What Makes This Home Green?

Suzy and Jeff have worked with three different architects during the past three years to come up the plans for their future home.  We believed our new home should have a smaller environmental footprint then our current 1700 sq. ft. home but look like a typical middle-America home.  We want the home to be build to the Emerald National Green Building Standard adopted by the National Association of Home Builders  and at least Gold Certified LEED.

A concrete home was chosen to provide better insulation, a quieter living environment and protection from Oklahoma’s severe weather.  All the exterior walls of the home will be built using DOW T-mass Insulated Concrete Forms with a Texturi stucco finish.  The T-Mass product is consists of a 3 inch layer of styrofoam with a layer of concrete on both sides of the styrofoam.  Dow T-Mass Specifications. 

The basement walls will be 12” thick and the 1^st floor walls will be 10” thick.  The excavation work, foundation work and concrete wall will be completed by Basement Contractors.  We understand Basement Contractors will be promoting this home as their 500^th basement project.

In addition to the high insulation and low air infiltration, the home will incorporate geothermal heating and cooling.  The 8000 sq. ft. home will only need 6 tons of cooling. 

On behalf of OG&E, Guaranteed Watt Saver Systems has done a preliminary evaluation of the proposed homes energy efficiency.  The home received a HERS rating of 37.  We expect to further improve the rating after the CREE LED lighting package is taken into account and the testing of the envelope is completed.

The plans and proposed budget include a 20,000 rainwater harvesting system to be used for irrigation.  All roof rainwater from the clay tile roof will be directed to this water tank.  We will also attempt to capture the hardscape water runoff.  A gray water system was considered.  All the driveway material except for the pad directly in front of the garage and the area between the street and the sidewalk will be Pavestone permeable pavers.  This will allow much of the rainwater that is normally sent to storm sewers to be returned to the aquifer.  All the toilets in the home will be dual flush toilets.  All faucets and shower heads will be low flow.

In the kitchen island has a recycle chute.  It’s a door in the island that goes to a collection bin located in the mechanical room in the basement.  Hopefully this will serve as a daily reminder to all family members that we need to do our part to protect our planet.

There is 1200 sq ft of flat roof to be used for solar panels.  The current plans will be to use solar panels to heat the pool water.  The geothermal system will be used to heat the hot water for the home.  In the future, as solar photovoltaic technology advances, we hope to build our own solar farm to power the entire home.  We are also exploring the practicality of a vertical axis wind turbine.  Specifically, we are looking at Urban Green Energy’s 4kw vertical axis wind turbine. 

The wood floors (Walnut and Durango Sunset) are reclaimed and were purchased from Elmwood Reclaimed Wood of Smithville, MO.  They are beautiful and we purchased them during a sale so the price was less than new wood flooring. 

We have decided to use recycled glass & concrete countertops from Rivers’ Edge Countertops, Inc.   throughout the entire home.  These counters use up to 80% recycled glass.  Jeremiah Rivers has been great to work with and offers a very large selection of colors, both in glass colors and in cement colors.  

The appliances will be KitchenAid Architect Series II Energy Star and Whirlpool Duet Energy Star Washer and Dryer

We will use the new CR6 Cree LED lights throughout the home.  We saw this product at the 2010 International Builders Show earlier this year.  My wife fell in love with the lights color.  According to a consumer reports article, “By reducing the number of LEDs used in the 6-inch CR6, Cree has limited its energy consumption to 12 watts, but the company claims the CR6 has a light output equivalent to that of an 18- to 26-watt CFL. Priced at $50 to $60 per bulb, the CR6 has a claimed 35,000- to 50,000-hour life span, several times that of typical CFLs and incandescents.”

We are pestering Jeff Stewart, owner of O’Connell’s in Norman, to procure the back bar and front bar from the Lindsey Ave location when that bar is closed.  The entire bar would be moved to the basement of the home.

The first two rows of the theater chairs were salvaged from Jeff’s hometown theater in Orrville, OH.

We are trying to find 1960 era pipe and spoke bridge railing to use for fencing material around the home.

Sooner Foam Insulation will be using Demilec SEALection Agribalance Spray Foam Insulation to insulate the attic of the home.  SEALection Agribalance s a two-component, open-cell, spray-applied, semi-rigid polyurethane foam system that contains more than 20% renewable agricultural-based materials (refined vegetable oils) in the resin.The walls are made of two layers of concrete with 2″ of DOW styrofoam in between so no insulation is needed in the walls.  

The roof of the home will be clay tile.  We have chosen from the MCA Superior Clay Tile cool color collection.

40% Brick Red (DS01 2F43)

Brick Red – 2F43

CRRC Product ID # 0882-0027

Solar Reflectance – 0.42

Thermal Emittance – 0.84

60% Canyon Red (DS01 2F23)

Canyon Red – 2F23
CRRC Product ID # 0882-0031

Solar Reflectance – 0.36

Thermal Emittance – 0.88

Why this is a good product.

http://www.mca-tile.com/coolroof/leed_points.htm

The blinds in the home will be electronically controlled and tied to the thermostats.

www.somfy.com

Some interior wall finishing will be done using American Clay or Variance.  We prefer American Clay but have been unable to find trained applicators in Oklahoma City.

The south wall of the home is 29’ wide by 23’ high and is solid concrete – no windows, no doors.  We would like to build a vertical wall garden on this wall. Some examples can also be found at Green Home Building and elteasygreen.

We’ve shosen drought tolerant Riviera Bermuda Grass from Johnson Seed Co in Enid for yard.  This grass was developed by OSU for the PGA.  Most of the plants will be drought tolerant as well.

Low or no voc glues and paints will be used throughout the home.

All wood will be FSC certified.