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| New Green Homes The Optimum Performance Home will incorporate the very latest in technologically advanced materials and techniques to ensure minimal impact on the environment while delivering unprecedented living standards. In today's environmentally challenged times it’s encouraging to see a nationwide design template for sustainable and ecologically-sound home building. LEED For Homes is for anyone planning, or looking for a new home, but concerned with long term energy efficiency; low, natural resource consumption; and the harmonization of the living space with its surroundings. The LEED, Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, program has been developed by the U.S. Green Building Council and provides a 'green' rating checklist for commercial, residentiall, and neighborhood developments. The Optimum Performance Home's 3,200 square feet of living space is arranged in a three-building compound using a well-sealed, well-insulated, super-tight building envelope that reduces temperature fluctuations and enhances overall energy efficiency. The home is designed with differing spatial experiences throughout to encourage exploration. The home will display innovative interior design and be furnished in a contemporary Frank Lloyd Wright style appropriate to its dimensions. The home design connects the indoors and the outdoors with covered walkways, a courtyard, decks, and a garden to expand livable space, without requiring heating or air-conditioning. There is abundant and excellent use of natural light and natural indigenous landscaping. The method of green building used in the home incorporates environmental considerations into every phase of the home building process. That means that during the design, construction and operation of the home, energy and water efficiency, lot development, resource efficient building design and materials, indoor environmental quality, homeowner maintenance, and the home's overall impact on the environment are all taken into account. The home features extensive green building techniques, which include water efficiency through grey water recycling and rainwater harvesting; using renewable or recycled-content building materials; preserving natural indigenous vegetation; conserving natural resources; improving indoor air quality and reducing pollution; lighting naturally; reducing home maintenance and enhancing durability; and recycling construction and demolition waste. Even the heating system for the home is energy-efficient. A radiant floor heating system turns the entire floor into a primary, low-temperature heat source that delivers radiant energy evenly across each room to its occupants and surrounding objects, but not the ambient air, resulting in a significantly healthier interior environment. Integrated with the radiant heating system are PEX plumbing and fire sprinkler systems. The smoke alarm and fire sprinkler systems are integrated into the home's electronic control of lighting and sound to optimize inhabitant safety. The new energy-saving home from the U.S. Department of Energy features a 5.7-kilowatt solar electric system with photovoltaic (PV) panels integrated into the roof. Inverters convert the DC power into AC power. Hot water is provided by solar collectors on the roof, boosted when needed by efficient, tankless water heaters. The home is designed to cut its energy use with efficiency, and then meet the remaining needs with renewable energy sources. Net metering allows the electric meter to spin backward and forward, meaning that at times the home pulls (and pays for) power from the grid and at others it produces more energy than it needs, with the excess sold to the electric company, resulting in an annual net-zero energy cost. It is expected that the home will generate more electricity than it uses. The system also is designed to continue functioning even during blackouts. write your comments about the article :: © 2005 Construction News :: home page |