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.

1 Year Assessment

I've been living in this prototype home now for 1 year and it's been a great experience! A year ago I knew that I had designed a home that should perform very well, was built with quality materials, and had achieved the Energy Star Tax Credit and Gold Level for NC Healthy Built Homes. But many questions still needed to be answered, like: how well would it really perform? how much would it ultimately cost? how successful would this blog be? and what changes would I make if I were to do it all over again? I now have those answers.

As for what changes I would make, I've broken it down into a few categories: aesthetics, functionality, performance and costs.

As for aesthetics, I would only change the front porch roof to a gable and extend it out to meet the sides of the house and change the front windows to match accordingly. This would increase the size of the front porch by 4 feet, but I could reduce trim materials and go to a stick framed roof instead of the shed trusses, keeping the costs about the same. This change would make it more challenging to flash properly, but overall, I feel it would add some additional curb appeal to this prototype. I could also tie in the gutters from the front porch to the two down spouts of the main roof and not only make the rain runoff more efficient to manage, but ultimately collect more rain water when I install my rain barrels.

As for functionality, the main change I would make is to move the hybrid hot water heater to the attic which would open up the laundry room and make the space more efficient. Moving the water heater to the attic could also boost performance of the water heater as the attic tends to be the warmest space in the home due to the stack effect. This would make it more difficult to access the water heater to change settings (like vacation mode or high demand for example), but I don't mind the extra 30 seconds to do this. I would also make minor changes like room and closet sizing, but most people would never notice, so I won't take the time to explain.

As for costs, this is the most challenging one to answer. Unfortunately, I did not have a builder that was paying attention to the costs or the budget as well as offering solutions to reduce expenditures while still maintaining performance and quality. For example, he ordered a $300 (2x2) insulated crawlspace door for a closed (not conditioned) crawl space. This is just one of many examples as it did not need to be an insulated door. I would also change the pocket doors (which are attractive) to standard doors, as pocket doors are very expensive. And lastly, but probably my biggest issue, was the amount of waste. Once again the builder just didn't give a damn and all I could do was express my frustrations and think about how to change this for future projects. It can be a delicate line to walk when your builder is not meeting your expectations and tells you one thing, but does another. Burning that bridge can sometimes result in more headaches than what it ends up being worth. I've learned a lot and I am still very blessed for what I have and where I am at today!

As for the success of this blog, to date this blog has been visited 4280 times. I truly hope that the information on this blog has been helpful to others and received positively, while also creating a dialogue that encourages better building practices.

As for the performance. My 12 month total for utility bills is $563.19 which averages out to $46.93 per month. The code (built) based model home that this prototype is compared too was expected to have a 12 month total of $2,100.00 or $175.00 per month. The total monetary savings = $1,536.81. With an average monthly savings of $128.07, the math works out to a 73.2% reduction in utility costs. With today's mortgage rates (based on excellent credit), an additional $128 a month that could go into your home would result in being able to borrow about $25,000.00 more. Now of course the appraisers and lending institutions won't properly value this (as I've talked about in a previous post) but hopefully we will see this change to a direct added valuation in the future.

Lastly are the costs of this prototype. I've estimated, without cost savings that I could extract if I were to build it again, that my cost per square foot = $105. My goal was to see if I could build a very high quality, socially responsible, healthy, safe, strong and Net-Zero Energy home for under $100 per square foot. Well, I've done the math and with the available tax credits and utility rebates, installing a 4+kW PV system on this prototype would easily achieve Net-Zero Energy status for under $110 per square foot.  Not quite $100 per square foot, but overall an amazing low price compared to other green certified homes in my market area.

Although I plan to continue updating this blog with posts, my posts will not be as frequent. My organic gardens are almost complete and I will take pictures and write about this in the future. I also plan to do a post on the future PV system that will be installed, but that most likely will not be until the beginning of next year...I've heard that the best time to have PV systems installed is right after the new year as the tax credits are less attractive as most homeowners have to wait until the following year to use the credits.

Best wishes and thanks for stopping by!

