RENEWABLE ENERGY

Renewable energy, or call it homemade energy. It's a whole new world out there. By most accounts, it is not here yet, but coming fast. There are some success stories; a farmer in Lancaster County that is converting his cow poop into electricity, and selling it. Photovoltaics (PV) is getting close. With the current (get it? current?) federal tax credits and proposed Pennsylvania tax credits, and the credit you can get by producing electricity to sell back to the utility, it is really close.

I just walked down into my basement utility room to see if I am making any electricity. On a kinda' cloudy day, with some snow flurries around, I was pulling in 9 amps. With my system, the power is generated by the panels and stored in batteries. I have a bunch of circuits in the house that are powered by electricity stored in the batteries. On cloudy days and other times that the batteries do not have enough power in them to run my house, the inverter automatically switches over to draw electricity from the "grid", that is P P L. The nice feature of this kind of system is that if the electricity flow from the grid is interrupted, I can use power from my batteries even at times when the sun is not shining. That is as long as there is enough power stored in them.

My system is 9 years old. Today, I would use a little different plan. Today's PV systems are grid tied, rather than using batteries. The short explanation is that when your system is making more power than you are using, the excess goes into the grid, and you get paid for it. And when you are using more electricity than your system is producing, you simply import the required power from the grid. So if you are keeping score, PV is getting real close to winning.

Green building is getting some attention from other people who are also advocates.

For an interesting read, take a look at www:blog.pennlive/naturalliving/ Collette Cope has some interesting things to say concerning the state of green construction in the Midstate.

CAN YOU TELL?

We finally did it! We have a "green house". Built by a National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) certified builder, me, Rick Martin. That's right, I got my certification. I am officially a Certified Green Professional (CGP). To read that in alphabet soup format, it looks like this: CGP from NAHB. This goes along with the CGB professional designation that also is from NAHB.

So here is the million dollar question; take a close look at the picture and tell me how we know it is a "Green House". Go ahead, look closely. Is it the siding? How about the windows? The price tag? The truth is that from the outside, you can't really tell. So let's walk inside and look. At the kitchen, the plumbing fixtures, the flooring, the furnace. Again, the truth is that even from the inside, although there are "green" hints, it is not obvious. So what makes it "green"?

Again, we need to go back to the goals of green building; to design and build a home that economically use resources both during the construction of and during the life cycle of living in a house. The goals of construction include site preparation that minimizes impact on the existing resources. Like preserving vegetation, both for erosion controls, and for wild life habitat. Like installing controls to keep sediment from washing off the lot in rain storm events. Like defining the wet lands, along with an edict to everyone that works on the site that if we catch them in the wetland, there will be dire consequences. And these are all green items that are unnoticed.

So you have me; I am trying to think of green items that you could see. Because even the price tag is not dramatically higher due to the green features of the house. Most of the items you can actually see, are the Energy Star items. The Energy Star rated windows, dishwasher, bath fans, the basement insulation, the higher efficiency furnace (if you take the time to read the label on the side), and the CFL light bulbs. Even what I think are the more important green features of the low VOC paint and caulk, the low formaldehyde OSB, and the low flow faucets are not visible.

So yea, how do you know it is green? I guess that is why the 3rd party inspection is important. We have all seen how easy it is to say what you think other people want to hear. Just look at the ultimate salespeople, politicians. I am continually amazed at their brazen statements, that totally disregard the actual facts. The lesson is simple, the only way to be sure it is an actual green house, is to be able to see the list of green standards that have been achieved in a house, and to see independent verification of those standards.

For more information on this house, go to www.WheatlandHomes.com/in-the-news/ and click on the "8 Redwood Drive" link

OBSESSION

Who am I? Is it fair to say that I am defined by my "core values"? OK, then what are core values? Core values are quite simply, what we really believe, what makes us tick. Beliefs that provide the basis of all our decision making. Actually, these core values "control" our decision making. So how do you identify your core values? And others values? I guess you could just ask someone and they would tell you their core values. Just ask any politician. They can tell you immediately. But are they accurate? Unfortunately, many times they are not. Because what really demonstrates someones core values is not their words, but their actions. Most people would identify a personal core value as honesty. But what do they do when the have a chance to get $10 worth of free gas because the guy at the gas station makes a mistake? Are they really honest, or is it simply words? What did your mother teach you? Something like "actions speak louder than words"?

