Happy 2014

The home was sold last fall and although I do miss living there, the new owners could not be happier.  I sure hope they take advantage of all the advantages this home has to offer.  Although I don't have any pictures, I did install a rain barrel system to the house.  Rain barrels basically come in two different configurations:  your either use a diverter system from your downspout or you use an overflow hose off of the rain barrel.  I chose the overflow as it was, based on my setup, the best option.  For future projects though, I will use the diverter system as it is a much simpler configuration providing you have drain pipes already installed and directed well away from the house.

As of this post, this blog has generated over 13,100 page views...which is awesome!  I am in the process of looking for land for the next project and plan to provide a link from this blog to the new blog I will eventually start. 

Have a great 2014!
Craig

Spring 2013 Update

Happy belated spring to everyone!!  This blog just passed 11,000 page views.  Obviously it's been quite some time since my last post, but better late than never...right?  The house is still performing extremely well as my last 5 utility bills are as follows:  $45.63, $40.59, $46.56, $37.02 and $26.46. While winter 2012-13 was definitely colder than the previous year, it was by no means a freeze fest.  Overall, the utility bills reflect an almost 79% reduction in energy costs over the past 32 months...I'm very happy with that :)

Also, I recently spoke with the municipal water department to get an idea of how my water usage compares to the average.  I was told that the average usage per person was 6 units per month.  Over the past 32 months this home has used an average of 2.2 units per person, which is 63% lower. Considering this home was designed (once the rain barrels are installed) to achieve a 50% reduction in water usage, the 13 + % additional savings (the reduction in usage will be even higher once the rain barrels are installed in June) is attributed to my lifestyle.  Saving water is a lot like saving energy.  Being conscious of your actions and simply having a conservation mindset can really make quite a big difference.

As for selling the home, it is still listed.  I've had some interest, but no offers have been excepted, so you better visit soon or it might be too late to buy!  Actually, I am truly enjoying living here, particularly now that spring is here and my gardens are really producing and looking great.  Overall, I've received a lot of positive comments about the home, but a few have commented that they can get a lot more home for the price that

I am asking.  The cliche of comparing apples to apples comes to mind.  If someone is just looking for the most square footage for the lowest cost, I suggest they take a look at mobile homes...by the way, have you been in a new mobile home lately?  It takes the new car smell adage to whole other level!  I can promise you (because I've done the math) that paying a premium for a stronger, safer, lower maintenance, healthier, energy and water efficient, sustainable and longer lasting home will cost everyone less!

The attached photos are of my new strawberry patch and the strawberries I picked this morning, the raised bed vegetable garden and my new tile back splash in the kitchen.  While I know that the tile back splash is not "green" or necessary, it looks great and it continues the theme of a high performance home with most, if not all, of the popular features a lot of home owners/buyers want in their homes.  The cabinets used throughout the house are the Silverline line from Medallion Cabinetry.  www.medallioncabinetry.com  Their product is FSC Certified and their selection and quality provided the best value I could find.  The cabinets are beautiful and have performed flawlessly now for over 2 1/2 years.  The flooring in the kitchen and throughout most of the main floor is a Strand Woven bamboo from Ambient Bamboo www.ambientbp.com.  Ambient's selection, quality, pricing and service was so good that I would order from them again.  Check out their website for more information.

Make it a great day and I'll keep you posted!!

Craig

Two Year Update

After two years of living and working on this prototype home I have decided to test the market and put my home up for sale.  Part of me doesn't want to sell at all, as I have put so much of my time, energy and resources into this prototype, while truly enjoying living in this home.  The other part of me, which is more dominant, wants to build another prototype....I will describe why I want to build another home below.

While I live in a very nice neighborhood, I have witnessed how the last 6 homes were built in my community and admittedly it has been frustrating to watch.  This may sound harsh, and I am not directing this comment to anyone in particular, but the obvious emphasis (for these homes) has been solely on curb appeal.  Sure curb appeal is important, but it is also subjective.  All of these 6 homes look very nice from the curb, but were built to only satisfy the code minimum standards.  Another way to explain this is to say that these homes were built to the lowest standards allowed by law....Sure all that stone work around the foundations looks nice, but it is simply money spent only for aesthetics and not performance.  I refer to this as putting "lipstick on a pig".  Have you ever looked at a home and said it has great curb appeal?  All those bump outs in the walls and opposing roof lines and dormers really can provide great aesthetics.  Have you ever wondered how all those architectural features may ultimately affect the performance and cost of the home today and 20 years from now?  The simple answer is:  all those added architectural features cost the home owner a lot more money to build while also increasing energy costs, reducing indoor air quality, reducing comfort and providing more opportunities for serious and costly problems down the road.  If you have the time, look up "Simple Roofs Perform Better" by Allison Bailes, and Martin Holladay's "Ten Rules of Roof Design".  As for all those wall bump outs, how well can air properly circulate through those areas...not very well.  And how does this affect indoor air quality, comfort and energy costs.

