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!