Craig Payne

Hot Summer

Boy has it been hot! Asheville, as well as many other places in the country, has experienced a much warmer than normal summer. This has led to an increase in the cooling demand and my prototype home is no exception, well except for the energy bills. I wrote in my last blog entry that my home was experiencing an issue with trapped humidity and that I was going to start running the A/C to remove this moisture. Running the A/C obviously helped to alleviate the situation, but because of the hot and humid weather over the last month, I just kept the A/C on indefinitely. My June utility bill, which did not involve running the A/C much was only $34.15, but since the A/C has been turned on for the entire last month, I was very curious how much this would increase my energy costs. Well, the most recent utility bill was $51.51 with the thermostat set at 74-75 degrees. I was hoping it would be lower, but this total utility bill is still 70.5% less than the code based model home.
I decided to ask my neighbor, whose home was built just 3 months prior to my prototype, what his energy bill was for the last month. His home is 300 square feet smaller and his bill was about $140 total. Although they have a nice home, it was only built to meet the minimum code requirements and is a good example for comparison sake. It is just another example of how a quality built home/shelter actually pays for itself immediately.
My organic gardens are still taking shape as I continue to develop and change the plans as I move forward.
I do have some really good news on the work front. Eco-Panels was selected to be used to build the Blue Ridge Parkway's new Communications Center in conjunction with the National Park Service. I will post some photos on this blog as the building is being erected.

9 Month Energy Evaluation

I recently received my 9th energy bill and the total was $31.31. My total energy costs for the previous 9 months is $435.62 and I am averaging 430 kw/month and $48.40 per month. In comparison, Energy Star's model code based home should be averaging about $175 per month or a total after 9 months of $1575.00. Simple subtraction means that I have already saved an estimated $1,139.38 or $126.60 per month. To date this prototype is using 73% less energy than the code based model home. Once again, I have no PV, Solar Thermal, Wind or Geothermal systems installed.

I did notice a problem though with my attempt to save energy this past month+. By opening the windows in the evening and overnight to let the home cool down and then closing the windows during the day, I was trapping quite a bit of moisture in the home. Even though the ERV can help to control the humidity level, it is never intended to be a dehumidification system. It became obvious the RH was too high in the house and that some of the materials were being affected--most notibly the floor boards. When I bought my HVAC system I decided against spending the $425+ to have a dehumidification system installed and I'm not sure whether I am regretting that decision. Now that I have turned on the AC full time, I will see how this affects my total energy usage and report back when I receive the next energy bill. The RH is now stable and the heat pump really doesn't even run that often. I am also running the dehumidifier in the crawl space more often to make sure the dew point is not reached in the crawl space.

Overall the home is performing very well and exceeding my expectations. I am starting to build my organic raised bed vegetable garden and I hope to have pictures by my next post.

June Update

I've received another utility bill and the total was $31.45--so far the lowest to date. We've had quite a heat wave here in the mountains with highs in the low 90's and upper 80's, but the home is performing exceptionally well. I've only had to turn on the A/C for about 2 hours on 2 seperate occassions (on the upper floor/zone) over the last week as the home stays very cool during the hottest parts of the day. Two days ago, the temperature reached 92, but my indoor temperature on the main floor only got to 75. This way only a 4 degree difference from the early morning to the early evening. I will calculate the total savings % for the 1st 9 months on my next post when I receive that utility bill.

The pictures on this post show the berry bushes to the right and what will be an additional parking area to the left of the driveway. The berry bushes are already producing quite a bit of fruit and it also will serve another purpose--as a natural fence/boundary marker for the lot next to me. The parking area will be all gravel as it is permeable and accepted by the HOA. I hope to have made some significant progress on the raised bed organic gardens by the end of June.

Last Utility Bill

I didn't realize that it's been over a month since my last post. Eco-Panels is keeping me quite busy. My most recent utility bill was $34.45, which continues to reflect the impressive performance of this prototype. I am working on planting my organic gardens and so far I have planted blueberries, strawberries, blackberries and raspberries. Even though I haven't had much time to focus on the organic raised bed vegetable gardens, I am researching possible options that will help me build these gardens safely and affordably. Once I get more information and the time to build the raised beds, I will do a post on this topic.

Simple Economics of Energy Efficiency

I've been working in the residential building field now for 8+ years and the market still isn't quite sure how to properly value energy efficiencies. One of my best friends is a very experienced residential appraiser and he says that, even though the governing bodies for appraisers have/are working on this issue, there is still no standard value added formula to adjust the appraisal of a home based on how energy efficient it is. The Department of Energy back in the 90's did a study and came up with the 1:20 ratio rule: for every $1 of energy saved that equals $20 of added value to the home. That sure seems like a lot at face value, but after some simple calculations, I feel that the experts that performed these tests and released this study were pretty close in their valuations. Let me explain.

