Buyers' desire for green building can't keep pace with rebounding makert

Published: Friday, March 21, 2014 at 4:21 p.m. Last Modified: Friday, March 21, 2014 at 4:21 p.m.

Buyers' enthusiasm for green building has failed to keep pace with a recovering home-construction market, area builders say.

Instead, "customers' interests have gone from green' to energy efficiency," said Robin Hackney, who with husband Dean owns Horizon Builders in Wilmington. Coming out of a deep economic slump, buyers are seeking to save money particularly to keep utility bills to a minimum.

That desire coincides with stricter building codes, adopted in 2012, that have builders constructing more efficient homes.

So, though buyers may not seek out green, the road to energy efficiency is definitely that color.

"With the new energy code changes that occurred in 2012, a lot of the new construction is actually meeting the consumer's preference and demands for green' items such as envelope leakage reduction, duct tightness, window performance, wall insulation, and lighting efficiency," said Cameron Moore, executive officer of the Wilmington-Cape Fear Home Builders Association.

"What all this boils down to is more energy efficiency, which in return gives the buyer more savings in the way of their power bill," he said.

"It seems like energy efficiency translates into dollars and cents, and that's what they are after," said David Thomas, whose D.P. Construction in Wilmington specializes in historic restoration.

"We're doing the Gov. Dudley house," Thomas said, explaining that the 10,000-square-foot building in downtown Wilmington had a dozen furnaces or heat pumps. The answer was geothermal heat.

People are interested in saving money, and if geothermal, good insulation or LED lights achieve that, they'll pay the price, Thomas said.

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Buyers' desire for green building can't keep pace with rebounding makert