Alrighty then, I will get to the point,kinda'. If core values are defined by actions, then how do core values relate to Green Building? Well, it reveals a dilemma: Green Building is all about "sustainability", and America is obsessed with "first cost". Need proof? What is the main goal of investors in the equity markets? Short term profits. They have little concern about long term, sustainable growth. Sustained growth that over time will result in much greater profits than any short term benefit. In talking to builders, there is a common thread that the typical buyer is willing to invest money into a kitchen or item that looks nice, but not in energy saving or structural items that will actually save money over the life cycle of the home by lowering maintenance and operation costs. And why is it that our net savings rate keeps declining? We are currently borrowing (on credit cards) to support our current life style, when we all know that by saving, and living off cash, we sacrifice some of today's luxuries for future benefits, i.e. sustainability.

Why are we so focused on first cost? Do we have no hope for a better future? Or just the opposite, we believe the future will be so great that we can mortgage our current lifestyle with the future? Or is it because the marketeers are so good at their craft that they have convinced us that no matter what the long term cost, the short term benefits are sooooooo great that we simply need to die to have it. I guess it does not really matter, because for whatever reason, we are lacking in making investments in our futures, both as a society, and as individuals.

We all know there are proven cost effective technologies and techniques (can you say Green?) in the home building process, including geo heat systems, on demand hot water heaters, enhanced insulation and sealing, that not only are good investments, but additionally add durability by increasing life cycle expectancy. We can build a better home. By building better homes, we can actually save your money. First cost may be higher, but over the life cycle of the home and its components, the pay back is demonstrated to be there. Especially when you add in the durability factor of the better quality components and systems. And for each better quality home we build, we are improving the "housing stock" of the country, adding to the sustainability of our lifestyle.

I know, I rambled again. Just to say that current technology does permit us to build better homes that actually make dollars (not just make sense). I guess I need to promise that my next post will be more succinct. Yea, right. Well, I'll see you again, hopefully soon.

Oh, don't worry about the picture. I just wanted to show that Muffin actually is a year old, and not still an 8 week old pup.

Common Sense

You were expecting a treatise from Thomas Paine? You should have known better. Just because my last post got philosophical for a minute, does not mean I am now a scholar. I know a couple people like that, and they bug me. I certainly appreciate scholars, but not to the extent that they act like they know more than the rest of us, and are continually trying to teach us from their broad, or deeply narrow, knowledge base. The best teachers I have ever found, are those that have broad based real life experience. Not just book knowledge, but practical living. Like most of the builders I know. They know how to get results. They have been to the school of hard knocks. And succeeded.

So, green houses? Sure, GREEN houses. Green, the color of money. Common Sense green. Huh? Sure, houses cost a lot of green. And need a lot more to keep them operating properly. And maintained. Did I hear someone say "taxes"? Lots of green goes to a house. So we need to figure out how to build a house that has less environmental impact in a common sense way, that makes it a green house without taking a lot of green [money].

GOOD NEWS! We found a verifier for the National Association of Home Builders Green Build program. A common sense guy that understands the Pennsylvania Dutchman's concept of value. Understands that we are willing to spend green to get substance, not just fluff. Real expertise that is geared to providing real, honest to goodness value. During the entire verification process, from planning, to the work, to inspecting, to final certification. Today we officially enrolled the Redwood Drive house into the NAHB Green Build program. It is really happening. We went through the score card, added up all the points, and voila!!, it worked. Sure, there a lots of things we are not getting points for, items that I do not think provides real value to the Owner. Like 24" on center wall framing. Call me old fashioned, but 16" on center is a better job. And don't start talking about using steel hangers instead of jack studs. That is not going to happen in my homes until it is mandated by some code. We got lots of points for the way we lay out a lot, preserving the existing environmental features, trees, wetlands. And by minimizing dirt disturbance to limit as much sediment run off as possible. And we got lots more points in the energy efficiency section. Some items are major, like upgraded furnace efficiency. But many others are seemingly minor, but have large effects on the home. Like sealing up the duct work. Like using Energy Star ventilation fans.

