Shades of Green

jeremybell — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 22:43:42 +0000

To date, the number one question, comment and critique of this project has been about our “green” commitment. Are we really being “eco-friendly”, or is this all just a vanity project? I suppose one wouldn’t put this all online if there wasn’t a hint of narcissism involved, but I like to believe I’m a little more humble than that. Regardless, I welcome all of the comments and I hope the criticism keeps us honest.

So what are our green strategies? As I’ve mentioned before, we hadn’t originally set out to build a green home. We simply wanted a larger home, and while this remains true, our priorities have changed along the way. We’ve come to realize we should be building a smarter home and not just a bigger home. We’ve also come to appreciate our eco responsibilities and felt it was important to document the realities that came with this decision. And there are realities that come with those decisions. Financial realities. We’ve evaluated a variety of eco-friendly solutions-~~and I’d love to use all of them~~-but we simply cannot afford to.

Many of the specifics are still in the air and won’t be finalized until we’re well into construction, but I thought I’d take this opportunity to shed some light on what green features we’re planning for:

Energy Star certification
Compact house footprint that fell below allowable coverage
ICF foundation
Closed cell, medium density spray foam insulation
Low E II insulated, argon-filled windows
High efficiency furnace + heat pump + HRV
On-demand hot water
Passive heating & cooling (solar chimney + cross ventilation + window shading)
Daylighting (clerestory + internal windows)
Energy Star appliances
Rainwater collection

CFL and/or LED lighting
Similarly, we’ve also had to abandon a variety of other green solutions as a result of their costs:
Green roof
SIPs
Geothermal heating & cooling
Grey water collection (although we haven’t completely ruled this out…)

Solar & wind power
I plan on discussing each of these topics in greater detail as we progress through the project, and I’m sure things will evolve as we continue to evaluate our options.

I’m assuming we will continue to face accusations of greenwashing, but hopefully this clears a few things up and illustrates that we are indeed trying to build the greenest home we can. Even if that shade of green isn’t as bright as we’d like.

Window Update

jeremybell — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 19:09:38 +0000

I just got back from a meeting with the architects, and I’ve got a few updates to share.

First, we’ve decided on the windows – it’s looking like we’ll be going with Marvin Integrity windows throughout. They have pultruded fiberglass frames, plus dual sealed insulating glass with an Argon gas fill, and a Low E II coating (which means they’re all Energy Star rated). We got a range of quotes from a number of sources and for the price vs performance, the Integrity windows were the best option by far. Grand total is $23,860.03.

Because we decided upon the Integrity windows, we also needed to alter our elevations to accommodate their standard sizes. For the most part, everything is pretty much the same – however, the width of the living room windows changed considerably, and we also needed to separate the large clerestory window into 2 separate units. It definitely changes the overall appearance, but I’m still quite happy with it.

Check out the latest elevations on the Documents page

360 Winnett » energy star

Shades of Green

Window Update