“In lieu of a 7,000-square-foot palace that antes up to the neighbors, they’re planning a house less than half that size with energy-efficient features, panelized construction to reduce waste, and a variety of flexible, multipurpose spaces. One of its four bedrooms will double as a guest room…”
It’s the scapegoat of the housing bust, and that’s not all. From accusations of ostentatious overconsumption to environmental indifference, the McMansion has taken some brutal hits in the recession economy. Are those blows lethal enough to send starter castles to their grave? Or will they live to see another boom?
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When it comes to building projects, this one’s a monster. The construction zone is essentially the entire country. The builders are a variety of specialists, including architects, plumbers, masons, and lighting, heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning experts. Since July, they have been meeting in cities – they were in Philadelphia last month – to construct not with bricks and steel beams, but with words. The goal: a code to guide all development of green commercial buildings in the United States.
The International Green Building Code would, as its name implies, also be available to other countries. But drafting it has been the work of U.S. construction professionals who share a desire for the built environment to incorporate more green features.
Pennsylvania is one of only two states with a government representative on the 28-member drafting body. The other is California, the only state to have a green building code.
The Sustainable Building Technology Committee is an arm of the International Code Council, a Washington association of 50,000 members that develops residential and commercial building codes and standards that states, counties, and municipalities adopt or use as a guide in creating their own.
The Green Building Code would address only commercial development. Last year, the International Code Council and the National Association of Home Builders developed green standards for municipalities and other governing bodies to use for residential construction.
Like most building projects, the green construction code is not expected to be without controversy when the first draft goes public in March for evaluation and input.
“We’ll have early adopters and early supporters, and we’ll have people who are dead set against it,” said Maureen Guttman, Pennsylvania’s representative on the committee. She is executive director of the Governor’s Green Government Council, the state’s sustainability office.
Typically, building codes cover health, safety, and welfare issues to ensure a structure’s reliability for use. A green building code – which Gov. Rendell has called for in Pennsylvania – does the same “from a more global perspective – the health, safety, and welfare of the planet,” Guttman said.
In her view, encouraging so-called higher-performing buildings – those, for instance, that use less water and electricity and more recycled materials – “is a community and ethical obligation.”
“That’s kind of a leap in thinking,” she acknowledged.
It’s the kind of thinking that California, which adopted a completely voluntary green building code in July 2008, is looking to make mandatory. The state’s Building Standards Commission is scheduled to vote Jan. 12 on several proposed mandatory provisions, its executive director, David Walls, said.
Some of the proposals call for reducing indoor water use by 20 percent over conventional construction and cutting construction waste by 50 percent.
The public-comment period on the first draft of the international code will run through next summer, concluding with a hearing in Chicago in August. A revised draft will be considered at hearings in spring 2011 in Dallas, with the code council slated to adopt a final version that year at its annual convention in Phoenix.
In the 1990s, Guttman said, construction requirements resulting from the Americans With Disabilities Act were initially seen as “an enormous challenge.” Now, they are “so ingrained with what we do, nobody talks about it.”
She foresees sustainable-building requirements following the same path, “particularly since it is so clearly shown that to build good, sustainable buildings is good business.”
** From the Philadelphia Inquirer
Contact staff writer Diane Mastrull at 215-854-2466 or dmastrull@phillynews.com.
Geothermal energy has been used to heat and air condition buildings for several decades, and, during that time, these geothermal systems have been called many different things. Some of the more popular variations include geo-thermal, geoexchange, ground-water, ground-water assisted, ground-water-source, water-to-water, as well as water furnace heating and cooling.
Geothermal heat pumps use the relatively constant temperature of the ground or water several feet below the earth’s surface as source of heating and cooling. Geothermal heat pumps are appropriate for retrofit or new homes, where both heating and cooling are desired. In addition to heating and cooling, geothermal heat pumps can provide domestic hot water. They can be used for virtually any size home or lot in any region of the U.S.
The ground is able to maintain a higher rate of temperature consistency because it absorbs 47% of the suns energy (heat) as it hits the Earth’s surface. Geothermal systems are able to tap into this free energy with an earth loop. This technology is then used to provide your home or office with central heating and cooling.
A geothermal heat pump system consists of indoor heat pump equipment, a ground loop, and a flow center to connect the indoor and outdoor equipment. The heat pump equipment works like a reversible refrigerator by removing heat from one location and depositing it in another location. The ground loop, which is invisible after installation, allows the exchange of heat between the earth and the heat pump.
Geothermal heat pumps can be open- or closed-loop. Open-loop systems draw well water for use as the heat source or heat sink, and after use, return the well water to a drainage field or another well. Closed-loop or earth-coupled systems use a water and antifreeze solution, circulated in a ground loop of pipe to extract heat from the earth.
Ground loops can be installed in a vertical well or a horizontal loop. Vertical wells are usually more expensive and used where space is limited. The length of loop pipe required will vary with soil type, loop configuration, and system capacity. Loop length can range from 250 to 1,000 feet per ton of capacity
Info provided by toolbase.com
This home is located slope side in the Diamond Hitch development of Moonlight Basin.
A custom home built for the the true ski enthusiast. One of our favorite projects, designed by Van Bryan of Studio Architects, considered to be one of the areas finest architects.
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If you purchase an energy-efficient product or renewable energy system for your home, you may be eligible for a federal tax credit. Existing homes and new construction for primary AND secondary homes are eligible for a 30% return on cost with no upper limit.
What the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act Means to You:
The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 extended many consumer tax incentives originally introduced in the Energy Policy Act of 2005 (EPACT) and amended in the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 (P.L. 110-343).
Department of Energy web site with a full description of the tax credits
Energy Star web site
