The Homeowner’s Manual

It’s here!

The first project to have moved through Steps 1, 2, and 3 of ARKATA’s 3-Step process has been completed and we’re so stoked with the outcome.

I’m excited to present to you - the Homeowner’s Manual!

This is a guide—a manual—an instruction booklet—to living in a high-performance home.

When you buy a brand new car, you get an owner’s manual and service schedule. When you sell that car, with an intact manual and complete service history, you sell it for more than a car without…

So… The question I’ve been asking is, why don’t we get an equivalent for the most expensive purchase of our life?

Well, when you embrace the ARKATA way of better energy efficiency, you provide your clients with a homeowner’s manual that answers this question.

Imagine giving your clients the opportunity to boast about not just how good their home looks, but how damn good it feels too. They can show off their home visually, and now, they can show off the effort that they went through to make what’s behind the walls better, more healthy, more comfortable, more resilient.

This is just V1 within the bigger picture, and I look forward to continuing to collaborate with the architects invested in this process and help them continue to deliver high-performance homes to their clients.

Shout out to Paul Cooksey at Northern Edge Studio for showing immense trust and support through this process!!

Because the Homeowner’s Manual is something new, you’re probably wondering, when do we get the Homeowner’s Manual and what’s included in it?

Let’s answer those questions.

When do you get the Homeowner’s Manual?

The Homeowner’s Manual is the key deliverable of Step 3: Live It. This means it gets delivered after you receive the certification documentation within Step 2 but, to get specific, it’s delivered prior to your client signing a build-contract with a builder during that handover period after certification and before construction. The idea being that we want to make sure that all of the effort you have put into the home, coordinating specification, and making it as energy efficient as possible, is maintained and not value managed out by the builder. Of course, each project will differ slightly in terms of timing, so we’ll be communicating with you throughout this process.

What does the Homeowner’s Manual include?

Every project is different and so the content of the Homeowner’s Manual will vary but here are some inclusions you could expect:

• Managing heat during hot weather

• Managing cold during cool weather

• Airtightness and blower door tests

• Cross flow ventilation

• Managing condensation and moisture

• Renewable energy generation and storage

• Monitoring and tracking performance

• Strategies for:

  • Minimising energy bills

  • Shading

  • Appliances, applications, technologies, and monitoring

• Thinking forward

  • Future enhancements

  • Project savings

  • Maintenance schedules

Our mission with the homeowner’s manual is to influence change across our industry and empower homeowner’s (and renters) with the information they need to live in high-performance homes.

If you’re interested in learning more, don’t hesitate to reach out to us and we can chat about how a homeowner’s manual can benefit your project.

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