar power to major appliances.

This new program, unveiled in Los Angeles, is designed to help residential developers and builders design homes that are more efficient in their energy consumption and indoor water consumption than industry-accepted average new homes.

Compared to industry-accepted average new homes, a residence built to GE ecomagination Homebuilder Program specifications is designed to achieve:

• at least 20 percent household energy savings
  
• at least 20 percent savings on household indoor water consumption
  
• at least 20 percent fewer household emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2), sulfur dioxide (SO2), and nitrogen oxide (Nox)

The GE ecomagination Homebuilder Program specifications include:

New GE SmartCommand Dashboard: This is an interactive wall panel that provides current and historical feedback on electricity and water consumption.

GE and GE Profile Energy Star appliances: Among the appliance choices are the GE Profile SmartDispense dishwasher, the GE Profile Frontload laundry pair, and GE or GE Profile refrigerators.

GE advanced lighting package: includes indoor and outdoor lighting. At least 50 percent of the standard socket lamps in the home must use GE Energy Smart lamps with compact fluorescent (CFL) technology. GE says its CFLs consume up to 75 percent less electricity than standard incandescent lighting.

GE Brilliance Solar Electric Power Systems (optional): If the home is equipped with solar power, this system is designed to produce power, and typically meet 20 percent to 30 percent of a home's electricity needs working in conjunction with the local utility to provide complete service.

GE Mortgage (optional): Builders of these homes will have the option to recommend to qualifying homebuyers a mortgage offered by GE Money with financial incentives.

The Environments for Living Certified Green program standards: This applies to heating, ventilation, air–conditioning, ductwork and the outer shell or "building envelope" that surrounds a home's living quarters. This "envelope" includes tight construction, fresh air ventilation, improved insulation, efficient HVAC equipment, humidity control, pressure balancing and combustion safety.

Comfort and Energy Limited Guarantees: Homes built to ecomagination Homebuilder Program specifications will be built with an Environments for Living Certified Green classification. Environments for Living offers a guarantee to the original homeowner that there will be no more than a 3 degree temperature differential from the center of any conditioned room within each thermostat zone.

Just this month, GE signed an agreement with RWO Acquisitions to build the nation's first community built under the GE ecomagination Homebuilder Program in Myrtle Beach, S.C. The 900-acre residential community is being developed by RWO in harmony with the master-planned redevelopment program under the direction of the Myrtle Beach Air Force Base Redevelopment Authority (MBAFRA).

This public/private project includes a 3,970-acre parcel of land with $30 million of new infrastructure including 29 acres of lakes, over 200 acres of new community parks and four miles of new roads.

To see the snazzy video that GE has prepared on the program, check out the Web site at: http://www.geappliances.com/energy_efficient_home

In the past two years, natural gas costs have risen 42 percent and electricity costs have risen 17 percent, according to a report in Energy Source, March 2007. 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.