Four Insights from the Most Successful NZE Home Builders

The document outlines four key insights from successful NZE home builders in the US: the economic viability of NZE homes through integrated design, the need to shift customer communication toward comfort and income rather than technical science, the potential for prefabricated construction to mitigate labor shortages, and the reduced market risk associated with offering a highly differentiated, high-efficiency product.

• NZE homes can be more cost-effective than standard-efficiency homes when evaluated by total cost of ownership, provided builders use an integrated, holistic design approach. This includes offsetting costs of increased insulation by downsizing heating and cooling systems or simplifying roof planes to optimize for solar. Builders anticipate that California's NZE code requirement, starting in 2020, will further reduce costs by increasing the market for NZE equipment.
• Scaling NZE homes requires overcoming customer acquisition and market barriers. Successful builders have shifted their pitch from technical building science to focusing on healthy homes, comfort, and increased disposable income. Additionally, adoption is hindered by the fact that energy costs are not transparent to buyers or factored into mortgage underwriting; incorporating Home Energy Rating System (HERS) scores into the multiple listing service (MLS) is suggested to increase market differentiation.
• The 2017 peak in building-trade labor shortages—where 64 percent of builders reported subcontractor shortages—presents an opportunity to adopt new construction methods. Structural insulated panels (SIPs) and off-site prefabrication of building envelopes reduce on-site time and typically result in tighter, better-insulated homes. This shift allows the industry to leapfrog old practices and enables subcontractors to differentiate themselves.
• Building NZE homes is considered less risky than building standard homes because the high efficiency of the product ensures compliance with future energy codes and provides market differentiation. This differentiation is cited as a key factor for survival during economic recessions.

APA

RMI (2018). Four Insights from the Most Successful NZE Home Builders. https://rmi.org/resources/four-insights-from-the-most-successful-nze-home-builders/

Chicago

RMI. Four Insights from the Most Successful NZE Home Builders. 2018. https://rmi.org/resources/four-insights-from-the-most-successful-nze-home-builders/.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=RMI |title=Four Insights from the Most Successful NZE Home Builders |date=11 April 2018 |url=https://rmi.org/resources/four-insights-from-the-most-successful-nze-home-builders/ |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{rmi2018four, author = {{RMI}}, title = {{Four Insights from the Most Successful NZE Home Builders}}, institution = {RMI}, year = {2018}, month = apr, url = {https://rmi.org/resources/four-insights-from-the-most-successful-nze-home-builders/}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }