A&T Lends a Hand to Manufactured Housing and Energy Efficiency

For Immediate Release
January 7, 2002

Greensboro, NC:  Researchers at North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University are working with the manufactured housing industry to better serve the industry’s customers, while promoting energy efficiency and conservation.

The Manufactured Housing Research Initiative at A&T has embarked on several projects designed to help buyers of manufactured housing understand and value energy efficiency, and to help manufacturers build energy conservation features into their product.

“The challenge really lies with convincing buyers of manufactured housing that energy efficiency can lead to positive benefits in their household budgets and increase the comfort of their homes,” said Dr. Carolyn Turner, lead scientist in the Initiative. “Once they can see how savings on utility bills can help them recover any extra costs at time of purchase, they will start demanding energy efficient features in their homes.”

Once this happens, Turner believes, manufacturers will respond by making energy efficient features standard. That means both groups must see the benefit of energy-efficient features before they clear what researchers call the “first-cost hurdle.”

“The first-cost hurdle is simply convincing consumers that money spent at time of purchase can be recovered over time and convincing manufacturers that money spent on additional features may lead to increased customer satisfaction and sales over time,” said Turner. “Once that hurdle is cleared, the benefits of energy efficiency will be clear and very attractive to both groups.”

Thanks to one of the A&T Initiative’s projects, one hurdle has been cleared.

Palm Harbor Homes has incorporated most of what they have learned through the A&T project into the design of homes equipped with an Energy Management System. Since February 2000, 1275 of these homes have been built in North Carolina. Based on data from the A&T project, Palm Harbor Homes believes that the electric heating and cooling energy use for each of these homes has been reduced by an average of 4150 kilowatt hours per year.

Based on 7 cents per kilowatt hour, the average annual savings per home would be $290.50.

Understanding the customer, his or her motivations in choosing manufactured housing and levels of satisfaction after purchase, is key to the efforts of those involved in the Initiative.

Dr. Japhet Nkonge, a marketing professor with A&T’s School of Business and Economics, leads the Initiative’s efforts to understand buyers of manufactured housing, and he has conducted focus groups, which have revealed a number of tendencies among buyers.

“For the most part, buyers of manufactured housing rate energy efficiency very low among factors influencing their purchasing decision,” said Nkonge. “They tend to choose manufactured housing because it is more affordable at the time of purchase, and they fail to appreciate how energy efficiency might save them money over time.”

Nkonge’s study also revealed that sellers have a tremendous effect on the decisions of those buying manufactured housing, and that those sellers are often ill-equipped to provide information on the value of energy-efficient features.

Those factors have encouraged the A&T researchers in their work to prove and document the value of energy-efficient features in manufactured housing. Currently, they are studying the energy consumption of two manufactured housing units built by Palm Harbor Homes of Siler City that are located on campus and different only in some of their basic features.

The units were installed last year in cooperation with the North Carolina State Energy Office and the Florida Solar Energy Center. One is a basic home built to HUD standards, while the other incorporates energy-efficient features, such as thermopane windows, a heat pump, solar lighting and hot water system, and increased insulation in the walls, ceiling and floor.

Researchers believe that the energy-efficient home will save 50 percent on its utility bills, and that prediction has proved almost right on the money. The energy-efficient home cooled itself with 37 percent less energy and, during one period, heated itself with 59 percent less energy. (Actual real-time data from the project is available at www.infomonitors.com/ncatu.)

Researchers are also planning a similar project with Oakwood Homes, a housing manufacturer based in Greensboro, in which a family will live in an Oakwood home equipped with a solar hot water system. Researchers will monitor the family’s use and satisfaction with the system, providing Oakwood Homes with valuable data and examples of the value of energy-efficient features.

The interdisciplinary effort at A&T involves faculty from the School of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences, College of Engineering, School of Technology and School of Business and Economics.

The North Carolina State Energy Office provides most of the funding for the research, with contributions coming from a number of private companies. In addition to the Florida Solar Energy Center, the research involves the assistance of Palm Harbor Homes and the United States Department of Energy’s Building America Industrialized Housing Partnership.

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For more information, contact the Dr. Carolyn Turner, NC A&T School of Agriculture, (336) 334-7636.