Energy Performance Evaluation of New Homes in Arkansas

From August 1997 to September 1999, one hundred new Arkansas homes were evaluated in two areas in the state where there was significant building activity in order to determine the energy performance of current building practices. One of the positive findings was that homes are now being built significantly tighter than a few years ago. Homes built in the early to mid 1990’s were experiencing an average of 0.5 natural air changes per hour (NACH), an acceptable level
considered normal for new construction. Only 24 homes in this evaluation had leakage rates exceeding 0.4 NACH; the majority of homes (58 percent) had leakage rates of 0.35 and under.