Custom Homes

Can you construct a home that is energy efficient and that is cost effective?

This is one of the first questions we get asked. The answer to that question is:

YES, it is possible to construct a home that has an 85% reduction in electrical consumption, integrated safe room/ storm shelter, exhibits high health standards, is handicap accessible, is completely sustainable, and has the capability of being a zero energy/ off-grid home for about the same price of a standard home. If you want the home to achieve zero energy and operate off-grid, then it will cost on average about 7% more and you will never again pay another electrical bill. This home is designed so that the renewable systems for electrical production can easily be added at anytime over the lifetime of the home. Typically the return on the zero energy investment is about 7 years or less depending on energy costs in your area.

The Universal Home® was designed specifically to

solve housing problems associated with the rising

costs of electricity, maintenance, and water in the

spring of 2003, but it wasn't until our architects

were commissioned by the community development

department in Lubbock, Texas in 2007 that the

Home’s possibilities were fully realized. Its primary

design goal is to address and meet the Low to

Moderate income, Moderate Income, senior and

handicap housing needs of a community. The home

design incorporates several integrated strategies

to achieve its high energy performance and

sustainability to include design strategies that are

more than 6,000 years old and some recent

technological advances that have only been realized

and developed this decade. This makes the Universal Home® both new and old; it represents a full circle of understanding the relationship of nature and technology in today's society as a means of controlling living costs and in the promotion of sustainability.

Since the first of these homes were produced 8 years ago refinements in their design include material selection and use. These refinements in their structural systems and configurations have increased their efficiency and lowered the cost of construction. Today we have field data that substantiates claims on cost and performance for "stick" (2x4) constructed, Insulated Concrete

The original Universal Home® constructed in 2007 for the Lubbock Community Development Department was a series 007 design. Pictured above: The homes Design Team (Left to right) Erik Carlson, Steve Mueller, Jacob Hilton and Kim Gilkerson.

Series 007 Universal Home® Lubbock, Texas

Exterior wall system is Insulated Concrete Form (ICF)

Series 009 Universal Home® San Angelo, Texas

Exterior wall system is 2x4

Series 012 Universal Home® Abilene, Texas

Exterior wall system is 14” Compressed Earth Block (CEB)

Form (ICF) and Compressed Earth Block (CEB) configured homes. Due primarily to the fact that no site on the planet is the same and different locations yield different natural advantages and disadvantages, it is very difficult to formulate a specific set of design guidelines for every project. However, there are some well established basic strategies that design professionals can follow. With every geographic location (longitude and latitude) comes changes in ambient temperature, prevailing winds, solar absorption rates, mean ground temperature, seasonal changes to each of these factors, and to the declination of the sun, precipitation etc., all of which should be identified in the design stage by the professional to be either embraced or mitigated to ensure high performance of the building.

There are some common design strategies that can be employed to achieve basic levels of performance and sustainability. These core strategies, if utilized, will increase the performance of the building by several times above what the Department of Energy's (DOE) Energy Star initiative or the US Green building Councils' (USGBC) LEED standards alone are capable of. The problem is not a need for more insulation, better mechanical systems or tighter windows with higher R-values, despite what government agencies and some "so called green" professional organizations seem to claim. These are all useless mitigation for a poor building design that simply does not respond to the environmental conditions that the building will be exposed to over its lifetime in its specific location. The problem is the building type itself. For example, if you live in Texas and you choose to construct a home that has an exterior 2x4 structural system, brick veneer and asphalt shingle roof, with no consideration to polar orientation or seasonal sun angles or thermal absorption rate in the materials you have chosen to use, and you simply size your HVAC system to compensate for solar heat gain that the home will be exposed too, then you have already arrived at a state that CANNOT be cost effectively mitigated to

increase sustainability or energy performance. Especially not to the levels of performance that would in turn benefit the home owner financially month to month. Simply put, it is the WRONG building type for the region and this must be determined early in the design stage by a competent design professional with knowledge in sustainability and performance. The cost of the mitigating technology necessary to compensate for the buildings poor design would be so expensive that it would not be financially feasible to do. This is a very big problem realized with a monthly reminder received in the form of high utility bills. What compounds the problem even further is the fact that 95% of residential home design is carried out by

non-professions with little to no formal training in

basic design principles, much less sustainable or

energy efficient strategies. Most of the consumer

goods and services listed, advertised and promoted

as "green" have very little to do with sustainability

and/or is effective as a energy conservation

mitigation in the overall building package. It is

nothing more than a ploy to get you to pay more

money.

Our staff offers assistance in many different ways to help you realize your housing goals. We offer a complete design, design-build or consulting services for our clients. Some clients have asked, “Can we use our own builder or architect?” Of course! In the case of a builder, UDC will design, issue a complete set of construction documents and will coordinate and manage the construction management of the project to ensure the building is constructed to specification and on time. We offer consulting to design professionals and assist them in the implementation of design features that increase sustainability and promote high performance and electrical conservation. With either case, it is normally true that the space arrangement or floor plan will not change dramatically from a preferred layout or floor plan that the client may have in mind, although there may be small changes overall. It is a balanced equation, as in nature. If you want one thing, you may have to change something else to maintain the balance. So there are many layout and aesthetic possibilities. Contrary to popular belief, you really can have whatever floor arrangement you want. It is our job to make it work in a sustainable and energy efficient way that is cost effective to construct. And we are the very best at this.

The most important questions concerning the Universal Home®, and what is possible and what is not, can be answered with a little study and familiarization of what's available. After years of lecturing and consulting, our staff built this website to educate clients on what is possible and what is not yet possible. Obviously, we understand that there is a lot of false information out there. The website contains actual hands on knowledge and scientific studies from us and others collected and used every day by our design staff. We have performed case studies on several building types and numerous systems to be used in our integrated design approach. All of that information is contained on this website and is free for anyone to review. We encourage you to browse through our information and come to your own conclusions. If you have a question, don't hesitate to shoot us an email or call us.