After interviewing various home builders and homeowners with net-zero homes, AOL Real Estate writer Sheri Koones finds that an energy-efficient home is cheaper and easier to build than ever before. So why is it still not the norm?
One reason is that most municipalities' building codes aren’t stringent enough to encourage low-energy or net-zero houses. Koones also found that many homeowners wrongfully assume that it will cost a great deal more to build a more energy efficient house, when in fact, according to architect Phil Kaplan of Kaplan Thompson Architects, “the up-cost for a very energy-efficient house should be $0.”
