When people hear that we took second place in the 2006 NAHB National Green Building Awards with this house we usually get a "What makes this house so green?" type of reaction. The fact is that this house isn’t built of straw bales and doesn’t have any solar panels on the roof. The elements that make this house green are as numerous as they are subtle. When Beth and I were designing this house we were not aiming to win national recognition, we were just trying to use the most energy and resource efficient systems to build the most beautiful home we could for a price that is sustainable for the family that is going to live there.
A top priority is to make it energy efficient so we used many different strategies enumerated later in this discussion to conserve energy both in the heating and cooling of the house and in the embodied energy content of the materials that go into the construction. The house is an Energy Star Home and was certified by Southern Energy Management to use 49% less fuel than required by the NC state energy code. By comparison a house is considered Energy Star certified if it scores 30% better than code. Their computer modeling of a home allows us to accurately predict the energy performance of the house before it is built so we were able to see that the energy efficient Rinnai demand water heater with an advanced recirculating hot water system would require only $140 per year to supply the domestic hot water for the home and that it would be better to invest in a first class wood stove than to put a solar water heater on the roof. After the house was built we had Southern Energy Management come out and perform a full diagnostic testing on the house including blower door testing and duct blaster testing.
We also wanted to make the house a healthy house to live in so we followed the NAHB's Green Building Initiative Guidelines in minimizing carpet and using low VOC finishes when possible. We also used a tented crawlspace system discussed later as well to keep clean dry conditioned air under the floor while also allowing humidity and radon to escape from the soil under the house through a pipe to the roof. This house achieved a gold rating using the NAHB Green Building Initiative rating system.
In the final analysis I think the reason this house received the national recognition that it did is because all the elements we utilized to improve the performance of this home were low cost and high value per dollar elements that could be adopted easily by any builder in America. The theme of this conference and of the NAHB's Green Building Initiative is to "Mainstream Green." This house was built at a price that is affordable for a young family with two kids that just needed a roof over their head that suited their lifestyle and fit their values. What this house really represents is an attempt to maximize Green for your green
Soapstone vanity and shower niche w/ copper sill cap in the shower.
Climbing structure in the stairwell. Complete w/ belay point in the ceiling above.
Copper and soapstone and wood surfaces in the kitchen.