Here are some more examples:  Every single one of these homes was built on a crawlspace that is vented.  This is the lowest cost option and (particularly in NC) has shown, consistently, to be a poor decision....visit www.crawlspaces.com for more info... After 10 years of working in new residential construction  I can't think of a single vented crawl space that I haven't been able to find mold growing within 3-5 years of the home being built.  Not only is there serious potential for mold growth, but most of these homes stuck the air handler/furnace in the crawl space...which is another poor decision.  Also, the cold air returns in these homes ( the entire HVAC system was not properly designed in the 1st place) were put into an unprotected stud wall cavity.  Once again this is the cheep, lowest building standard option, that also has great potential to grow mold within these wall cavities.  There are so many other examples I could point out, some of which I have referenced in previous posts, but focusing too much on curb appeal almost always cost more upfront and over the long term of living in the home.  I've heard several people say something like "but the average person only lives in their homes for 7 years or less".  While this might be true, almost all of these homeowners will go on to build another new home, or buy an existing home to live in....the cycle of home ownership just continues. This cycle of mediocrity or cutting corners to save costs by focusing too much on aesthetics ultimately affects everyone negatively.  

My conviction was to build a superior home that is stronger, safer, healthier, more durable, lower maintenance, more energy efficient, more water efficient and more affordable....while also supporting as many local businesses and using sustainable materials that last.  This approach isn't just better for me, but better for the entire community and the next generation.  Sure, I recognize that I may have compromised some curb appeal, but how many homeowners actually spend a lot of their time, sitting at the curb looking at their home...nobody that I know of.  My prototype was designed from the inside out to maximize usable space, comfort, livability, health, strength and high quality.

After two years of energy and water bills, this prototype home has reduced energy costs by 78% and water costs by 50%.  My average monthly utility bill (2 yr avg) = $40.19.  This is 78% less than the projected costs for just a code built home (like those mentioned above).  My average monthly water bill is only $8.    As I mentioned above, these saving not only benefit me and the next owner, but everyone in my community.  I hope to have the opportunity to continue building more homes to such a high standard.

I estimate that my costs to build this home without adding the price of the lot or the improvements on the lot is around $110.00 per square foot.  Putting solar on the home would only, after all the tax credits and potential rebates add a few dollars total per square foot.  Obviously my goal of building a net-zero energy home for $100 per square foot was not met, but ultimately I was only about 10% off in my attempt.  Not bad considering the overall quality, performance and certification level that was achieved.

Lastly, as of today, this blog has been visited 8810 times.  I truly hope that this blog has helped others to not only understand what goes into creating a truly high performance home, but what questions should be asked to insure they make smarter and more informed investments for their and the next generations future.      

Summer Update

Obviously it's been a while since my last post.  My main focus for this summer has been on establishing my gardens and working on the landscaping.  Doing this organically has posed some challenges, particularly dealing with the bugs.  I'm trying different organic soap sprays to see which one has the best results, but as anyone who has tried to do everything organically knows, it takes some trial and error.  Another challenge has been the weather patterns here in Asheville for 2012.  Lots of rain, followed by no rain for a while.  Late frosts and a hot summer have added to the challenges.  Overall, I estimate that once all the current food producing plants are established, I can cut my grocery bill by $100-$150 per month.

As for how the home is performing, it's been continually excellent.  My last 5 total energy bills are as follows: $27.72, $29.77, $28.56, $36.96 and $36.96.  When I use these totals to calculate my average energy bill for almost 2 years of living in the home, I estimate that I have cut total energy costs by 78% compared to a code based model home.  I'm still interested in installing solar panels, but I will most likely wait until the end of this year to explore this option again.  Net Zero is still the goal, but cutting 78% off my energy bill without alternative energy sources has kept me pretty content for now.

