Consortium for Advanced Residential Buildings

CARB, the Consortium for Advanced Residential Buildings, is a team of designers, builders, product manufacturers, utilities, testing agencies, insurance companies, and others. CARB's mission under the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Building America program is to apply systems engineering to construct technically advanced energy-efficient homes. As one of the DOE Building America teams, CARB has produced houses all across the United States.

Working primarily with production builders such as Beazer Homes, Cambridge Homes, Crosswinds Communities, Del Webb, and Mercedes Homes in a wide variety of climate zones, CARB has tested and implemented energy-saving techniques on a large scale. To date, more than 2,000 energy-efficient homes that employ CARB features have been completed and many more are under construction.

CARB's general strategy is to focus on innovations that can be realized in the field by production builders and housing manufacturers. CARB projects proceed on two inter-related tracks: advances in the building process and technology, coupled with market-driven decision making. Building component and system innovations are developed in an integrated whole-house approach. Industry team members field-test new products, resulting in a repertoire of lower-risk, market-tested innovations that can be implemented on a large scale.

Since its inception in 1996, CARB has worked with some 20 builders and dozens of manufacturers and suppliers to produce townhomes, single-family homes, and multifamily units that use innovative materials, technologies, products, and construction techniques. For example, working with Mercedes, CARB introduced the first-ever "plenum truss," which allows HVAC ducts to be distributed through insulated, conditioned spaces above ceilings, resulting in reduced heating and cooling losses. CARB has also been active in the field of new product development. An advanced geothermal heat pump that uses a fraction of the area normally required for trenches or wells and functions as a compact in-ground heat exchanger is now being field-tested. Realizing that good ideas are only useful if they're employed correctly, CARB has developed builder/subcontractor training programs tailored to specific trades to educate those on the "front lines" about energy-saving and resource-efficient homebuilding techniques.

The following are the primary members of the CARB team:

Builders

• Beazer Homes — the sixth largest builder in the country.
• Cambridge Homes — largest builder in Chicago.
• Crosswinds Communities — largest builder in the Detroit metro area.
• Don Simon Homes — largest builder in Madison, Wisconsin.
• Mercedes Homes — largest builder in central Florida, with divisions in Texas and North Carolina.
• U.S. Home — builder in 15 states across the country.
• Wausau Homes — leading producer of modular and panelized homes.

Others

• Andersen Windows — the country's largest producer of windows and patio doors.
• Carrier Corporation — one of the country's leading producers of HVAC equipment.
• Honeywell — an industry leader in the production of HVAC control systems.
• Owens-Corning — largest producer of insulation products in the U.S.
• Sacramento Municipal Utility District — a leader in the photovoltaic industry.
• Simpson Strong-Tie — a leading manufacturer of fasteners for homebuilding.
• Steven Winter Associates — an architecture, engineering, energy, and building systems consulting firm, and CARB's lead organization.
• Trus Joist MacMillan — a leader in the manufacture of engineered lumber in the United States.
• Weyerhaeuser — the largest producer of lumber in North America.
• Whirlpool — the world's leading manufacturer of home appliances.
• York International — a leading manufacturer of heating and cooling equipment.

These CARB members are joined by a set of secondary participants, representing more specialized industries and organizations, including utilities, insurance companies, product manufacturers, trade associations, and code agencies.

CARB publishes an electronic newsletter available at no charge. To join the CARB-News subscription list, email us at mcrosbie@swinter.com.

Printable Version