This program was designed to help homebuilders improve indoor air quality.
To qualify for Indoor airPLUS, homes must also be ENERGY STAR®-qualified and meet strict construction requirements designed to promote healthier living environments.
Homebuyers today are increasingly concerned about the indoor air quality of their homes. Issues like mold, radon, carbon monoxide and toxic chemicals have received greater attention than ever as poor indoor air quality has been linked to a host of health problems. With ENERGY STAR and Indoor airPLUS, builders can employ a variety of construction practices and technologies in their new homes to help address these concerns.
Homes displaying the ENERGY STAR Certified Home and Indoor airPLUS labels provide unparalleled energy efficiency, comfort, durability, indoor air quality, and peace of mind.
Healthier Homes by Design
Indoor airPLUS qualified homes have numerous advantages.
Improve Indoor Air Quality Indoor airPLUS is a companion label to ENERGY STAR. Together, these programs provide comprehensive health protections. Homes built to earn the Indoor airPLUS label include features to reduce contaminants that can lead to poor indoor air quality, including mold, moisture, radon, carbon monoxide, toxic chemicals and more.
Minimize Pollutants Moisture and pest control, among other things, can help protect your family by eliminating common allergens from entering the home, such as mold and pest residue. Your builder will provide a first line of defense against pests like cockroaches and rodents by fully sealing, caulking, or screening where pests enter your home.
Improve Comfort Your ENERGY STAR and Indoor airPLUS home can provide a more comfortable living environment because it includes properly engineered HVAC system sizing, improved duct and equipment installation, improved filtration and whole-house and spot ventilation to dilute and remove indoor pollutants.
Protect Against Combustion Pollutants The home provides protection from potential exposure to combustion pollutants by the installation of heating equipment that cannot spill combustion gases inside the home and preventing pollutants in the garage from entering your house. Also, carbon monoxide alarms are in all sleeping areas.
Home Maintenance Manual After purchasing a home with EPA Indoor airPLUS qualification, you'll receive a manual explaining your home's indoor air quality features and how to operate your home to continue minimizing the risk of indoor air quality problems. In addition, your home will have a label as proof that it was built to the high indoor air quality specifications if you resell the home.
Energy Efficiency All Indoor airPLUS homes must first earn ENERGY STAR certification. ENERGY STAR certified new homes are at least 10% more energy efficient than homes built to code and achieve a 20% improvement on average. A new home that has earned the ENERGY STAR label has undergone a process of inspections, testing and verification to meet strict requirements set by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), delivering better quality, better comfort and better durability.
Homes that meet the Indoor airPLUS criteria offer many benefits, including:
Improved air quality: Indoor airPLUS-qualified homes have features that reduce contaminants commonly associated with poor indoor air quality, such as carbon monoxide, moisture, mold, radon and toxic chemicals.
Pollutant protection: Proper sealing, caulking and screening help ensure that Indoor airPLUS-qualified homes are free of common allergens, like pest residue and mold. Homes also have special heating equipment that protects them from combustion pollutants, and all sleeping areas contain carbon monoxide alarms.
Enhanced comfort: Homes that meet Indoor airPLUS and ENERGY STAR® requirements are typically more comfortable, thanks to building practices that require properly sized HVACs, better installation of ducts and other equipment, improved filtration and spot- and whole-house ventilation to reduce and/or eliminate indoor impurities.
Better-for-you building materials: To meet Indoor airPLUS specifications, builders must choose materials with fewer chemicals (e.g., low-emitting paint, flooring and wood products).
Indoor airPLUS specifications require a minimum passive radon system in homes in areas designated by the EPA as having high radon potential. Richmond American takes that one step further by providing active radon control systems and performing a short-term radon test before closing in homes designated by the EPA or by the appropriate authorized state agency as having high radon potential.
Learn more about the Indoor airPLUS program and qualifications here: https://www.epa.gov/indoor-air-quality-iaq
Learn more about the Energy Star Program here: https://www.energystar.gov/
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