​CenterPoint Energy High Efficiency Homes™ Program in Houston, TX

Find a participating Houston builder for you​r new energy-efficient home!

new homes program

Building an Energy Efficient Home?

The CenterPoint Energy High Efficiency HomesTM program incentivizes the construction and certification of high performance and ENERGY STAR® homes by participating homebuilders in the Houston area. These homes use less energy than one built only to the Texas residential building code, providing homeowners with a more comfortable home that operates for less money. An independent third-party home energy rater assesses every home in this program to ensure it meets strict energy efficiency specifications, which result in lower utility bills and a cleaner environment. 

  • Average home rating of 18% above code
  • Hundreds in annual electric bill savings
  • 50,000+ above-code homes and 115,000+ ENERGY STAR homes incentivized since 2001
  • More than 450,000 megawatt-hours of energy saved — enough to power 57,264 homes for an entire year​

Find a participating builder using the "Find a Builder" tool to connect with builders who are constructing homes the right way.

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Energy efficient homes at a glance - potential savings

Are you a homebuilder?

If you are a homebuilder looking to get involved with the High Efficiency HomesTM program, please contact us at CNPEE@CenterPointEnergy.com. Benefits of participating in the High Efficiency HomesTM program include:

  • Cash incentives
  • Energy efficiency technical assistance
  • Energy efficiency training for the builder's sales and operations teams
  • Energy efficiency marketing support through our advertising and marketing materials

Find a Builder

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Bold denotes home builders who have made a commitment to building 100% of their homes to ENERGY STAR performance guidelines.


Benefits of a high efficiency home

Whatever lightens the load of your appliances will make a difference in the energy efficiency your home is able to achieve.

If you can run your air conditioner less because the cooled air isn’t escaping or hot air from outside pouring in, you’ve got efficiency gain. If your water heater can heat up faster without having to run a bunch of water first, there are more gains. If your appliances are designed from the start with efficiency in mind, still more gains.

While each of these components can work on their own, when you have them all working in tandem, that’s when you really begin to see dramatic improvement. And that’s what we call a high efficiency home.

What are ENERGY STAR homes?

An easy way to recognize a high efficiency home is if it’s ENERGY STAR-certified. This means it has been built to standards set by the Environmental Protection Agency and Department of Energy for homes in the ENERGY STAR energy efficiency​ program and subject to third-party testing, inspection, and certification. Specifically, the house is at a minimum 10% more efficient than homes built only to code.

What makes new homes energy efficient

What is the HERS Index?

The Home Energy Rating System (HERS) Index is the industry standard by which a home’s energy efficiency is measured. It’s also the nationally recognized system for inspecting and calculating a home’s energy performance.

A certified RESNET Home Energy Rater assesses the energy efficiency of a home, assigning it a relative performance score (the HERS® Index Score). The lower the number, the more energy efficient the home. A home built to 2006 energy efficiency standards scores 100.

  • A home with a HERS® Index Score of 70 is 30% more energy efficient than the RESNET Reference Home.
  • A home with a HERS® Index Score of 130 is 30% less energy efficient than the RESNET Reference Home.*

To calculate a home’s HERS® Index Score, a certified RESNET HERS® Rater does an energy rating on your home and comp​ares the data against a ‘reference home’– a designed-model home of the same size and shape as the actual home, so your score is always relative to the size, shape and type of house you live in. The lower the HERS score, the more efficient the house.