Factory-Built Housing Helps Buyers Make A Power Play (NAPSA)—Jolted by high electricity bills and concerned about your home’s energy expenses overall? A new factory-built home may be the way to brighten up your future. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) ENERGY STAR for Homes program is providing buyers with an opportunity to save money, save precious resources and live more comfortably. At the same time, a strong partnership in the factory-built home industry is helping spread the wealth of benefits even faster. The first benefit, among many, is a homethat is at least 30 percent more energy efficient than a home built to the national Model Energy Code. Champion Enterprises, the world’s largest homebuilder and a partner with the ENERGY Star for Homesprogram, is going the distance to create homes that are anything but standard for thousands of homeowners interested in the manybenefits of an ENERGY Star-labeled home. The company is known for creating high quality, affordable homes that rival sitebuilt houses in terms of architecture and amenities. “We are committed to the ENERGY STAR for Homes program because it makes good sense for our customers, for their pocketbooks and for the planet,” said Phil Surles, chief operating officer for Champion. “It also gives us a chance to put Champion’s advanced construction technologies to work maximizing the value of a hometo its buyers.” ENERGY Star-related technologies and practices save the owners of ENERGY StTAR-labeled homes *, | | Superior insulation, tighter con- struction and energy-efficient appliances, doors and windows make Champion homesatleast 30 percent more efficient than stan- dard homes. tems, ENERGY STAR-labeled homes offer improved indoor air quality and reduced energy consumption. They offer savings every month in bills that are significantly lower than those of standard homes, and those savings begin the moment the owners move in. That, along with the availability of preferred mortgage financing for these homes, means buyers looking forward to the higher resale value of an ENERGY StTAR-labeled home don’t have to wait until resale to realize the program’s financial benefits. “With residential building partners like Champion Enterprises helping us to increase the number of labeled homes available, we money on their utility bills, while expect to see a significant increase in the number of homebuyers taking advantage of the program’s benefits,” said Sam Rashkin, national director of ENERGY STAR for Homes. “When homebuyers see the ENERGY STAR label on a home, they can be assured it is truly energy efficient and can expect more homefor their money while reducing their impact on the comfortable, more durable, good for the environment, and less Recent EPA statistics state that there are currently about also providing a homethat is more expensive to maintain. As a rule, ENERGY StTAR-labeled homesuse at least 30 percent less heating and cooling energy than homes built to the Model Energy Code, but many do even better. With features like high performance windows, improved insulation, tighter ductwork and energy efficient heating and cooling sys- environment.” 55,000 ENERGY SrtTAR-labeled homes in the U.S., a number growing daily as more homebuilders partner with the program and as more homebuyers demand the high performance of an ENERGY STAR-labeled home. Champion expects to add between 1,500 and 2,000 homes to this numberin 2002.
