Actual Energy Cost Data For Comparison Between Eco-Panels SIPs and Stick Construction

It is not often that we obtain energy consumption data for two identical model homes, one built with our unique polyurethane injected Eco-Panels sips and one built out of stick construction.  Actually the 2x4 stick construction home was built using advanced stick framing methods to a "beyond" Energy Star standard.  These homes were built in 2009/2010 and the data was collected over 2011 and 2012.  We received this data this summer.  Quite impressive.

Since we know from US Dept of Energy estimates that homes built to their standard will "out perform" a traditional stick-built home by around 20%, and we have the actual energy performance data of the homes, we have estimated the energy consumption of a traditional stick-built home (the way most builders build stick homes) simply by discounting the performance of the "beyond" Energy Star home by 20%.  You'll see that the Eco-Panels home will out-perform the traditional stick-built home by more than 70% - and this home only used our wall panels - both homes in this model used traditional insulation in the roof deck and were otherwise built identically by the same organization.  Our major complaint was that the HVAC sizing for the two homes was identical - 2 ton for a 1,300 sqft home - when the Eco-Panels home should have been downsized to either a 1.5 ton unit (the smallest the market currently makes) or even a mini-split for even better energy savings.  Having the oversized 2 ton unit in this home actually makes our performance worse because the unit will tend to cycle on and off more often leading to inefficient performance.

 

Energy Comparison for the "Georgia Model" Plan
Energy consuption data taken from June 2011 to May 2012
House Climate Zone: 3
(traditional stick performance at 20% less than Energy Star per US DOE estimates)
  Adv.Stick/EnrgyStar (kWh) days /bill cycle kWh per day Eco-Panels (kWh) days /bill cycle kWh per day Trad.Stick (kWh) days /bill cycle kWh per day
June  1,484 32 46.38 792 31 25.55 1,781 32 55.66
July 1,583 29 54.59 977 30 32.57 1,900 29 65.51
August 1,567 31 50.55 1,106 31 35.68 1,880 31 60.66
September 1,202 31 38.77 957 31 30.87 1,442 31 46.52
October  1,058 30 35.27 956 30 31.87 1,270 30 42.32
November 1,195 30 39.83 778 31 25.1 1,434 30 47.8
December 1,453 31 46.87 810 30 27 1,744 31 56.24
January 1,444 31 46.58 1,166 31 37.61 1,733 31 55.9
February 1,387 31 44.74 1,044 31 33.68 1,664 31 53.69
March  1,373 30 45.77 1,067 29 36.79 1,648 30 54.92
April 1,185 30 39.5 924 31 29.81 1,422 30 47.4
May  1,301 31 41.97 699 31 22.55 1,561 31 50.36
  16,232 367 44.23 11,276 367 30.72 19,478 367 53.08
Performance Greater Than Traditional Stick
20% 73% - -
Eco-Panels Annual Savings vs. Traditional Stick $820 @ $0.10/kWh
Eco-Panels Annual Savings vs. Traditional Stick $1,148 @ $0.14/kWh
Eco-Panels Annual Savings vs. Traditional Stick $1,476 @ $0.18/kWh
Note: This was an approx 1,300 sqft home.  The HVAC unit was 2 ton in size and was OVERSIZED for the 
Eco-Panels home in the opinion of Eco-Panels, but the contractor wanted consistent sizing between the 
Advanced Stick Framing/beyond Energy Star construction and the Eco-Panels home.  A properly sized HVAC system for the Eco-Panels home should offer even greater savings.