When there is one segment of housing that is offering affordable housing to people and you complain that it doesn’t quite live up to everyone else’s energy standards which could add thousands of dollars to the cost of a manufactured home, should we be asking why do that?
All the magazines and websites love prefab and manufactured housing. Even we here at Treehugger fill our pages with Dvele and Plant Prefab. But the number of these built is a rounding error compared to the manufactured housing industry, previously known as the mobile home industry, and even prior to that, the trailer industry.
According to the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy (ACEEE), 6.8 million manufactured homes are used as residences in the U.S., and 105,772 of them were shipped in 2021.1 Unlike conventional site-built housing or modular housing, these are built to the Manufactured Home Construction and Safety Standards (HUD Code), a national standard.
But when it comes to energy, it’s not much of a standard at all and hasn’t been updated since 1994. Now, after years of work and arguing, the U.S. Department of Energy announced new standards they say will save consumers “hundreds of dollars on their annual utility bills and slash carbon emissions by 80 million metric tons.”2
“DOE’s new energy efficiency rules will help save the 17 million Americans residing in mobile homes up to $475 per year on average on their utility bills,” said U.S. Secretary of Energy Jennifer M. Granholm in a statement. “The rules will hold manufacturers of these U.S. homes to cost-saving efficiency standards, giving residents more comfortable living environments and a much-needed break on their annual utility costs, while delivering cleaner air for their communities.”
CLICK HERE to read the entire Treehugger article and review the graphs.
Related Articles:
Clayton’s CrossMod Manufactured Homes Quietly Moving Into Residential Neighborhoods
A Unique Advantage Some Manufactured Homes Have Over Modular Homes
Tiny Houses, Manufactured Homes And Converted Garden Sheds Are NOT Modular Homes
Gary Fleisher is the Editor in Chief of Modular Home Source and Offsite Builder. Email at [email protected]
To learn more about the Offsite Construction Industry, visit: Offsite Builder, the Construction Magazine for Builders and Developers
