Energy Savings Analysis  

You CAN afford to build with BuildBlock!  

This step-by-step Energy Savings Analysis allows you to fully evaluate how BuildBlock actually saves you money in the long run. We encourage you to print out this page and do the math! You'll discover you can afford to build with BuildBlock. In fact, you can't afford not to build with ICFs! 

1. Determine Your Utility Costs Savings
With BuildBlock, your savings begin with your utility bills:

*NOTE:  The utility cost for a Wood Frame home will vary depending on your climate zone.  The Wood Frame utility cost quoted above is for the Oklahoma region.  If you live elsewhere, call your local utility company and ask them for the average utility cost per square foot for your area.  Then substitute that figure for the 8-12¢ figure above.  The utility cost quoted for an ICF home will be the same regardless of where you live.

2. Follow these instructions for the chart below.

Line A:  Input the size of home you plan to build.  Multiply it by 0.08 (8¢) which is the lowest Wood Frame utility cost per sq. ft.  This gives you the average monthly utility costs for a Wood Frame home that size.

Line B:  Input the size of home you plan to build.  Multiply it by 0.04 (4¢) which is the highest ICF utility cost per sq. ft.  This gives you the average monthly utility costs for a BuildBlock home that size.

Line C:  The difference between Figure A and Figure B is the amount of money you'll save every month in utility costs for as long as you own your BuildBlock home!

Line D:  Simply multiply that figure by 12 to see how much you'll save each year.

Here's an example chart, based on building a 2,500 sq. ft. home in the Oklahoma region:

Your Savings Don't Stop There! 

Now that you've established your monthly and annual utility savings, let's look at how you can use these savings to eliminate literally thousands of dollars in interest on your home mortgage.

Using our example of building a 2,500 sq. ft. home, the additional cost for using ICF instead of wood is approximately $10,000.00.  

Based on financing that additional $10,000 into a 30-year 8% mortgage, your ICF house payment would be $73.37 more than if you built the same house with wood.  

Notice that your monthly utility savings (Line C above) is $100.  This more than makes up for the additional cost of your monthly mortgage!

Apply your $1,200 annual utility savings to your mortgage.  After approximately 8-1/3 years, the $10,000 in additional construction cost is "paid off" ($10,000 divided by $1,200 per year).  

After that, if you continue to apply your monthly utility savings to your house payment you will trim years and thousands of dollars in interest off your mortgage!

Click here to see an Amortization Chart that explains how this works.