•PSNH teams up a Weare steel fabricator and a Bedford builder to construction energy-efficient dream house. 
By CHRIS HERBERT
Regional Correspondent

BEDFORD - A Weare-based steel fabricator and a Bedford-homebuilder believe the future of residential construction may be found in steel.
The two are teaming up with Public Service Co. of New Hampshire to build a 3,200 square-foot “energy crafted” home the steel company says “will be one of the most energy efficient homes ever built in New Hampshire.”
The steel fabricator is Hexaport International, 10 N. Riverdale Road in Weare. The homebuilder is Mike Moore of Aristocraft Homes.
”The combination of using steel and PSNH’s energy-crafted program got me excited about home-building again,” say Moore, who after 15 years of traditional stick-built homebuilding in Trumbull, Conn., decided to move his business to southern New Hampshire.
The man who got Moore interested is Hexaport President Anthony Attalla, a long-time acquaintance. “He kept after me about building with steel,” Moore says.
To homebuilders, the selling points for using light-gauge steel for home-building are numerous, according to the American Iron and Steel Institute, which lists additional attributes:

• It’s strong and light, weighing one-third as much as traditional construction materials. This means open spaces can be larger and more creative.

• Steel studs don’t warp, split, rot, settle or attract termites.

• It’s recyclable, easier to handle on-site than traditional products, has scrap value and reduces waste up to 75 percent.

• The current workforce already has the skills. All you need is a screw gun, chop saw, aviation snippers and clamps.

• It offers better protection against lightning, high winds, earthquakes and other natural forces.

• Free of resin adhesives and treatment chemicals, it enhances indoor air quality.

To Moore, steel’s biggest attraction is its predictable quality.
”I don’t care how good a framing crew you have, wood will change. Either that or your supplier gets behind and ships you a load of green wood. But steel is steel. It remains square. This means a builder doesn’t have an angry homeowner calling in year later complaining about nail pops or grout that cracked because the floor settled. The last thing your tape man wants to hear is that he’s got to stop work on a paying job and go back to a home he helped build months ago.”
Cost of construction, Moore says, is virtually identical. Additionally, he says wood prices have fluctuated much more than have those of the light-gauge steel used in residential construction. And supply is no problem, he says.
So if this is such a great thing, why isn’t every new house framed with steel?
Hexaport controller Stuart Bernstein believes it’s basically inertia and New England’s natural conservative nature.
”Using steel is much more common in the South and out West. New England is often the last place to change. If you’ve always done stickbuilt, there’s a comfort level involved for the builder. He can stand on the foundation and say, ‘I’ll put a window there, and a door there,’ and know exactly how he’s going to do it. Even if steel is just as easy, he’s going to be apprehensive,” Bernstein explains.
A prospective buyer can point to a 150-year-old Colonial and figure wood’s plenty strong anyway, but Bernstein says not any more. “Those homes were built with wood that’s just not available any longer. Not at a price you can afford. And two-by-sixes are no longer two or six.”
Steel’s fine, Moore acknowledges, but PSNH’s standards for energy-crafted homes has him just as excited—whether a home’s stickbuilt or steel framed is secondary.
Using a home’s water supply temperature - warmed by the earth at a constant 45-50 degrees Fahrenheit - and a heat pump, energy costs are dramatically reduced. Combined with PSNH’s exacting standards for insulation and vapor-barrier installation, Moore says overall energy expenses are dropped by half.
But even that’s not the main benefit, he says. “It’s quality of environment. If you build a home this way, to these standards, it’s a much more comfortable environment. It’s what I call the ‘comfortability’ of a home. You can’t put an economic figure on that.”
Actually, you can. A 1,200 square-foot ranch for a family of four with electric power and a geothermal heat pump, PSNH estimates, would have an annual heating cost of $165.
Considering all the benefits, Moore believes the critical home-buyer will begin to demand a steel framed, energy-crafted home.