With increasing demands for greener housing and pending building code changes, more attention is being placed on the well-documented fact that air leakage is critical to home energy efficiency. It’s a fact that’s foremost for builder Tom Wade, president of Artistic Homes in New Mexico. Founded by his father Jerry Wade 44 years ago, Artistic Homes today has built more than 5,300 high-performance homes and currently builds 100 percent of homes to LEED-H Silver, Gold or Platinum certification.

Jerry and Tom Wade first took a decisive focus on building science in 1999, when Artistic partnered with the Department of Energy’s Build America program. All homes are built to a HERS rating of 54 or below. Annually, about 40 percent of Artistic Homes are built with either the company’s “Net-Zero” or “Solar 30” near-zero options.

 “Air-sealing a home to reduce air infiltration has a huge impact on energy efficiency. Air tightness is the byproduct of doing building science correctly. When we hold air tightness as a goal, then we know we’ve built a house the correct way,” says Tom Wade.

“Unfortunately,” Wade says, “there are some builders with poor construction practices who use sprayfoam to cover up problems. While they’re achieving air tightness, it’s not the end result of good building practices. If you achieve air tightness through proper building practices and application of building science, then you know you’ve built a good home on every level.

“A basic aspect is framing — unless it’s done correctly, you’re not going to achieve energy efficiency. That’s plain black and white. With thermal imaging, you can easily see the inefficiencies with poor framing,” says Wade.

Interested in advancements that could improve the performance of his already-tight homes, Wade turned to Knauf Insulation’s EcoSeal System, a water-based elastomeric spray used in conjunction with its fiber glass blown-in or batt insulation. The GREENGUARD Children and Schools-certified EcoSeal is applied with an airless sprayer and dries to a flexible tough film. It has the ability to penetrate gaps as small as 1/16” to take care of areas that aren’t effectively sealed by foam. Wade does not use open- or closed-cell sprayfoam insulation because of its petroleum base and potential for off-gassing.

Historically, he had achieved tightness by hand-sealing joints with caulk or expanding foam and using a BIBS insulation system. “We spent a lot of time caulking and foaming prior to insulation. EcoSeal is an ideal replacement for much of that work,” Wade says. “If you do building science and building techniques correctly, it helps you create a more efficient, quality home.”

The net-zero homes Artistic produces feature efficient 15-SEER air conditioning units. “Proper sealing and insulation make a huge impact with HVAC. We can right-size our equipment to create savings in equipment dollars,” Wade notes. Many of Artistic’s “near-zero” customers have utility bills that are only around $35. In addition to approximate energy savings of $200 a month, Artistic’s net-zero customers could also contribute to the grid with their solar power, earning payment for their energy production.

“If the house wasn’t air tight,” Wade adds, “we would have to upsize all our equipment. That would result in a vicious cycle of inefficiency and a lack of in-room comfort. You’d have a hot/cold effect because your equipment’s too big. Having proper insulation and air tightness allows us to maintain overall room comfort and right-size the equipment.”

The comfort factor has tremendous importance for Wade, who has both allergies and asthma. “I’ve lived in almost all of our homes throughout the years, so I’m a great guinea pig concerning air quality, of which I’m very sensitive. With our last set of homes prior to focusing on indoor air quality, I told my father that they just weren’t comfortable to live in because of the air quality. Temperature and everything else was great, but this was really the turning point that pushed us to expand our perspective and include high indoor air quality.”

Artistic’s homes are certified under ENERGY STAR’s Indoor Air package. Each home has HEPA-filtered fresh air ventilation and is backed by the builder’s energy-usage and comfort guarantee.

“We owe it to our customers to build a home that is structurally sound. At the same time, we don’t want to build a product that is going to make them sick,” Wade says.

“Right now,” he adds, “almost all the code changes are about energy — there’s not a lot of the traditional loss-of-life discussion on future code changes. As our enforcement agencies start adopting these energy codes, and builders who aren’t fully knowledgeable on building science are forced to tighten these homes up, we could see the effect of creating poor indoor air quality and water management problems,” says Wade.

“The key is to follow the ‘build it tight, ventilate it right’ rule, so you can add and control ventilation, and recover energy,” says Scott Miller, director of sustainability at Knauf Insulation. Foam options have inherent variability and the potential for lingering emission problems. With the tightness of the homes that Artistic builds, they cannot afford to take that chance. They were already meeting the ENERGY STAR standard of .35 natural air exchanges per hour, but we helped drop that to a .11 rate.”

A speaker at the United Nations Global Climate Change Summit in Cancun, Wade is thrilled at the potential international progress of high-performance building. “There’s a lot of international pressure to move homes to become much more energy efficient. Internationally, I think there are going to be a lot of synergies. When new innovations are made, hopefully Artistic will be at the leading edge with those. It’s exciting to be involved at the global level.

“I’m really proud of the fact that over the last four years, in the deepest pits of the recession, is when we’ve made our biggest leaps not only in energy efficiency, but also tremendous progress in green and indoor air quality,” Wade says.

“Jerry and Tom at Artistic are phenomenal builders,” Miller notes. “They understand and sell life-cycle economics and the sustainability associated with it, and they care about social, environmental and people impacts — the triple bottom line that we at Knauf Insulation value as a company. Artistic Homes reflect their innovative design and vision toward the future, and we are very proud that they use our products.”