So far I have received 5 montly utility bills for this prototype. The total = $292.38 or an average $58.48 per month. The code based model home that this prototype is compared to was expected to average $175 for each monthly bill. 5 X $175 = $875. If these figures were to stay consistent for an entire year, my prototype home's yearly energy bill total would be $701.76 and the code based model home would be $2,100.00. Because Asheville has more heating degree days than cooling, it would be safe to assume that these costs should be even higher for the model home, but I'm trying not to make too many assumptions. Ok, back to the math. Subtracting $701.76 from $2,100.00, I get $1398.24. Divide this # by 12 (months) and this prototype home is averaging a savings of $116.52 each month on energy costs. A well qualified buyer, at today's interest rates, that adds $116.52 to their mortgage, instead of paying the local utility, would be able to borrow about $23,000.00 more. Using the 1:20 DOE rule, this prototype should be worth an additional $27,964.80 ($1398.24 X 20)--so not too far off my prototype figures. Please understand that these #'s are based on my KW/HR rate of $.10. Savings could be higher or lower depending on your utility rates. Also, it is very likely that utility rates will continue to increase in the future. Would you rather put the money into your home or pay the utility company? Easy question right?

Now the issue of payback. "What is the payback?" is a question I hear often. Although this prototype is a great example of the true monetary value of energy efficiencies, the cost factor is difficult to calulate. I put in a fair amount of sweat equity and also worked very hard to find quality materials at an affordable price. So I will use a more simplified example: If a homeowner added $20,000 in improvements to their home to be more energy efficient and those improvement saved $150 a month in energy costs, at today's interest rates there would be an immediate payback. The reason is because your total month expenditures would be less the very 1st month you live in the home. $20,000 added to a 30 yr mortgage would add about $105 to your monthly mortage payments, but you are saving $150 a month is utility costs.

I've written about alternative and renewable energy options/costs in previous posts, but a really good blog entry discussing the return on investment (ROI) for solar (PV) is available at Eco-Panels website. Not only does this prototype home save me quite a bit of money in energy costs, this home is also stronger, healthier, safer and lower maintenance than the vast majority of new homes built today. How much are these added benifits worth? That's a question that's impossible to put a price on!

Last Two Energy Bills Comparison

My mid-January to mid-February utility bill was so far the highest to date at $79.01. I wasn't surprised that it was $6 higher than my previous months bill as I was out of town for the Christmas holiday reducing my energy demand for 5 days. $79 was still about a 62% reduction in energy use compared to a code based modeled home.

Today I received my mid-February to mid-March utility bill and WOW what a difference 12 degrees makes. What I mean by 12 degrees, is that the average daily temperature has been about 12 degrees warmer over the past month significantly reducing the amount of time my heat pump is running on auxillary or strip heat. It still gets into the 30's every night with several frosts and even some snow showers on a few occasions, but considering my heat pump is set to go to auxillary heat below 35 degrees, it wasn't using strip heat nearly as much. This months total utility bill was $45.73. That's a savings of around 74% compared to a code based home. 74% reduction in total energy costs is significant considering this prototype home has no other alternative source to produce energy--just an air-to-air heat pump with an ERV. This reduction has to do with many factors that have been discussed in other posts, but it just reinforces how satisfied I am that I chose to use Eco-Panels as my wall system. My next post will talk about the economics of energy savings!

Water Saving Features

This prototype home includes many water saving features. All the toilets are dual flush, which means there are two settings to chose from when flushing. One setting is for solids = 1.6 gal and one setting is for liquids = 1.1 gal. Most new toilets use 1.6 gallons per flush. On the lower setting I am obviously saving 1/2 gallon per flush. I also bought the elongated toilets which are much more comfortable. Every faucet in this house, including the kitchen faucet, bath vanity faucets and shower faucets, is rated at 1.5 gallons per minute of flow. These fixtures have special low flow aerators that reduce the amount of water coming out of each fixture. The average faucet on the market has a rating of 2.5 gallons per minute of water flow. For every minute that water is being used at these faucets, I am saving 1 gallon of water compared to most new faucets. With the proper water pressure setting, nobody, including myself, has noticed any difference. These low flow faucets also save energy when using hot water as less hot water is actually used. When shopping for a new washing machine, I knew that I wanted to buy a front loading style. Front loading washing machines use up to 70% less water than a top loader, while also reducing energy costs. The way they reduce energy costs is by using less heated water (I usually wash all of my clothes on cold anyways) and because the drum can spin at a much higher RPM, there is much less energy used to dry the clothes in your dryer. Although I have yet to buy these, I also plan to install rain barrels at the end of each gutter's down spout. The rain barrels I have picked out are made of 100% recycled plastic and have two valves--the main valve at the bottom and an overflow valve closer to the top. These rain barrels will be used to water the fruit and vegetable gardens with drip hose attachments extended to each garden or fruit tree. I estimate that over a one year period I alone will save over 3000 gallons of water living in this prototype. It's amazing how easy all of these water saving features are to buy and install, while not reducing comfort in any way. If every person in this country could save just 500 gallons of water per year (which is really easy) that would equal 156 billions gallons collectively.