So it was an exciting time. Putting together a common sense, value oriented, plan for a Green built house. One that will save the Owner his hard earned green every time he pays an energy bill. And every time he does not notice the drafts that show up in most homes.

So what shade of green do you want your home to be?

The sweet smell of success

Happy Birthday, Muffin. They do not stay a puppy for long. At 1 year old, she now thinks she is a fullback for the Penn State Nittany Lions. At least she runs like that. It is all in the attitude. So she is growing, changing, maturing. Just like our passions. What would we do without passion? Who would we be? As an old client of mine used to say, BOOOORING! (Yawn, Yawn!) We need a growing, maturing passion. And the seemingly small milestones we reach as we grow, reward us, helping to focus our passion and fuel even more exciting growth and enthusiasm, inspiring us to new heights. Did you ever hear someone refer to "reaching the next level?" Huh? What is that? The next level? I think I finally figured it out. The next level is that increased passion, recognizing and understanding our unique mission in life, allowing us to more deliberately narrow in our focus on that passion and mission. Wow, did I say that? It is way too practical to have come from that philosophy class I had back in my days at MU.

O, I almost forgot, milestones. Have you seen the Energy Star web site? http://www.energystar.gov/ Wheatland Custom Homes has been listed on that site as an approved Energy Star builder for nearly a year. A month ago I noticed that we were not listed as having any homes completed. Even more glaring, we were not listed as being a 100% Energy Star builder. Well, we are now! Success! The official listing now matches our stated mission, Every home an Energy Star Home. I know, that's a lot of enthusiasm for something that seems so small. Did you ever see what happens when Alex Ovechkin of the Washington Capitals scores a goal? Unabashed celebration. "And the crowd goes wild", unless of course it happens in a road game, then he celebrates only with his team mates, while the home team fans watch in stunned silence. And he celebrated over 100 times this season, not only for his own goals, but for the success of his mates.

We are starting a house in Enola. Green? Naturally. If we can. Can we provide value to the Owner by making it green? Being a Dutchman, I demand value. I do not mind making an investment of dollars in construction items that I can see a return on. But I do not see the value of spending dollars on paper work and processes to verify and certify the level of green that the house may be. Which scares me, because as of now, there are only a few approved NAHB Green verifiers listed on the website. http://www.nahbgreen.com/ So I need to fine a verifier that understands this concept. Which is to have a house that lives green, not one with a certificate. A certificate allows the builder and owner to brag, a house constructed properly gives back to the owner; money, comfort, less maintenance hassle.

Stay tuned. We have RFP's out to all the verifiers that are listed as approved in PA. Trust me, if I get back costs that are too high, after I blow my top, you will be the first to hear my rant.

What are points ?

Looks like a furnace to me. I see dual vents, must be gas. What's that have to do with points? O yea, points. I am reminded that the best points are those that the Flyers get in the playoffs, Brier just put one in the net! Go Flyers!! Sorry, I am multi tasking again. OOOOOPS, the Caps just scored to tie the game. Go Flyers!! Just like that, another Flyers goal! 3 goals in 3 minutes. Well, what do you want, a commentary on furnaces, or on the Flyers, huh? And now another Flyers goal, 3-1 Flyers. 4 goals in 4 minutes!! That's a little more exciting than furnaces. Apparently the multi tasking is working, it is good luck for the Flyers, so I guess you are stuck with my hockey commentary. Sorry, back to furnaces and points. And this time I mean points, as in the NAHB Green Build program.

The natural question, how do a gas furnace and points relate? Well, as we discussed before, points are not the end, they are simply the way the NAHB Green build program recognizes what we do to make give your house a less environmental impact. So we do not design or build for points, we design and build to make a house more efficiently use resources, both during construction and over the life cycle of the house. Then recognize what we did by awarding points. Comfort and economy in resources + points.

