4 minute readA 2,500 square foot new home goes vertical as a $350,000-plus assembly these days, many in the range of 18,000 piece-level parts, cascading down from 600 or more SKUs. This process normally engages 25 or so skilled or semi-skilled trade crews for widely varying start-to-completion spans of 100 to 200 days, counting today’s workflow bottlenecks.
- Can a mere 15 of those SKUs – 2.5% of the total – change how that assembled kit of parts does its job over time?
- How the enclosure and its systems exceed the ever-rising bar energy codes are setting for sheltered space?
- How it feels to its inhabitants in terms of comfort and air quality? How it saves money on the cost of operation?
- How that 2,500 sq.-ft. structure assembles in time-value-of-money terms, by installing in less-than-typical workflow duration, and done-right-the-first-time terms?
- And, of great matter in these days of materials and labor supply bottlenecks and constraints, can these same 15 SKUs relieve strain on highly-trained technicians’ time and expertise by simplifying a process to the extent that it takes a net 30-minutes of demonstration and video to train a crew in its installation?
With eight public homebuilder enterprises, plumbing and climate solutions firm Uponor, and 40 or so “angels” as investors, a new solution called Rheia is designed to simplify and improve the supply side of a home’s arterial airflow network. Its “home run” system of manifold, duct, connectors, and diffuser components achieve room air comfort consistency and quality, and – by virtue of snap-together, tightly-sealed plastic fittings commissioned specifically for each structure, rid the installation process of trial-by-error errors in sizing, balancing, and sealing that typically lead to up to 30% air loss through leaks, holes, and poor connections in the duct system. “The push is to lower loads of energy use at the house level, so the primary driver at first was to get ahead of evolving energy codes, and a close second was to deliver better room comfort and air quality, which – in the aftermath of Covid – makes Rheia an especially powerful opportunity,” Laing adds. “The labor piece of it came later, as we started time-in-motion testing and learned that we can train typical contractor crews in 30 to 45 minutes, get technicians out of attics where typically they’d be straddling trusses, and achieve both velocity improvement of 30% to 40%, and better first-time quality to eliminate call-backs.” What may be less evident, Laing points out, is that homebuilders and their contractors have become sophisticated users of available tax credits, such as 45L, allows builders and contractors a credit equal to $2,000 per unit for qualified owner-occupied or rental dwelling units that meet certain energy-savings standards. Simplistically, to qualify, raters or examiners inspect each home’s HVAC and other systems to determine whether that structure earns the credit. Rheia’s data-generating app – connected through Wrightsoft – can save builders and contractors time and trouble with validations and credit reimbursements. Challenges to an introduction and roll-out like Rheia are plentiful, painfully-felt, and well-known. They range from profoundly varying climate conditions in North America’s geographic regions, to building and design practices that have prevailed in different regions, to the complicated relationship of builders to local trade contractors, to the mind-numbing array of floorplans, construction document formats, MEP designs, not to mention specific individual comfort parameters residents may add to the complexity. Big builders – as they push to comply with California’s more advanced Title 24 energy codes, and anticipate wider adoption of those standards nationally – have been moving away from mechanicals closets in the attics, and bringing air handling into conditioned space,” says Laing. “For Rheia, this is a trend tailwind, and we’re modeling rapid, aggressive growth in what’s a couple of billion-dollar marketplace. In Indianapolis-area suburban Franklin Township, a community of four-to-five bedroom homes ranging in the low $300,000s to just-shy of $400,000, the Rheia system is going into models and ready to become standard in Beazer Homes’ product offerings there. This product and platform aligns with the direction we’re going at Beazer Homes, which is to deliver all of our new homes net zero [energy] ready by the end of 2025,” says Joe Starr, senior director of National Accounts and Innovation at Beazer Homes. “Rheia is not just another new product. The Rheia system contributes to our performance goals. At the same time, we expect to see improved system performance for our buyers by delivering conditioned air from A to B with less friction and no leaks. This makes for a more comfortable home in every room. And, even in the pilots and model homes, we’re seeing improved install time because of the upfront design and the snap-together pieces.” “If there’s another widget out there that meets a need like this one, I can see this process as a constructive and valuable way for it to come to market, creating the opportunity for a group of homebuilders to come together in support of the research and development.Join the conversation
![Source: Chart courtesy of Rheia LLC Rheia is designed to simplify and improve the supply side of a home’s arterial airflow network. Its “home run” system of manifold, duct, connectors, and diffuser components achieve room air comfort consistency and quality, and – by virtue of snap-together, tightly-sealed plastic fittings commissioned specifically for each structure, rid the installation process of trial-by-error errors in sizing, balancing, and sealing that typically lead to up to 30% air loss through leaks, holes, and poor connections in the duct system. “The push is to lower loads of energy use at the house level, so the primary driver at first was to get ahead of evolving energy codes, and a close second was to deliver better room comfort and air quality, which – in the aftermath of Covid – makes Rheia an especially powerful opportunity,” Laing adds. “The labor piece of it came later, as we started time-in-motion testing and learned that we can train typical contractor crews in 30 to 45 minutes, get technicians out of attics where typically they’d be straddling trusses, and achieve both velocity improvement of 30% to 40%, and better first-time quality to eliminate call-backs.” What may be less evident, Laing points out, is that homebuilders and their contractors have become sophisticated users of available tax credits, such as 45L, allows builders and contractors a credit equal to $2,000 per unit for qualified owner-occupied or rental dwelling units that meet certain energy-savings standards. Simplistically, to qualify, raters or examiners inspect each home’s HVAC and other systems to determine whether that structure earns the credit. Rheia’s data-generating app – connected through Wrightsoft – can save builders and contractors time and trouble with validations and credit reimbursements. Challenges to an introduction and roll-out like Rheia are plentiful, painfully-felt, and well-known. They range from profoundly varying climate conditions in North America’s geographic regions, to building and design practices that have prevailed in different regions, to the complicated relationship of builders to local trade contractors, to the mind-numbing array of floorplans, construction document formats, MEP designs, not to mention specific individual comfort parameters residents may add to the complexity. Big builders – as they push to comply with California’s more advanced Title 24 energy codes, and anticipate wider adoption of those standards nationally – have been moving away from mechanicals closets in the attics, and bringing air handling into conditioned space,” says Laing. “For Rheia, this is a trend tailwind, and we’re modeling rapid, aggressive growth in what’s a couple of billion-dollar marketplace. In Indianapolis-area suburban Franklin Township, a community of four-to-five bedroom homes ranging in the low $300,000s to just-shy of $400,000, the Rheia system is going into models and ready to become standard in Beazer Homes’ product offerings there. This product and platform aligns with the direction we’re going at Beazer Homes, which is to deliver all of our new homes net zero [energy] ready by the end of 2025,” says Joe Starr, senior director of National Accounts and Innovation at Beazer Homes. “Rheia is not just another new product. The Rheia system contributes to our performance goals. At the same time, we expect to see improved system performance for our buyers by delivering conditioned air from A to B with less friction and no leaks. This makes for a more comfortable home in every room. And, even in the pilots and model homes, we’re seeing improved install time because of the upfront design and the snap-together pieces.” “If there’s another widget out there that meets a need like this one, I can see this process as a constructive and valuable way for it to come to market, creating the opportunity for a group of homebuilders to come together in support of the research and development. Join the conversation](https://develop.housingwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/rheia-install_rheia_072221.png 1280w){kind=link}