Spring in DC

As the cherry blossoms start to bloom and we brace ourselves to take my 2-year-old son to the kite festival on the mall for the first time, I will diverge from my usual discussions here. I want to talk a little bit about the Washington D.C. area. Having been born in Washington D.C. and having lived my whole life in Arlington, I am something of a rarity around here - a native.

The Washington Metro area is such a great place to live. Our proximity to so many things and the high standard of living we enjoy here has kept me here my whole life. Especially in spring, I feel fortunate to live in this area. I can take the opportunity to hit a golf ball up the 14^th fairway at Hains Point, where I have my very own private showing of cherry blossoms, or walk along the Potomac River and maybe catch a glimpse of a passing bald eagle.

We have a lot of plans this spring and summer. We’re going to catch a few concerts at Wolf Trap and Merriweather Post Pavilion – great outdoor venues. We’ll slip into D.C. on a warm spring night and see a free performance at the Kennedy Center’s Millenium stage. Wander over past the Iwo Jima memorial and take in the beauty and solemnity of Arlington Cemetery and visit the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.  And we’ll tour the world while staying in Arlington, going out to eat.  One night it will be Thai, then Ethiopian, then a great burger from Ray’s Hell burger.  All pretty cheap, and all delicious.

In short, if you are lucky enough to be from Northern Virginia, then you know what I mean when I say there is no better place to be when the cherry blossoms are blooming. It means you are in for a great spring in a great place.

How Your House Can Help You Breathe Better

The crocuses are starting to bloom, the daffodils are coming up and the days are getting longer. All this means spring to me. And unfortunately, with spring come spring rains and allergens. Moisture and allergies are two major reasons why Arlington Designer Homes is investing in improved indoor air quality. The other day I went to a seminar about the new Energy Star standards and a less well known program by the EPA called Indoor Air Plus. Most people are at least aware of the Energy Star program, but many people I talk to are not aware of the Indoor Air Plus program. I think this is perhaps because unless you are personally affected by poor indoor air quality (IAQ), you might not even think about it.

The seminar I attended summarized the issue well:

People are increasingly concerned about mold, radon, carbon monoxide, and toxic chemicals commonly found in homes. In fact, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) studies show that levels of air pollution inside the home are often two to five times higher than outdoor levels. And poor indoor air quality is associated with a host of health problems, including eye irritation, allergies, headaches, and respiratory problems such as asthma.

Many things go into creating good indoor air quality in your home.  It is important to make sure that your home is moisture free, pest free and has adequate ventilation. It’s also important that you perform regular checks on the upkeep of your home. Every time you change the clocks (like this past weekend for Daylight Savings Time) you should also take the time to change the batteries in your fire alarm, and check the caulking and overall alignment of your house.

Over time, your house shifts, expands and contracts, and the sealants that are used both inside and outside can expand, contract, crack or simply wear out. Once there is an entrance to your house via a crack or contraction, it is an open invitation to moisture, mold, pests – all things that will lower the indoor air quality of your home.  And if the ventilation in your house is inadequate, it can lead to the build up of nitric oxide, radon, formaldehyde, and other harmful gases or chemicals.

When building a new home, or undertaking a remodeling project, we use green building techniques to address these potential problems before they occur. The first thing we do is create a tight building envelope. (Check out this video series from NAHB for more details about keeping moisture out when constructing a home.) This not only helps with energy efficiency but also serves to block out moisture and air infiltration which can bring in allergens. Of course, once you have blocked exterior causes from becoming a factor you need to take a look at the interior. That is why so much attention is paid to ventilation, making sure that we are getting moisture out of the house with bath fans, and introducing fresh air in a controlled manner with Energy Recovery Ventilators.  Next we must control Volatile Organic Compounds, or VOCs – chemical gasses emitted by paints and other building materials that can adversely affect your health. We control VOCs and the introduction of formaldehyde by simply eliminating it from our construction materials. One of the last parts of the green process is verifying that our techniques work.

All green programs that are worthwhile require 3^rd party certifications that independently check all the information provided. They use the checklists provided by the EPA, Energy Star, and any other relevant green building programs to analyze how the whole system works. It is just another type of check and balance to make sure that the systems we have designed and installed work as they should.

A Green Home Can Also Be a Quiet Home!

2010 was a very busy year for Arlington Designer Homes, culminating with our delivering a new custom home just before the new year - a pretty nice holiday gift for our customers, and for us too! It's always exciting to finish a project and and see the homeowners move in to their new house. As I mentioned in last week's blog, we always look forward to hearing what our homeowners have to say about the house after they've gotten a chance to live in it for a little while -  what we did right, and what can be improved upon. One thing that that our customers and I have noticed about this particular project, a single-family green home we built in Falls Church City, is how quiet the house is. With a geo-thermal heating and air conditioning system installed, there's no noisy racket from air conditioners in the summer or the furnace in the winter. All you can hear is silence. The spray foam insulation also helps to mute any external noises, and with the highly energy-efficient windows, you barely even hear the sounds of buses and cars passing on the fairly busy road right in front of the home.

