Greenhomebuilding.com
E-zine #12 June 6, 2003
Contents
*Energy Conservation and
Sustainable Development Credits
*Upcoming Conferences
*General and Unsubscribe Information
Greenhomebuilding.com
E-zine is a monthly opt-in email publication for people who are
interested in sustainable architecture and alternative or natural building. It
is written by Kelly Hart, the host of www.greenhomebuilding.com
Energy Conservation and
Sustainable Development Credits
I live in a small rural community in the
mountains of Colorado in the United States. The land where we built our home is
located within a subdivision that is governed by a set of "Covenants and
Restrictions" that control the nature of what gets built here. There is a
Property Owner's Association that is responsible for overseeing development,
with an "Environmental and Architectural Committee" (EAC) that is assigned the
task of reviewing all applications for building. The State of Colorado
administers plumbing and electrical inspections, but there are otherwise no
codes for structural design, which has opened the way for much
alternative construction.
I have been a member of the EAC for over a year,
and have found the experience to be both rewarding and frustrating. It is
obviously a rather political position, with all that this entails, but it also
feels good to have some influence over how our rather delicate environment is
affected by development. There is strong community support for "green"
architecture here, and at the same time there is pressure from
speculative construction that tends to disregard many of the sustainable issues.
Our Committee has been trying in various ways to persuade developers and
property owners to build sustainably, but there has been little noticeable
change in the general attitude. The simple advantages of passive solar
architecture, for instance, seem to be ignored by many of our
applicants.
So now the EAC has asked me to help draft a
system of incentives for energy conservation and sustainable development that
will actually move us closer to this goal. One approach would be through a
series of financial incentives that would basically decrease the
application fee for greener applications. The problem with this approach is that
many of the speculative developers would just pay the higher fee and go ahead
with business as usual, passing on the cost to the eventual buyer. A system with
more teeth would be a set of regulations or codes with mandatory compliance. We
are now considering a credit system, where an applicant could pick and choose
from a list of possible green features, each of which is assigned a number of
credit points. All applications would then need to accumulate a certain number
of these credits in order to qualify. This sort of system has been adopted by
other communities around the country.
I have included a draft of the proposed credit
system below for you to evaluate. I would be very interested in any comments or
suggestions that you might have for how this could be amended or improved. I
have used many of the basic principles of sustainable architecture put forth at
www.greenhomebuilding.com as a
guide for this draft. I am thinking that applicants would need to come up with
at least 100 credit points; my own house would qualify for 180 credit points. It
might be interesting for you to evaluate your own home on this basis to see
where it might stand.
Energy Conservation and Sustainable
Development Credits
Windows facing within 25 degrees of South are at least
25% of the floor area of the rooms they are part of. (10
points)
Windows to all other directions total less than 10% of their
combined wall area. (5 points)
South-facing windows are shaded either by overhangs, wall
thickness or other shading devices. (5 points)
The sunlight through the south-facing windows is
unobstructed for at least 6 hours during the day of the Winter Solstice.
(5 points)
Provision is made to insulate at least 50% of the glass at
night. (5 points)
Sufficient insulated thermal mass is incorporated into the
design to hold heat over night. (10 points)
An attached solar greenhouse is utilized as part of the
solar design strategy. (10 points)
Adequate ventilation is provided to avoid over heating.
(5 points)
Insulation provides a demonstrated performance equivalence
in our climate of at least R-12 (floor on ground), R-19 (off-ground floor and
walls), and R-38 (roof). (10 points)
Active solar heating system is designed to provide at least
50% of space heating. (10 points)
Use of a non-electric heating system. (5
points)
Use of renewable electric energy equipment (solar panels,
wind generator, etc.) (5 points per KW)
Compact fluorescent light bulbs installed throughout.
(5 points)
Central location of mechanical equipment. (5
points)
Sealed ductwork. (2 points)
All hot water pipes insulated. (3
points)
Installation of solar water heating system.
(10 points)
Thermopane windows used throughout project. (5
points)
Use of radiant floor heating system. (5
points)
Radon gas mitigation employed. (5
points)
Any residential building designed at less than 1,500 square
feet. (5 points)
Any residential building designed at less than 1,000 square
feet. (additional 5 points)
Any project that requires no fill to be brought to the site
for preparation of the building pad. (10 points)
Any project that is composed of domes for at least 50%
of the space. (10 points)
Use of non-industrial, natural, fairly local materials for
at least 50% of the entire building envelope (includes adobe, rammed earth, cob,
earthbags, strawbale, rock, cordwood, culled round wood under 6 inch diameter).
(10 points)
Use of natural insulation (includes cotton, wool,
scoria) for at least 50% of total envelope. (5
points)
Use of at least $1,000 worth of recycled building materials
if they were purchased new. (5 points)
Any foundation designed for 50% or more saving of concrete
over conventional continuous perimeter foundation. (5
points)
Use of at least 50% salvaged wood for the entire project.
(10 points)
Use of at least
50% wood certified as sustainably harvested for the entire project. (10
points)
Use of round (un-milled) wood either structurally or
decoratively. (5 points)
Use of SIP’s (structural, insulated panels) for at least 30%
of the envelope. (5 points)
Earth berm covering at least 20% of the entire exterior wall
area. (10 points)
Earth-sheltered, or green roof designs that provide at least
50% of the roof area covered with at least 12 inches of soil. (10
points)
A cool pantry that is at least 50% underground, on the north
side of the house, and measures at least 50 square feet of interior space.
(Needs at least .25 sq. ft. inlet and outlet vents.) (15
points)
A cool pantry that measures at least 50 square feet, on the
north side of the house, is entirely insulated by at least R-30, with inlet and
outlet vents that are at least 1 sq. ft. of screened area, that can be opened at
night in the summer and during the day in the winter. (10
points)
A cool cupboard pantry with at least R-19 surrounding
insulation and 16 cubic ft. of interior space, and inlet and outlet air vents of
at least .25 sq. ft. that can be opened at night in the summer and during the
day in the winter. (5 points)
Upcoming
Conferences
I am pleased to announce a couple of conferences
that I will be involved with:
The Natural Building Colloquium
of 2003 will be held October 5-11 at the Black Range Lodge in New Mexico. I will
be discussing sustainable architecture and hybrid earthbag/papercrete building.
Contact Catherine Wanek blackrange@zianet.com for more
information.
The 2nd International Vittachi
Conference will be held in Crestone, Colorado on August 3-10. Open for
young adults, 18 to 35, interested in exploring a sustainable approach to
housing, the environment, business, spirituality and the arts. I will be
teaching earth bag building techniques. Register on line at www.humanfutureproject.org.
General and
Unsubsrcibe information
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Kelly Hart