Performance Standards: ENERGY STAR® Homes

Any home three stories or less can earn the ENERGY STAR label if verified to meet Environmental Protection Agency’s guidelines for energy efficiency. This includes site-constructed as well as manufactured homes and single family as well as low-rise multifamily houses.

The ENERGY STAR label does not only increase the value of a home in the eyes of homeowners and homebuyers, there are also several state and utility programs across the country that assist builders and contractors with planning, implementing, and financing the energy efficiency measures that can qualify homes for ENERGY STAR.

Energy-efficient windows are one of the measures needed to earn the ENERGY STAR label for homes. Depending on whether the prescriptive path or the performance path is chosen, windows are either required to meet specific performance thresholds or their performance characteristics are factored into a comprehensive home energy simulation.

The guidelines for ENERGY STAR qualified new homes include the National Prescriptive Path and the National Performance Path as well as separate regional specifications and separate verification guidance for attached homes, manufactured homes, and other cases.