Most of us who work in green construction regularly promote the more well-known benefits of green homes: increased energy efficiency, reduced energy costs, improved air quality, a smaller environmental footprint, etc. But sometimes we forget to talk about the more intangible, but equally important benefits - like having a little bit more peace and quiet in your life.

Just like in other urban areas around the country, here in Northern Virginia, most of us live in close proximity to our neighbors. And as more and more communities in the DC metro area continue to promote "smart growth" - encouraging people to live in higher density areas where they can easily access public transporation, reduce energy costs, and avoid developing more land -- people in our area will likely be living ever closer to one another, and to major roads and public transporation routes. Living in a high density areas can offer many benefits, but often, peace and quiet isn't one of them. But even if you live in a highly-developed urban setting, with firetrucks and ambulances and buses zooming by at all hours of the day and night, with a little thought and attention to detail, you can still create a sense of quiet inside your home, and inside yourself.

Green Building Techniques Aren’t Just “One Size Fits All”

Arlington Designer Homes recently completed a new, custom green house for a family in Arlington, following the National Green Building Guidelines. Now that the homeowners have been in their new house for several months, I took the opportunity to speak with them about the overall operation of the house. My customers told me that were very happy with how temperate and comfortable with house has been over a very cold winter spell here in Northern Virginia. Thanks to the tight building envelop, advanced insulation package, energy-efficient windows and doors, and other features, this family has been able to stay warm in their new home without getting hit with enormous gas and electric bills.

However, as we spoke further, the homeowners told me there were other features they didn’t like as much. We had installed a manifold system for all hot water fixtures in the house. This means that every fixture in the house runs directly to the hot water heater. (Normally, all fixtures would be on one piping system, so if you turn on the hot water in the kitchen sink, the water going to the upstairs showers will also heat up.) The idea behind a manifold system is that if we install smaller diameter piping directly to the fixture in use, you will waste less hot water. You’ll save energy by not having to heat up water that will not be used in the pipes, and save water by using the same principle -- less water wasted while waiting for hot water.

The national green standard that we adhered to mandated that we have less than 6 cups of water (48 oz) in any line between the hot water heater and the fixture. This means that from the time you turn on the water, no more than 6 cups of water would be wasted before you are getting hot water from the hot water heater. The concept is a good one, and might work well given the right living situation, particularly for a smaller family that doesn’t use much hot water. However, in practice, this family doesn’t think it is the best system for them. Because they have a larger family with many people using hot water in different parts of the house, they actually feel it might be more efficient for them to have a more standard system.

Working on the frontline of green building and green certifications means that sometimes we install ‘green’ features that might not be right for the way a specific family lives. I think this was the case with my past client. We, and our clients, all aspire to live smarter, and have less of an impact on our planet, but green homes aren’t “one size fits all.”

Because new green technologies are constantly being developed and approved, we, as the builders, need to use all the resources we have to make sure each feature is a good fit for the customers we’re working with. This is where the hours and days spent taking building science courses and talking to professionals in the field pay off. As a general contractor, it is my responsibility to make sure that all the systems of the house work in harmony together. I need to take into account what a change in one material or system will do to the system as a whole. It’s also extremely important to work one-on-one with each client, to learn about their specific needs, and to determine which green features will work best for the way they live. This type of interaction isn’t always possible – for instance, when working on a spec house. But when we have the opportunity to design and build a custom for a specific client from day one, then we do everything we can to ensure that the green features we choose will be the best fit for that client’s needs and lifestyle.

The green building industry is continually developing better and better systems that help a house not only perform better, but also make a house more comfortable. However, from time to time, the better system is not necessarily the best system for a particular family, as was the case with my homeowner. Would I install a water manifold again? Probably, given the right circumstances. But it will all depend on the needs of our clients, and how all the green features in the home will work together to create the most efficient and comfortable home possible.

Geo-Thermal Heating and Cooling

I am currently working on a home where we have  installed a Geo-thermal heating and cooling system. This is not the first Geo-thermal system we have installed and it won't be the last. Installing the systems can be 2-3 times more expensive than a typical HVAC system, but the payback can be huge.

Currently the federal government is offering a 30% tax credit (stay tuned for my next blog to learn more about tax credits) on any sustainable energy system that is installed. This means that with the tax breaks, you are paying a lot less in initial costs and the payback period is much shorter. The way that I have calculated it for the house that I am currently working on, is that if energy costs stay constant, the geo-thermal system will start paying itself off in 7 years. So the geo-systems that we install can then actually make money for you for up to 43 years!

Installing geo-thermal HVAC is a big project,
but across the board, our customers have
been thrilled with how well it works!

Installing Geo-thermal systems on a tight lot like the one that we are currently working on can be tricky. It is a sequencing challenge. I had to excavate the house and coordinate the foundation work with the Geo-thermal drilling work. In this house, we installed 2 ground loops that go 300' into the ground. These loops happen to be installed beneath the garage floor, although they could have just as easily been installed under the basement slab or in the yard.

The idea behind Geo-thermal systems is that you are using the earth's constant temperature to heat or to cool your home, depending on the needs. The system operates like a heat pump exchanging hot or cold energy with the coolant that runs down and then back up two 300' loops. Once this energy has been exchanged, it enters the unit and is dispersed like a typical forced air unit is, throughout the house.

