Greenwood, DE – July 17 2009 – Beracah Homes is showcasing a new model at this year’s Delaware State Fair. “The Marydel” is a universally designed, green built home that showcases a new standard of construction from the Beracah plant in Greenwood. A certified Energy r manufacturing partner, Beracah is also making the model home an educational piece, with their preferred builders giving personal tours and further highlighting the homes various new features.

Near the main gate entrance to this year’s Delaware State Fair, fair-goers will enter the model home and visually notice a wider, more spacious home. This new model from Beracah features universal design. Universal design is the practice of designing a home plan to meet the needs of aging and/or physically challenged occupants, and is becoming more and more important among today’s homeowners. The homes are designed to grow with the homeowner, as the “aging in place” movement is gaining in popularity. They feature wider aisles or hallways, wider doors, user friendly bathrooms and kitchens, and different outlet locations. “A proper universally designed home is still visually appealing to others despite being accessible to everyone” said Roger Collison (VP of Beracah Homes). And not only has Beracah achieved this feature, they’ve surpassed its beauty by building it extremely energy efficient.

Green Advantage certification came to all Beracah preferred builders in December of this past year, and Beracah received plant certification in June of this year by the Energy Star council. Certification of their plant gives Beracah the ability to certify the homes they build meet or exceed Energy Star standards. Their preferred builder network then has the ability for further reduce the home’s standard score by installing various energy saving options. “Our builders have the ability to achieve Herrs index scores that far exceed the Energy Star standard” says Collison “we can prep homes in the plant for immediate or future installation of various systems such as solar energy, and/or solar hot water systems just to name a few.”

Now standard on all Beracah-built homes is a new blown-in insulation inside each 2x6 exterior wall. R23 “loose-fill fiberglass” insulation is tightly blown-in behind a mesh netting surrounding each wall system; each wall is then gap sealed around all crevices creating an energy efficient/sound dampening wall. The home will also feature wood certified by SFI. The Sustainable Forestry Initiative is a forest certification program that integrates the growing and harvesting of trees with the protection of biodiversity and water quality. The southern pine used in construction was grown and harvested on a sustainable tree farm and is electronically graded to be straighter, more desirable lumber. Also featured will be energy efficient windows, carpet made from recycled bottles, tankless water heaters, and zone heating fireplaces.

Last year, Beracah received the Director’s Award for Outstanding Exhibitor at the Delaware State Fair. As they showcase a new home for all ages and a home that saves its owners money, Beracah has upped the ante on the competition. The Delaware State Fair runs from July 23rd – August 1st.

Beracah Homes is a wholesale builder of modular “off-site, stick built” homes, located in Greenwood, Delaware. More information about Beracah Homes and Beracah Builders can be obtained by visiting their website www.BeracahHomes.com, or by stopping by their office on Rt. 13 in Greenwood, DE.