So what's a furnace? 4, 6, or 8 points. Your typical gas furnace has an efficiency rating somewhere in the low 80%'s. Upgraded furnaces are in the upper 80's. In fact, the minimum Energy Star gas furnace is an 88% or 89% efficient furnace. Which by the way, gets you 6 points toward your HAHB Green Build rating. See how that works? More efficient, you get points. Points you can brag about to your neighbor, but a gas furnace that puts money in your pocket every month. And there is always another step. How about a 94% efficient furnace? How about even more money in the home owner's pocket every month? Let's give that one real points, like 8. And even better, in an Energy Star certified home, that goes a long way toward qualifying the house for the optional higher rating that qualifies the home for the $2,000 federal tax credit. Just in case you don't know, there is a basic Energy Star program, basically for an 15% energy usage reduction. From there, there are more things to do to make the house more energy efficient; more insulation, more efficient heaters, tighter ductwork, which is where the additional $2,000 tax credit comes from.

I am trying to demonstrate the simplicity of the Green Build program. Do what is right, make the house more efficient, and next thing you know, you have 400 points, points you can brag about. It is just that easy. Forget about saving the planet, just design and build better houses.

How Green is it?

How green is a tankless water heater? NAHB's scoring sheet gives it 4 points. Is the 4 points worth the cost of the heater? Wrong question. The questions should be is the investment in the home enhanced by the energy savings that a tankless water heater provides? Am I sacrificing convenience for energy savings? Is it worth the sacrifice? Everyone will have a different threshhold to meet in order to answer these questions.

So here it is another day, and you were promised an answer. How green is it? The truthful answer is, I don't really know. I did not fill out the scoring sheet with that in mind. I did the sheet based on how green would the house have been if I had known what the categories on the scoring sheet had been and to what extend would I have implemented each item. So with that in mind, and remembering that I am your typical value oriented central Pennsylvania Dutchmen, there I said it. I admitted it, I am a Dutchman. Now there is nothing wrong with that, it just needs to be remembered that a Dutchman is not cheap, he just wants value. And we all realize that the least expensive item is not always the best or most valuable. For example, the cost of a 30 year roof on your home is typically of more value that a 25 year roof. Just look at the cost per year of the roof. And a BMW is an expensive car, but if you look at the cost to drive it per mile, it compares very favorably with the typical less expensive car that only gets 80,000 miles on it before it is worn out. For those of you who do not know, a Beamer typically lasts for well over 150,000 miles. And by the way, there is no truth to the rumor that copper wire was invented by 2 Dutchman fighting over a penny.

Now that I got that out of my system, How Green is it??? According t0 the NAHB Green standards, this house needs 237 points for the Bronze level, 311 points for the Silver level, and 395 points for the Gold level. I think since this is a green program, that the designation for the top level should be "Emerald". But what do I know? So I slogged thru the paper work, answered the gazillion questions, all 7 categories, and who knows how many subcategories and pages, figuring out that yea, we did that, or yea, we could easily have done that, or no, we do not do that, only to get the end and get a warning statement that I do not meet some criteria, obviously skipped over. After I found my way back to the very beginning and found the box I had not checked, I was back in the grove. Points, POINTS. How many did I get? Hopefully I made at least somewhere in the high Bronze level. Wow!! 425 Emerald points, whoooooops, they are Gold. Success!! We can actually do this.

After the elation, now what? How do we use this good news to actually benefit clients? How do we help our clients do what is right for the environment? How do we. . . . . . . ?

Green House????

So what really is a "green house"? Someplace to grow tomatoes or flowers? Green is the color of money, which is what it takes a lot of to buy a house, so in essence, are all houses green? Green is referred to in the phrase "green with envy". (See the last comment.) Much of what I learned about house design was from my guru, Glenn Landvater. I have not seen him for quite some time, the last I heard from him he was living in Ocean City, Maryland. Anyway, he said that the last color he would make the exterior of a home, was green. After all, you have green grass, green trees, even green weeds all around the house, so if you make the house green, you lose the impact of what you designed.

Bottom line, green is the color of the living earth. So the new definition of "green houses" is that the less impact a house has on the environment, the "greener" it is. So green is a variable. Much of how green a house is, is controlled by how it is lived in. Naturally, if a house is designed to live green, it is much easier. Just think how green a house could be if it had no heat. That would be a problem for my wife, who likes to sleep in a warm bed, not in a cold, dark, dank, damp cave on a bear hide. So it is much better for today's civilization to design a house with an energy efficient heating system that both provides comfort for the owner, and is environmentally responsible. Another example of house design is insulation. Sure, you could simply add more. But the better method is to design the house to optimize the insulation. There are lots of construction techniques, most of them so simple you have to go "duh" when you finally figure them out. So there are lots of small things that need to be done to a house during construction that dramatically increase the energy efficiency of the house as an entire unit.

