SIP Panel Home Kits Become A Showstopper At Environmental Design Conference

Sustainable housing can be quick and cost-effective, thanks to SIP panel home kits

If you’re in for an affordable yet sustainable and disaster-resistant home, then SIP panel kits are something you should definitely consider. 

You see, while the market is crowded with materials tagged ‘green’ when it comes to construction, practicality dictates the choice. And that’s for one simple reason: you don’t build your home every day, so you want it to be the sturdiest. 

Coming to sustainable building materials, it has been greeted with skepticism for the same reason. In fact, even as the green building market has expanded manifold in the last thirty years, builders have been reluctant to make the switch. 

Or, as Ben Montgomery from Axios Tampa Bay puts it, “Even if a greener product makes financial sense, builders are slow to switch. Nobody wants to go first.”

Nevertheless, COVID has changed it all, and it’s the steel SIP panels that are leading this change. 

COVID and the surge in demand for SIP panel home kits

There are a lot of things that the pandemic has changed, and among them is construction, more so home building. 

How you may ask? 

Post-pandemic, the cost of construction materials has spiked, and so has the cost of labor, which continues to rise. So much so that the builders are feeling the brunt, thus the need to look for alternative solutions. 

Now, talking about the alternatives, no other construction material has gained more traction than the secure-lock structural insulated metal panels. 

And here’s why SIP panel home kits have become go-to green building materials post-COVID: 

• First, these panels let you build a home well within a week, and that too with a team of as few as five people. 
• Second, the structural insulated panels are high-performance building materials that use foam insulation of expanded polystyrene, which is sandwiched between layers of steel. Meaning, you’ll get a sturdy built home that outlasts traditional homes. 

Thanks to these SIP panel features, among other things, builders are fast to co-opt them in the new home projects. Take, for instance, the townhome project which is coming up at Park Street, Clearwater and is overwhelmingly using SIP panels for construction. 

SIP panels and a case for energy-efficient designing at the Environmental Design Conference

The two-day Environmental Design Conference hosted by New College Florida and the Interior Design Society Sarasota Chapter opened with Design for Energy Efficiency as the first agenda. 

Herein, Rick Cartell from Barrier Structures 360 and Matt Ross from Eco-$mart rightly pointed at the need for energy-efficient homes and the role SIP panel home kits have here. 

You might be wondering how these SIP panels can create an energy-efficient home. 

Well, the answer lies in the natural properties of steel and the construction of these panels. You see, steel is the best insulating material on the planet, which holds for steel SIP panels as well. 

In fact, skinned steel SIP panels can make your home up to 15 times more airtight compared to every other insulant. So your home built with SIPs will remain naturally warm during winters and cool during summers. 

The result: a significantly reduced usage of HVAC systems and up to 60 percent annual savings on energy bills. 

That’s impressive, isn’t it? 

SIP panel home kits: one-stop solution for a healthy and safe home building 

As Matt Ross reasoned at the conference, steel structural insulated panels go far beyond energy efficiency and home insulation, they also make a home safe and healthy. Let’s see how: 

#1. A healthy home

Wood and vinyl are the two most popular materials for home construction, and apart from being unsustainable, they pose health concerns too. 

But how are these best-selling building materials unhealthy? 

While mold and mildew infestation is very common in homes with wooden framing, vinyl is a petroleum product that often off-gasses. And both of these problems are enough to make the residents sick. 

On the contrary, you won’t encounter any such problem in a home built of steel SIP panels, meaning you can rest assured of a healthy lifestyle. 

Bonus: 

Since steel SIP panels make your home mold and mildew free, you need not worry about maintenance as well. 

Amazing, right? 

#2. A safe home 

Another benefit that SIP panel homes have over structures is impeccable impact resistance. You see, these panels are built from high-end stainless steel, which makes your home withstand the worst of disasters. 

Numerous tests have shown that steel-skinned SIP homes can easily withstand winds between 150-180 MPH. Also, such homes are resistant to earthquakes and can be built in Seismic Category B regions. 

What else did the panel discuss? 

Sustainable housing was the major highlight of the Environmental Design Conference’s first agenda. And as such, the discussion included practical applications of eco-friendly and green building products like solar and eco-shake roofing shingles. 

Matt Ross from Eco-$mart drew towards the innovative eco-shakes, which are 100 percent recycled yet sturdy and long-lasting shingles. He also highlighted how you could opt for green roofing materials like metal roof tiles and solar shingles to save big in the long term. 

Further, another panel member, Mike Evans, talked in detail about the practical solutions for solar energy and hot water. In fact, his insights on how one can use solar energy in an optimum way were strongly agreed upon by the audience. 

The final word

The Environmental Design Conference focused on a large range of solutions to make our homes more eco-friendly and long-lasting. And to that end, Eco-$mart’s SIP panel home kits clearly caught the attention. 

Even though the secure lock structural insulated panels have newly gained traction, they’ve been around for a long time. 

In fact, at Eco-$mart, we’ve been providing steel SIP panels, among many other green building materials, for the last thirty years. Be it roofing or flooring or just about any material for home construction and safety, we have the most extensive range of eco-friendly products. 

So, if you’re looking to build or renovate your home and make it ecologically sound, you can reach out to us. 

Need a quick green home? 

Rest easy, as we can build you a home in less than 45 days with our cutting-edge secure-lock SIPs.