So, for example, when you are heating your house, your unit will exchange the energy from the cool air that is brought into the unit with the air that is heated to a baseline of 55 degrees from the earth. The earth's temperature is a constant 55 degrees. Once this air is in the unit it will be heated to the temperature on the thermostat by using natural gas or electricity to bring it up the extra few degrees. So in essence, this system helps create a constant 55 degree air intake that can be heated as necessary.

The entire unit takes up a little more space in your utility room, but has the distinct advantage of eliminating noisy outdoor AC units. Overall it is a very interesting and unique system that works great for our customers.

ENERGY STAR – More than Just the Blue Logo

What is ENERGY STAR and what does it mean for the green building process?  ENERGY STAR is a US government-sponsored program designed to encourage us all to become more energy efficient. It centers on energy usage and helping consumers learn how to be more efficient consumers, with twin goals of helping people to save money and reducing greenhouse gas emissions. You’re probably familiar with the blue ENERGY STAR logo, which has become a fixture on appliances and electronics, ranging from computer monitors to refrigerators. This logo means that the product meets strict energy efficiency guidelines set by the EPA and US Department of Energy. (Buying these products can often help you earn a rebate on your taxes.)

But you might not know that the ENERGY STAR program does much more than just certify electronics and appliances. The program can also help you to assess the current energy efficiency of your home, recommend various energy saving measures for you to improve the energy efficiency of your home, provide you with recommendations for qualified green builders and inspectors in your area, and provides a quantitative method for measuring and certifying new homes’ energy efficiency levels.

To earn the ENERGY STAR, a home must meet strict guidelines for energy efficiency set by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. These homes are at least 15% more energy efficient than homes built to the 2004 International Residential Code (IRC), and include additional energy-saving features that typically make them 20–30% more efficient than standard homes. According to program statistics, last year, families living in these homes saved more than $270 million on their utility bills, while avoiding greenhouse gas emissions equivalent to those from 370,000 vehicles.

(Arlington Designer Homes is proud to be a ENERGY STAR-recommended green builder, and to have built a number of ENERGY STAR qualified new homes.)

Many other green certification programs throughout the Unites States have embraced the ENERGY STAR program as a jumping off point, and it’s a great place to start for consumers looking to build or remodel “green”. The program has defined goals and measurable targets and is recognized and respected throughout the US.

Having just recently certified a house according to the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) Standard at the Gold level, and having been awarded the local Arlington County Green Home Choice award, I can tell you that both these programs use the ENERGY STAR system as a basis for awarding points towards their own green certifications. ENERGY STAR works for these programs because it provides an existing national infrastructure for securing the needed items and finding local certified inspectors.

The third party certification is integral to any national building program. It helps to assure that all the people participating in the programs are actually achieving the "green-ness" that they are claiming and helps to eliminate "green-washing." To achieve ENERGY STAR certification (along with most other recognized green certifications), a builder must contract a third-party, independent inspector to inspect and measure all aspects of the home against the set ENERGY STAR criteria. When I look for a third party inspector, I make sure that they are certified through ENERGY STAR.

If you’re thinking about  building a new home or remodeling your current home, and are interested in improving your home’s energy efficiency , the ENERGY STAR website is a great place to start your research. You’ll find lots of information on products and home improvement, and can look for builders and inspectors too.

Insulation and Outsulation

We enjoy building custom homes and never build the same house twice. At the beginning of a new project, we worth with our customers to set specific goals for that house and then find the best  building products that will help us meet those goals.

In the two houses we are currently building in Falls Church, we have installed Dow SiS panels on the exterior of the house in place of more standard materials like plywood or OSB (oriented strand board). This structural foam insulation board serves three purposes. The first is that it acts as our house sheathing. It takes the place of OSB and eliminates the house wrap. The second purpose is that it serves as a drainage plane. With the SiS panels installed, there is no need to install a house wrap to drain rain and moisture -- it is installed with the sheathing. The SiS board, when properly sealed, serves as both a structural panel and house wrap. The third reason to install this product is that it provides 'outsulation'. This insulates a thermal break on the outside of the structure of the house.

Even the best-insulated houses have what are called “thermal breaks” or “thermal bridging.” This is when heat energy (hot or cold) is directly channeled outside of the building envelop by a break, such as a 2x4 stud in an external wall. A 2x4 stud has an R value (a measure of thermal resistance used to assess the efficiency of insulation – the higher the number the better) of about 4.3, which means that in relation to the rest of the wall system (which is probably around R-15), it is the weak link. The thermal break is a large area that helps heating and cooling energy escape from your home. Think about how many wooden studs there are in one 8 foot wall -- probably 8 to a wall and 36 studs in a room.  Calculate the energy loss (and increased heating/cooling costs!) throughout the house because of the thermal breaks caused by all of those studs, and you can see how putting more insulation on the outside of a stud could be beneficial.

Insulation and outsulation are important, but they are only part of the energy equation. A house is a whole system. This system includes the HVAC, the windows, the thermal envelope and the breathability of a house. More on these topics to come……..