I've had some followers of this blog ask me to go into more detail about my HVAC system; particularly the brand that I chose.  I've covered this topic in earlier posts, but not specifically about the brand I used.  For me, brands like Lennox, Carrier and Trane all provide quality systems.  What is comes down to is making sure that a full manual J calculation was performed to insure the system is sized right, that the system was designed for proper air flow and comfort, and that they system was installed correctly.  I chose Lennox for two reason.  My HVAC installer carried this brand and Lennox had the system numbers I needed for the energy modeling that was being done.  I truly believe you probably won't go wrong choosing any of these manufacturers providing the above criteria for sizing, installation and design are done correctly.

Best Regards,
Craig

Winter Update

It's been a few months since my last post, but that doesn't mean that I haven't been working on my prototype home.  I've also been putting in a lot of extra hours working for Eco-Panels as we are looking forward to one our best Spring building seasons ever.  You will see in the new photos that I've filled in the additional parking area with gravel, finished the paver walkway from the driveway to the front porch and started my seeds for spring planting.

I was able to find a left over pallet of pavers for a very good price.  They matched the home perfectly and although it involved quite a bit of labor on my part, the total cost was less than pouring a concrete walkway while giving the home some extra character.  It will take a few months for the paver sand to slowly pack in and after the paver coating wears off I will seal the pavers later this spring.

The gravel for the extra parking area ended up being much more affordable than pouring a concrete parking pad.  The decorative gravel that I really wanted to use would have been a bad choice as it does not compact well and the surface would have been too squishy/non-supportive to park vehicles on.  Using both the gravel and pavers also reduced my home's carbon footprint as they are not only permeable surfaces, but have a lower energy footprint in the manufacturing process.

I am somewhat of a beginner when it comes to organic gardening and starting plants from seeds.  If I can learn to be both proficient and efficient with starting seeds and transplanting the plants into the garden, I can save somewhere close to 10x the cost compared to buying already grown plants at the nursery or garden centers.  My main organic raised bed garden is now filled with soil and I will be sending a soil sample to the NC Coop Extension for analysis.  I used a combination of dirt from my lot, compost soil and Alpaca manure to fill the space.  The Alpaca manure was purchased from a local Alpaca farmer and is supposed to be a very good fertilizer.  Although Alpaca manure is lower in organic content, it is a rich soil conditioner and is able to break down easily.  I'll wait to see what my soil analysis report says before conditioning the soil any further.

As for my energy bills, they continue to be very low.  Like most of the country, our winter here in Asheville has been mild.  As I've mentioned in other posts, this prototype home's only heat sources are an air to air heat pump and some passive solar gain.  The milder winter has reduced the need for the heat pump to use resistance heating, which is very inefficient.  I've also tried to find other ways to reduce my energy demand and one of the simple ideas was to unplug my electrical strip that my computer, printer and router are plugged into every night.

My last 3 months utility bills are as follows:  $36.23, $41.36 and $47.81.  Over the 17 months of living in this prototype home, my average energy bill is now $44.40.  The Energy Star modeling software estimated that my average monthly utility bill would be $94.42 and a comparably sized non Energy Star Certified home would be $175.00 per month.  Obviously $44.40 is quite a bit lower than the projected amount and significantly lower than a non certified home.  The reduction in energy usage to date is now 74.63%.  Considering the high quality of materials used, the low cost per square foot to build this home and the very low energy costs, this prototype home has exceeded my expectations.  The opportunity to go net-zero energy is the next step and I am very close to being able to make this happen.  My next post will focus on adding the photovoltaic solar panel system and all the financial and technical details that are involved with making that decision.  With Spring a few weeks away, I will also continue to post about my organic gardening projects.

Project Update

Since my last post, I have received two utility bills. One for $31.82 and the most recent bill was $33.10. Not much to report on, as this prototype home continues to perform extremely well.

