Better follow the Energy Star to your new home

Make the scary man stop! Make the scary man from the government be quiet!! Make the scary man from the government quit talking about making houses more energy efficient!!!

Ahem. Sorry. My inner child wanted to go hide under my bed on the linoleum-covered hardwood floor of the 1940s-era farmhouse I grew up in, where the wind came sweeping out of the hills, through the walls and across the living room — and nobody thought too much about it — when Sam Rashkin was talking.

Rashkin is national director of the Environmental Protection Agency's Energy Star program. He was a speaker at the Best of Building Science seminar presented Thursday by Guaranteed Watt Saver, which consults on Energy Star homes and other energy-efficient construction.

Energy Star is a program that helps people conserve energy and protect the environment while saving money.

All well and good. So why did my inner child, who grew up to become a homeowner, want to run back to his folks' farmhouse?

Because Energy Star homes are rising stars in the home marketplace, and rising standards eventually will cause new homes to outperform existing homes as much as a luxury bathroom in a mansion outperforms outhouses, wash pitchers and basins of yore.

In 2005, Guaranteed Watt Saver worked with builders in the construction of 486 Energy Star homes in Oklahoma; in 2006, the number of new Energy Star homes shot up to 2,600 even with home-building in decline; and this year, the company is on pace for 4,000 Energy Star homes, said Kelly Parker, president.

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