Green Building Standard 2.0

Rosehaven Homes is on a journey toward building beautiful, NetZero homes that cost about the same as any similar home on the market. We have a plan to get there and by purchasing our homes, you put us one step closer to achieving our goal. Thank you!

Our first major milestone in this process is GBS 2.0, which we hope will lower energy consumption by about 30% compared to the average new home.

What's Included in GBS 2.0?

All Electric

A NetZero home needs to be able to run without any fossil fuels. Our AC systems, water heaters, stove tops, and ovens are all powered by electricity. That means in San Antonio, they are 15% powered by renewables and in Austin they are 43% powered by renewables, since that is how much renewable power is already on the grid in those cities.

When you factor in 15% carbon-free energy in San Antonio, a home with GBS 2.0 produces only about 60% of the carbon emissions produced by a typical new home powered by coal or natural gas.

LED Lighting

LED lights use about 75% less energy than traditional incandescent bulbs. We only install LED lights in our homes and to keep them beautiful inside, we only use warm 2,700 to 3,200 lumen bulbs, which produce light very similar to incandescents.

Electric Vehicle Ready

Transportation is responsible for about 28% of all greenhouse gas emissions, so we can't get to NetZero as a nation without first switching to electric cars. We believe EV's are the future and want to do our part to help in this transition, so we include one NEMA 14-15, 40-amp, 240 volt outlet in each garage. It can be used to charge a car in the garage or in the driveway. Just plug in, charge up, and go!

Foam Insulation

Air leakage accounts for up to 40% of energy used for heating or cooling a home. Air leakage also lets in humid air, pollutants, allergens, dust, drafts, and unwanted noise. Air-sealing is therefore an essential strategy for making a home comfortable and energy efficient, especially when you consider your AC is the greatest source of home energy consumption. GBS 2.0 homes come standard with open cell spray foam on all exterior wall cavities and below the roof deck, greatly reducing the amount of air leakage throughout the home. (Includes approximately 3.5 inches / R-13 at exterior walls and 5.5 inches / R-20 at the roof deck.)

Conditioned Attic

In a vented attic, outside air is allowed in, which means in the summer your attic can reach temperatures close to 145 degrees Fahrenheit. This sounds like a strange strategy in itself, but it gets stranger when you consider the attic is where your home's air handler and ductwork is located. That means your cooling system, while attempting to get your air down to 55 degrees, is operating in a virtual oven. It's no surprise that by making the attic part of the interior conditioned space and using spray foam in the exterior walls, you can reduce energy consumption by as much as 22%.

Foam Included Between Multifamily Units

As an added bonus, we install foam between units in our multifamily homes. This provides greater fire protection, added insulation, and most importantly, an incredible sound barrier. This goes well beyond code requirements, but we do it because good walls, make good neighbors, and happy neighbors make loyal, long-term tenants.

Drip Irrigation System

As we all know, water is crucial for agriculture and wildlife populations and as cities grow, water scarcity becomes a growing issue, especially in a place like Texas where droughts are common. That's why we use drip irrigation systems that use up to 50% less water than traditional irrigation systems. This gives us green, healthy lawns with minimal impact on the environment.

Energy Efficient Windows

Windows are the number one source of heat entering your home. Why is that? When heat from the sun hits your exterior walls, the heat must travel through the siding, lumber, and insulation before it can make it into your home. But when it hits a window, especially a single-paned window, much of that heat makes it directly into your home. That's why we only use double-paned, insulated, energy-star windows with Low-E glass that reflects UV and thermal heat back out of the home. We couple this with thick, white, faux-wood blinds that can reflect the full spectrum of light out of your home.

Fresh Air Ventilation

Having a well-sealed home keeps humid air, allergens, and other unwanted pollutants out. To keep fresh air in, all GBS 2.0 homes are equipped with a ventilation system, which brings fresh, outside air through a filter and then into your home.

GBS 2.0 = Energy Savings at Zero Cost

Rosehaven's GBS 2.0 standard is a triple win in terms of providing extra value at no additional cost. It reduces emissions, which is good for the environment; it lowers energy costs, which is good for owners and tenants; and it makes our homes much more comfortable, which is good for everyone. When taken together with our commitment to beautiful, classic home designs, we believe our homes are the best value on the market. Come visit is us today to learn more.

“We believe all new homes should be carbon-neutral, NetZero homes. As we scale out our company, we believe we can deliver NetZero homes at the same price as any similar home on the market and we're forever grateful to our customers who make our journey toward NetZero possible.” - Martin Rico, CEO

What's Next?

Real World Testing

Over the next several years, we'll benchmark our GBS 1.0 homes vs. our GBS 2.0 homes to provide real-world performance metrics. By monitoring actual energy consumption by individual devices in homes and cross-referencing that with the number of occupants and other factors, we'll be able have a much better understanding of how to continue to improve our Green Building Standard.

Green Building Standard: The Next Version

When we decided to make NetZero homes our goal, our first thought was to put solar panels on every home and call it a day. Of course, once we dug deep into building science, it became clear the first thing to do was to lower the energy requirements of our homes as much as possible with passive energy efficiency enhancements. Once we feel we've done all we can in terms of efficiency, we'll take the leap into solar power. We can't wait to get there!

Upcoming enhancements to our Green Building Standard we are researching include making our homes solar-ready, higher efficiency AC systems, and exterior insulation.