But back to the ongoing journey to green. As previously blogged, we believe in Energy Star as an energy efficient package for our homes to the extent that we now construct all of our homes to the Energy Star standard. I had also been paying attention to green building, what ever that means. There are a dozen + green building programs in place through out the country. Probably Denver had the first. These are local programs, designed and administered by local Home Builders Associations. And being the skeptic that I am, I found lots of excuses to not become informed. After all, it really has to add gazillions of dollars to the cost of a home, then no one that I know can afford it. After all, I grew up in PA, and although we are not cheep, we know a good deal when we see it. And we are even more quick to spot a rip off.

But as we all know, even political candidates, who are not allowed to change their stance of anything, change their attitude as they become educated. Well, I have been learning more about "green". And even my skepticism is disappearing. Even people in central PA are starting to talk about going green. Even value conscious builders like me.

But I needed something I could wrap my arms around, not pie-in-the sky idealistic platitudes. Voila!!!! I have been saved!!!! The National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) rolled out a nation wide Green Building Certification program. And even a builder can understand it!!!! But really, I will need to spend tons of money to build a green house, right? So with my BS radar turned up 150%, I started reading, and reading, and reading. And I went to a NAHB seminar that described the program. But not in a lot of detail. So I am still on my own. Then I found it, the score card. The rating sheets that the program uses to rate how green a house is. So with healthy skepticism, I started on the first sheet. Then I noticed there are how many pages?? I do not want to spend a week on just rating a house. But I need to start, or I will never know. How many points do I need for the gold rating? 395? What's that mean? I guess I could settle for the silver or bronze rating, but what fun is that? That's right, I was told that an Energy Star home, just by meeting that standard, will give enough points to make the bronze level. So maybe we could do the silver level home. Without adding that gazillion dollar thing to the cost.

So I fought on. Thru the first page, thru the first section. How many more sections? 23 Pages in this section? I remembered how much I hate paper work. Then it took what seemed like 5 minutes for the program to save the page before going to the next. And I remembered how much I hate waiting. So I looked at each check off item with my own rating system in mind, "how much will it cost to meet that criteria? Is it something I am currently doing, that only needs documentation? Is there a cost effective way to accomplish that task? At the end when I add up the points, will it be worth increasing the construction cost of the house to get those additional points?" See what I was doing? I was trying to justify the point system. Which is attacking the symptom, not the root cause. The root cause is to make the house more environmentally friendly in design and construction, making it more environmentally friendly to live in. So the question became, "does meeting this specific substandard provide value to the home owners as they interact with the earth?"

I selected a home that we are just finishing up now at Cider Press Estates. (see www.wheatlandhomes.com/our-homes/for-sale/705-bencru-ave/ ) What would it have rated out as if we had actually planned on making it a "green house"?

Look for the answer tomorrow. Or the next day.

In the Beginning

Wow!! I am trying to remember where it all started. Twenty-one years ago with the construction of my own passive solar (kinda') house? Or 9 years ago when I installed the PV system? I guess the energy saving stuff has always fascinated me, and being an old math major, the numbers of energy saving are really intriguing. But that is old news, ancient history.

So I have been watching the market, patiently waiting for the day when energy efficiency would become important in this area. About four years ago, I heard about Energy Star. What a great idea. But at that time the average consumer was unwilling to spend $800 in their new home to add Low-E glazing to their windows. Now it is happening. The consumers are becoming more energy and environmentally conscious. For several reasons. Energy costs are going up, and are going to continue rising. Resources are costly, and by optimizing their use by planning, recycling and just good construction practice, it is actually possible to construct lower impact homes.

Last year we officially became an Energy Star builder. We committed to the concept to the extent that all Wheatland homes will be Energy Star certified. (The key to the certification is that it is cone by a third party inspector, who does all the testing required to issue the certification.) This has been a good experience, both in the technical aspects of the construction, as well as the discussions we have had with vendors and consumers.

Tune in tomorrow for more!