Driveway completed

The driveway was installed and just in time for the last winter storm. The driveway was covered in blankets for 10 days to help it stay warm and dry while the concrete curred. I didn't drive on it for 2 weeks and outside of some remaining water stains it appears to be in good shape. I decided to add two features to the standard concrete driveway that most people in this area use. For an additional $100 I had the mix changed to 4000 psi from 3000 psi. Obviously this gives the concrete more strength and I felt is was worth the additional costs. I also asked for a concrete mixture with recycled fly ash content. This was provided at no additional costs from Carolina Ready Mix as a green option for us environmentally conscious people. I was told the mix was up to 30% recycled fly ash content. Fly ash is a waste byproduct of concrete plants that normally would just go into our landfills. I will be touring the concrete facility this coming July. I am told that it is a L.E.E.D certified facility--Wow--concrete plants are well known for being some of the worst polluters around.

Because I live in a gated community, there were restrictions on the type of driveway I could have. My preference was to use gravel and then pavers for the parking area. This was not approved. I then started pricing permeable pavers for the entire driveway. The only way to make the paver option affordable on my tight budget was to install the pavers myself. Considering I don't have any experience in this area and it's the middle of winter I thought it best to leave the paver option to my walkways and extra parking spot off to the side of the main driveway. By the way, asphalt was not an option. It would have only saved me a few hundred dollars and the longevity of asphalt is a serious weakness, not to mention less environmentally friendly.

3rd Utility Bill

Happy Belated New Year to Everyone! My 3rd utility bill arrived today (via e-mail as I try to have all my mail sent electronically) and I was very curious as to what the total amount would be. It's been very cold here in Asheville over the entire last month and not much free heat from the sun as it's also been very cloudy. The Asheville area has been 10-15 degrees colder than normal, with a few good snow storms mixed in. Even an affordable high efficiency heat pump system (the only heating system for the house), like the one used in this prototype, typically starts to struggle on heat pump mode below 35-40 degrees. With the outside temperature below 35 degrees for the vast majority of the past month, the heat pump has shifted to Aux or Em heat, which is basically strip heating. This is when the heat pump is least efficient and strip heating in general is a very inefficient way to produce energy. I am happy to report that the total utility bill was only $73.01.

I was starting to get a little spoiled by having total energy bills that were less than $50 a month. I then decided to look up my utility bill for the 475 sq ft apartment I was renting at this time last year. That apartment was also all electric and using a heat pump, but didn't have laundry. I also spent time fixing the weatherstripping, inspecting the insulation in the attic and air sealing wherever I could in that apartment. The total bill for that apartment last year in January was $95.36. This prototype home is almost 4x the size of that apartment and my utility bill is $23 less. I know several people living in smaller homes than this prototype who paid $200-300+ over the last month--OUCH! Combining my 1st 3 months of utility bills while living in this prototype home, and according to the Energy Star software, I have saved an average of 68% compared to a newly constructed code based model home. Considering how affordable it was to build this prototype, it feels great to know that I am doing something that is not only smart for my wallet but is also smart for my community--68% reduction in total energy use is wonderful!

My old camera died last month, so I have a new one coming this week. I will take pictures and write a post about the newly installed driveway. I will also take some interior pictures and write a post about the water saving features of this prototype home.

2nd Utility Bill

I recently received my 2nd utility bill and the total was $49.78, just slightly higher than the 1st bill. As I've mentioned in the past, this prototype home (built with Eco-Panels) is run solely on electricity so the $49.78 figure is the cost for everything. It's been very cold here in Asheville and the home is still performing exceptionally well. The ERV is now set to run on 40 minute intervals and the dehumidifier in the crawl space is currently off. This home has dual zones--one for the upper level and one for the main level. Because of the stack effect I mostly (about 75% of the time) us the lower zone during the winter as it heats the whole house. My programmable thermostat is set at 66 degrees. In the summer, I will do just the opposite when the A/C is running.
I've been researching pellet stoves as I designed the house to incorporate one of these in the future. Between the costs of the stove, installation, electrical usage and pellets, it will still be much more affordable to run the heat pump even when it is using auxillary heat. I'm convinced, based on the 1st two months of living in this home, that even a small pellet stove could heat the entire home and reduce further dependency on fossil fuels (coal locally). It will also help resale value and create a certain ambiance for the living area. I will revisit this most likely in the spring hoping there are some good sales. My next post will focus on the water saving features of this prototype.
HAPPY HOLIDAYS TO ALL!