The two pictures in this post are examples of my ever expanding organic produce gardens. I built the three sets of trellis using both purchased and scrap material. I currently have one planted with blackberries and one with raspberries. The 3rd trellis is for raspberries (that I dug up) that are being grown indoors during the winter. It sure is nice to have southern exposure and windows with cardinal 179 glass as the plants are thriving indoors while it gets colder outdoors. In the spring, I will most likely paint the trellis and then use cable or sting to connect the posts for the blackberry and raspberry canes to grow on and over. The other photo is the start of my raised bed organic garden next to the house. The concrete blocks were purchased from a contractor at a job site as they were leftovers. I was able to buy them at about a 1/3 of retail costs. After leveling out the ground for the perimeter, I set the blocks in place and then packed them with clay and it is working extremely well. I plan to put a decorative cap around the top of the perimeter once the rest of the soil is added. Beyond the garden is one of my compost bins and hopefully there will be some great and free compost available for planting the garden in the spring.

One last item I'd like to draw attention to is the SAVE Act: www.imt.org/save-act This proposed bipartisan legislation is an attempt to finally give underwriters and to some extent appraisers the ability to have a standard or guideline to properly value residential energy savings. Considering that, for almost all Americans, the 2nd largest cost of home ownership is their energy bill (more than taxes or insurance), it's about time the financial institutions take a closer look at energy costs. Let's hope that this is the 1st step to making sure that energy savings are calculated into the loan valuation process.

Payback Revisited

I recently received an e-mail from someone following my blog and he asked if I could revisit the issue of payback as it relates to this prototype and smart ("green") building in general. Payback is often a term relating to how many years it will take for a particular technology to pay back the extra investment that the owner makes. Many homeowners, whether building a new home or buying an existing home, don't pay enough attention to what the utility bills are going to be as this is directly related to the total cost of home ownership. A good example comes from a family member of mine and his partner. I was asked to look at a very old home, circa 1897, to give my opinion on their potential investment. Although I didn't like the floor plan, as it was very inefficient, that's not what they were asking my opinion about. Simply put, I told them that while their mortgage payments would be well within their means, my concern was that their energy bills were going to be extremely high, particularly in the winter months. Not only were they going to have very high energy bills, but specifically in the winter, they also would most likely still be cold and uncomfortable even when the heat was turned on. They purchased the home and in some of the winter months, their utility bill was more than 1/2 their mortgage payment...up to $450/month for a living floor square footage area of maybe 1200 sq ft. When I would visit their home in the coldest parts of winter, both of the home owners were usually wrapped in several layers of fleece, while their heat was being mostly lost to the outdoors. This, of course, also contributes to more air pollution and the wasting of natural resources because of the significant inefficiencies of this home. Needless to say, but their old historic home, was not nearly as charming as when they first made the purchase.

Now as it relates to green building. I've used my prototype as an example in the past, but I will, for convenience purposes, use a more generic example. Let's say that someones budget is $200,000 to build a new 2000 sq ft home, not including the land and permits. Using an interest rate of 4.25%, property tax at 1.25% and pmi at 0.5% (standard #'s), the mortgage payment would be $1,192.21. Let's also assume that the projected average monthly utility bill, including all fees and taxes, is $200. If this homeowner then decided to use some of the technologies that I've used in my prototype, like the Eco-Panels wall system, the casement windows (with special south facing glass), spray foam in certain areas, a high efficiency heat pump, an ERV and a hybrid heat pump hot water heater, how much would all of this add to the cost of constructing the home. For simplicity, I will round that cost # up to $10,000.00. Now this home will cost $210,000.00 to build and finance. The new mortgage payment will be $1251.82 or $59.61 extra a month. Although my prototype reduced energy usage in its 1st year by 73.2%, I will be a little more conservative and estimate that this example home will reduce energy usage by 65%. A reduction of 65%, reduces the average monthly utility bill to $70, a savings of $130 a month. So without these added energy saving systems, the total cost to finance this home and pay the utilities is $1,392.21 ($1,192.21 + $200). With the energy saving features added, the new cost for both the mortgage and utility payments is $1,321.82 ($1,251.82 + $70). With these simple changes, it now costs the homeowner $70.39 less per month the very 1st month of living in the home. The payback is immediate and not spread out over several years time. This example does not take into consideration that energy prices are expected to rise at least 30% over the next decade. Also, the homeowner now has a safer, stronger, healthier and more comfortable home to live in...they get a much better home for less money. This is why smart "green" building makes both dollars and sense.

I plan to start offering consulting services to people who are interested in building a new home. I am confident that my direct knowledge and experience can offer significant value while saving new homeowners time, money and headaches.