Vermont just got its biggest delivery of superefficient manufactured homes \u2014 the latest example of how a\u00a0pioneering state program can lower energy bills for residents of this type of affordable housing.<\/p>\n
The all-electric, heat-pump-equipped homes slash energy use by more than half compared with new conventional manufactured homes. To achieve that feat, each meets the exacting specifications under the Advanced Manufactured Home program, which was created by the state\u2019s energy-efficiency utility Efficiency Vermont in\u00a02024.<\/p>\n
The standards aren\u2019t mandatory; it\u2019s up to the federal government to regulate the efficiency of manufactured homes. Instead, Vermont\u2019s initiative certifies best-in-class options that will help the state meet its housing and climate goals \u2014 and offers a $3,000-per-unit incentive for the builders who opt\u00a0in.<\/p>\n
This month, manufacturer Titan Homes<\/a> has been installing 18 of these prefabricated buildings at the largest manufactured-home park in Vermont, Tri-Park Cooperative Housing<\/a> in Brattleboro. Residents who live in the floodplain and have suffered home damage in past storms will become the new occupants.<\/p>\n Including this latest batch, Titan Homes, based in New York, and Clayton Lewistown<\/a> in Pennsylvania, have together built more than 30 units that have been installed around the state. Any Vermonter can purchase an Advanced Manufactured Home and work with Efficiency Vermont to get\u00a0one.<\/p>\n When residents move in, they\u2019ll enjoy much lower utility bills. Older manufactured homes are notoriously inefficient, and those of any vintage are difficult to weatherize after leaving the factory. In Vermont, the structures are typically heated with costly and polluting fuel oil or propane, driving average energy bills to about $4,000 annually, according to Efficiency Vermont.<\/p>\n Though they cost more up front, certified Advanced homes can save residents about $2,700 per year on energy bills over existing manufactured homes on average, and more than $1,300 over new manufactured homes built to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development\u2019s current standards, according to Peter Schneider, principal engineering consultant at VEIC, the nonprofit that operates Efficiency Vermont.<\/p>\n That\u2019s a\u00a0significant difference. While the median income for occupants of site-built single-family homes is $85,000, it\u2019s $40,000<\/a> for manufactured home dwellers, said Mark Kresowik, senior policy director at the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy, a\u00a0nonprofit research organization.<\/p>\n \u201cThese families are facing some of the most acute stresses and pain of making decisions about whether to pay their energy bill or their home loan or put food on the table or buy medicine,\u201d he said. \u200b\u201cTheir energy bills shouldn\u2019t put them back in the streets or back into a\u00a0rental.\u201d<\/p>\n Vermont\u2019s Advanced homes \u200b\u201care setting a\u00a0benchmark for the rest of the country,\u201d Kresowik said.\u00a0<\/p>\n The utility\u2019s program pushes some of the most energy-efficient manufactured homes in the country, going beyond a\u00a0comparable definition set at the federal level.<\/p>\n Once called mobile or trailer homes, manufactured homes<\/a> make up 7%<\/a> of new housing. On average, they sell for about a\u00a0third<\/a> of the price of site-built homes, or $123,000, according to federal data.<\/p>\n Under the Biden administration, the Department of Energy developed standards to certify what it called \u200b\u201cZero Energy Ready Homes,\u201d including one for manufactured homes. (The program under the Trump DOE is now called \u200b\u201cEfficient New Homes<\/a>.\u201d) This rubric requires a\u00a0slew of efficiency measures, but also allows for gas furnaces and water heaters, which take two to four times the energy required by their heat-pump counterparts. Homes that meet or exceed these standards allowed the builder to qualify for the up to $5,000-per-unit New Energy Efficient Home Credit, or 45L<\/a>, although that incentive expires tomorrow.<\/p>\n Kresowik isn\u2019t aware of any other standard outside of Efficiency Vermont\u2019s that outdoes the DOE\u2019s, he\u00a0said.<\/p>\n Soon, however, the entire nation may have stricter requirements for manufactured homes \u2014 if not as stringent as those in Vermont.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Vermont just got its biggest delivery of superefficient manufactured homes \u2014 the latest example of how a\u00a0pioneering state…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":744415,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[47],"tags":[192,79],"class_list":["post-744414","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-environment","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/744414","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=744414"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/744414\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/744415"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=744414"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=744414"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=744414"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}