Siding and Trim

The siding used on this prototype home is pre-painted NichiHa fiber cement lap siding. The shakes are a pre-stained Western Red Ceder, the tongue and groove pine is Blue Stain Pine and the trim is Miratec. All of these exterior finish products were purchased through an Asheville company--Carolina Colortones. Carolina Colortones offers the best selection of siding options in the Asheville area and specializes in pre-painted and pre-stained exterior finish products. My experience working with Carolina Colortones was excellent. I chose the NichiHa product for several reasons. NichiHa products contain over 50% fly ash, a recycled content material generated from coal burning power plants. Not only does this material not end up in a landfill, but in my research it ends up creating a more stable fiber cement product than other companies incorporating more wood fiber content. NichiHa also recycles 95% of the water used at its manufacturing facility and treats the remaining 5% that is discharged. Overall, I was very impressed with NichiHa's strong environmental conviction. The siding was pre-painted with 2 coats of a low VOC paint and it comes with a 25 year warranty. This not only saved money, but also the time and headaches associated with painting the material on site. The shakes were also pre-stained with 2 coats of a low VOC stain. Having the shakes pre-stained was very important to me as all 6 sides would be fully covered. Many builders only paint or stain the exterior side or face of the shakes which usually results in a lower quality product that is more susceptible to the elements over the years. I also chose a darker stain for the shakes as this will reduce UV damage and require less restaining in the future. The tongue and groove pine used on the soffits and the ceiling of the front porch is called Blue Stain. The blue stain results from a fungus that is released from the mouths of beetles that infest the pine trees out west ultimately killing the tree in the process. I used this blue stain pine for both environmental and aesthetic reasons. The dead standing trees can be used for certain applications and the stained byproduct matched my overall color scheme.
In my spare time I have also been working on a smaller prototype cottage design that starts with a basic 28x36 footprint. This cottage plan will have 5 different floor plans or layouts ranging in size from 1008 sq ft to about 1500 sq ft depending on the specific needs of the client. For these cottage plans, I would use Eco-Panels walls with the integrated LP Smartside siding option and Carolina Colortones to finish out the gables and trim details. Having the siding already integrated as part of the structural and insulated wall system significantly reduces costs, delays, waste and headaches. Finished as a board and batten style, these cottage plans will also be very high performance, while potentially being even more affordable than this larger prototype.

1st Energy Bill

Today, I received my 1st utility bill and my Energy Star documents for this prototype home. My HERS score for this prototype is 54. The HERS index is based on using a code based home for energy modeling purposes that starts at a score of 100. In order to achieve the Energy Star Certification, a newly built home needs to score an 85 or lower (better), which means that the new home, with a score of 85, is supposed to be 15% more energy efficient than the code based model home at 100. So in these basic terms, since my score is a 54, the math says that my prototype should be at least 46% more energy efficient. Because this index is making some very general assumptions, the HERS score/index is and should only be used as a basic comparison. The reason I say this is because of what my 1st utility bill actually is. As I've mentioned in previous posts, both the Energy Star rater and myself expect this home to exceed 60% in energy savings compared to an average non-certified code based home. Based on the REM software that Energy Star uses to calculate the HERS score/index, this prototype (all electric) is expected to use (based on current local kw/hr rates) $1133.00 per year in total utility costs. Divide this # by 12 months and I should average about $94 per month on my utiltiy bill. Although I recognize that a single monthly bill is not a really accurate comparison, it's a good place to start. My utility bill for the 1st month is $49.89. We can then assume that if the software was completely accurate and the 1st bill was for $94, then the code based model homes utility bill would be about $175. With a real utility bill of $49.89 and using the assumptions of the Energy Star software's code based model, this means that this prototype's 1st utility bill is 71% less than what a code based model home's utility bill might be for the 1st month. This is a very positive sign that this prototype is going to perform exceptionally well considering what the total cost was to build this home. I will be turning the ERV down to the low setting as it is recommended to run the ERV on high for at least the 1st month. I will also be turning the dehumidifier off intermittingly in the crawl space and monitor the moisture levels now that the crawlspace humidity level is stable. Changing the ERV to low and reducing the amount of time the dehumidifier is running should both reduce the electrical load. It will be interesting to see how this affects the next utility bill.