Builder Bob Sense-Builders build themselves Green Homes!
December 16, 2009
Checking the Duct Work
- Green Dean and Associated Contractors
Continuing with the thought processes of building Green as it applies to Home Builders, let us look quickly at a highly publicized, commercially successful Green Building Program, LEED. Why do builders, owners and tenants subject themselves to LEED’s burdensome program documentation requirements? The answer is long term ownership or occupancy. Home Builders build Homes and sell them. Commercial Builders build buildings for owners who are interested in return on investment and cost savings over a long haul. The owners or tenants themselves demand the LEED certification(Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design). Why? They are investing substantial dollars in the building or space and are going to own or occupy that space/building for years to come. They must consider initial cost and future costs into their ownership/occupancy/investment equation and weigh the advantages and cost effectiveness over the long haul. A long term investment concerns itself with more than initial cost, it considers occupancy, maintenance and future worth.
Commercially and multi-family projects have another issue to address, one that gets a lot of negative publicity for a building when it rears its ugly head–indoor air quality(think mold). Occupants, lessee’s, and a litigious society demand the work/rental environment be healthy. Green building programs address not only energy conservation and sustainable building practices, but healthy indoor air concerns.
Ironically what holds true for commercial buildings, has long held true for home builders building their own home. What home builder do you know, who builds their own home, the one they are going to live in, without putting in the systems they know to work and work well? Visit a home builders own home and they brag about their HVAC efficiencies, the long lasting flooring, the good windows, the Solar Hot Water, etc., etc? They don’t skimp on anything that is going to cause them maintenance or replacement issues. And they do it cost effectively–they know good value from bad? How about a healthy indoor environment for their family? If they know it works and it is cost justifiable–they put it in their own home. Did you ever visit a builders home where they told you how cheap they did it?That they just built it to code? Remember code is the lowest standard you can build a house to and get a Certificate of Occupancy. In their own home, Builders put in the stuff they know is right. They understand that cost to value equation. That is their house and their investment and they are going to do it right. When they sell a home to another individual, there can be a callous lack of concern for occupancy and maintenance costs beyond the initial warranty. It ain’t the Builders Problem! That paradigm is rapidly changing.
Why haven’t builders put the smart, cost effective stuff in every home they build? One is they can’t explain the benefits to a potential buyer. Two is they don’t want to be bothered, as if a house sells by the same old methods, why change. Well it is changing. Consumers are demanding healthier, sustainable, energy efficient homes every day and it is the builder who incorporates this and explains the benefits well, that reaps the profit now and into the future. The concept and the demand is not going away.
Builder Bob Sense
Builder Bob-Why buy into the Green Concept?
December 15, 2009
Previously I have written about LEED’s and why that commercial building application is successful. In simplicity it has to do with the final ownership of the building. Owners of buildings are going to make sure they can achieve the greatest return on investment by addressing their ownership life of that building. They may make different choices if they are going to only own the building for 5 years, rather than say 25 years. They are going to make different choices if their company or organization is going to occupy the building for business use.
Answering Governor Kaine Question
While Green Building addresses the impact on the environment, there are usually a couple of issues that have to be addressed first, and it is why I like to use the word sustainable building, rather than Green, as builders think to often that “Green” is an out there concept for tree-huggers, rather than the real issues of building.
A published paper regarding Cost vs. Value assessments addressing Green Building practices for Affordable Housing puts it in understandable terms. The paper is published by New Ecology, Inc. It calls them “conventional goals.” These goals reduce it to the points that I find important in trying to get home builders to buy into the creation of “Sustainable Building.” They are: affordability, performance, and health.
Affordability to me means how much is it going to cost and what kind of value am I going to create. And if I create this value, as a builder, will I be able to show this difference to my home buyer? Remember what I said previously about the difference between LEEDS and Green Home Building–that it is end user driven? Well the end user in this instance is the home buyer. If I am going to put something into a house and it is going to cost me money(it doesn’t necessarily have to), I have to be able to show that home buyer a benefit–usually involving their wallet. That benefit not only has to make sense, but it has to put me in a superior position to sell my product–houses–for a profit–and give me an edge over my competition. If I can’t show that home buyer why he should either pay more for my house, or buy my house, at the same price as my competition, and do it quicker, why am I going to do this? No production builder is. A custom home builder has an obligation to his client to show them these options, but this is a discussion for another day.
Performance: Performance is where I like the word sustainability best. Meaning how can I get the house to perform the best at the best possible cost justification. Performance I like to think involves how the systems operate and for how long. If performance means less maintenance, then I have to sell that to a buyer. If performance means my HVAC system is going to deliver what it is designed to deliver–I have to show that to a buyer. Example: If my Air Conditioning system is designed to deliver 3 tons of cooling and it leaks 30% of that, then I am only delivering 2 Tons of cooling–not a good performance. But if my duct leakage is only 5% then I am delivering 95% of the systems design–good performance. Not only that, but if my ducts are designed correctly and installed correctly then I have given my home owner a system that is going to perform far into the future, cutting down on costly retrofits.
Health: A healthy house is an instantaneous, well received buzz word. But more than any buzz word, it has to be backed up by fact. If I build a Green or sustainable home, I have to be able to show that homeowner why it is healthier. Every one buying a house is concerned with their health or their families health. If my house is healthier I have to be able to show why? If I can’t relate why my house is healthier than my competitions, or why it is healthier period, than a normally built house, why do it? If I am going to spend the time and effort to make it healthier than I have to be able to convey that point to a buyer.
Each of these items will be addressed in the continuation of these thought processes. Builder Bob
Conditioned Crawl Spaces misnomer!
December 14, 2009
Pressurized Crawl Space
- A Conditioned Crawl Space
A Conditioned Crawl Space is one that has one or more heating/ac supply ducts in it. The underlying idea is to keep the crawl space at a slightly positive pressure. This means that the crawl space, which by nature of its position at the bottom of a building or house, in its natural state, is usually under a negative pressure. What does that mean? It means in common terms it is always sucking in moisture and air. Crawl spaces have been verified to have sucked in moisture from 40′ away. A crawl space under a negative pressure, naturally sucks in outside air and moisture, and this is what we want to prevent, the sucking, along with keeping the temperature of the crawl space somewhat moderate in temperature and relative humidity. Now to do this we put in a one or more HVAC supply vents, to keep the positive pressure and prevent the sucking in of contaminants, etc.
Well now some group of highly intelligent people of a nether world have made it code to now include a return duct in this crawl space. So now we are back to the negative pressure crawl space. We put air in, we take it out and we suck more in from outside. This means radon, other contaminents, moisture, is now brought into our duct system purposely. This is a prime example of Green Stupid. Wait until someone proves that the return, because a leak occurred in a gas furnace, put in a conditioned crawl space, caused death by spreading carbon monoxide gas or bringing excessive radon into a home, there will be hell to pay. Dumb, dumb, and dumber.