Owning a Manufactured Home Can Save You Money and Reduce Your Carbon Footprint

When it comes to creating affordable housing and adapting to climate change and reducing your carbon footprint, researchers say that manufactured homes are a “good solution with a bad reputation” due to the long ago past association with “mobile homes.”

Those experts say that while manufactured homes have a lot of advantages, the stigma of “mobile homes’’ and “mobile home parks”  as well as policies enacted because of those stigma, keep them severely under-utilized.

Generally speaking “mobile homes” were not constructed to any mandated energy efficiency standards. Unfortunately there are many that believe that “mobile homes” and “manufactured homes” are one-in-the-same. The descriptive words “mobile home” and “manufactured home” are not interchangeable. 

New “mobile homes” ceased to exist in 1976 when the U,S, Congress passed legislation establishing a Federal Code (HUD Code) officially and legally designating the new factory built homes as “manufactured homes.” Manufactured homes are the only form of single-family housing subject to federal housing code.

According to Andrew Rumbach, who co-leads the Climate and Communities practice in the Metropolitan Housing and Communities Policy Center, today’s new manufactured homes are not only well built, beautiful and affordable, owning a new manufactured home not only can save you money, but also will reduce your carbon footprint. New manufactured home electrification is one of several aspects of new manufactured housing.

New manufactured homes are produced with energy efficiency in mind. Their HVAC systems are designed to equalize temperatures across a home’s heating and cooling zones, and their walls, floors and roofs are made from combinations of state-of-the-art building materials that improve the home’s R-value. (The rate at which its insulating materials prevent flow of heat).

Many of the best-energy-efficient homes now come with certifications from Energy Star, the government program that helps buyers identify more energy-efficient products. Buyers can expect all of the following from Energy Star manufactured homes.

• Superior insulation.
• Tighter and more efficient duct work.
• Highly efficient hot water systems.
• Energy-efficient windows.

Since manufactured homes are built in factories, a builder can also fine-tune the manufacturing process to ensure quality control. That’s critical to ensure that manufactured homes are consistently built for maximum efficiency and year-round performance.