Beauty

Beauty. Isn't nature amazing? What a pretty picture, and a gorgeous setting! O, I experienced another beautiful thing, I was right. Don't you just love it when that happens? In case you do not remember, it has always been my contention that green is good, but only within sensible economic parameters. And now the data agrees with me. One of the latest "Green" surveys finds that 70 % of stated home buyers "more or much more" inclined to buy a green home. And of owners that currently live in green homes, 85 % said they were more satisfied with their new green homes than with their previous, more "traditionally built" homes. But here is the telling truth, 63% of green home buyers said their green purchases were motivated by lower operating and maintenance costs. PAYBACK!!!! Green home purchasers understand the concept of life time costs as opposed to first costs. The really important cost of something is what it will cost you over it's life time of usage. Just think about it, what are investments paying now? Banks, close to nothing. Wall street, less than nothing. You can, right now, invest money in your home and make a 5 - 20 % return on that investment. Really.

In addition to saving money through more efficient use of energy, there are federal tax credits available, and state tax credits, and Keystone Help low interest loans and grants, and coming soon, utility company rebates. You heard correctly, Utility company rebates. Pa Act 129 mandates that the utility companies reduce energy demand. And the consensus is that they need to incentivize their customers in order to meet the Act's requirements.

I am working on a checklist for your home, to help think of ways to make your home greener, i. e., use resources and energy more efficiently. And the list is not in any particular order, but here it is:

I like to refer to the list as a Systems Assessment. We need to look at each item and analyze how it fits into the system that we call a house.

Window and doors

HVAC and ventilation

Electrical and lighting

Solar orientation

Geo thermal orientation

Plumbing and water systems

Appliances

Energy Audits

Insulation and sealing

By looking at each of these items individually, and fitting them into the house, we can determine the over all efficiency of the home. Then we can determine which of the items needing upgrading will make the largest and quickest return of monies invested.

And the amazing thing is, it works for both new homes, and old homes.

Money In Your Pocket

OK, here it is. The latest Federal Tax Credits for energy Efficiency. www.energystar.gov/index.cfm?c=products.pr_tax_credits#s6

Up or Down??

What's the market going to do today? Up or down? How about this week? Last month was good, but what will April bring? Stock market watching is not for the faint of heart. Well, maybe just as long as you are watching, and not playing. Just last month gold was preaching high and higher, now it is off it's highs and falling like a rock.

And what about housing ? We know starts have been down, but sales of existing homes are up again. And permits in many areas of the country are starting to build.

Needless to say, there is lots of uncertainty in the markets. One thing we do know, energy costs will be only going one direction, and we all know what that is, UP.

OK then guru, what is a sane and rational person to do. First, only bet on a sure thing. If you want to be in the stock market, or the commodities market, that is OK with me, but be warned, it is still going to be a wild rodeo ride. And money in fixed return instruments is just that, fixed at a low rate. So what is the sure thing? Energy costs are going up. So you can play the oil market, if you are a gambler. Or you can invest in a sure bet, your home. Homes use about 40% of the nations energy. So we have an opportunity to help out national energy situation and save our own money at the same time, by reducing our home energy consumption. How do we do that? Improve you existing home with upgraded windows, insulation, doors, HVAC systems, lights. And the added bonus is that there are state and federal tax credits and loans available to help offset the initial costs of these upgrades. And if you are thinking a new home, make sure it is an Energy Star home. A standard Energy Star home will save you approximately 15% of the energy costs of a standard home, while the "enhanced" Energy Star construction will save approximately 30% over a standard home. And all for little additional "first" cost. Can you get a 4 year payback on money invested in the stock market?

ARE YOU ANSI?

ANSI - To be edgy, nervous, undecided. Is that you? Uncertain about your future? Feeling anxious about your present situation? Need to get an hour with your shrink. Or two. Oh, wait a minute, that is being "antsy". OK, let's try again, ANSI - to be attacked by a group of those little black things that come into your house thru the foundation, that you need an exterminator to get rid of. And all the exterminators are 3 days out. Now you are really antsy.

Really, ANSI, the American National Standards Institute is the gold standard for coordination of standardized testing and rating systems throughout the United States. Founded in 1918 by five engineering societies and three government agencies, the Institute promotes and facilitates consensus standards and conformity of assessment systems. The ANSI approval process requires that materially affected and interested parties all buy into the standards, that the proposed standards go thru a public review process, and that all these comments be addressed in good faith. To this end, we now have an ANSI approved Green rating standard. What is the importance of having this standard? Real simply, we can get past the discussion of what make a house green, to "how green do we want it?" And now we can judge the "greenness" of a project with consistency. In other words, we have a rating system that will be recognized through out the 50 States.

The other news is that the approved ANSI green standards are basically the same rating system we have been using. So the management and coordination we did at the Penn Valley Silver rated green house will remain virtually the same for future projects.

How energy efficint do you want your home to be? How healthy would you like your interior air? How much water do you want to save? How GREEN do you want your home to be?

WHY NOT AN ENERGY STAR HOME?

I just don't get it. What could be an easier decision than "if I can save $400-$500 per year today on my home energy bill" and "I know that future energy costs are going up" and it costs me less that $2,000 up front, why would I not want an Energy Star home?

We just spent the weekend at F&M at the Building Industry Association of Lancaster County's (BIA) Spring Home Show. There were lots of builders and tradesmen there, showing houses, kitchens, HVAC systems, central vacs, patio materials, window blinds, financing, additions, windows, Invisible Fence dogs fences, landscaping, custom stained glass, doors, appliances, flooring, literally everything and anything for your home. But guess who was the only Energy Star builder. There were several displays that talked about "green". And that was great. Green heating systems, green solar hot water heater, "ask me about green", green appliances, and Dave Pusey who is debuting his home energy audit program. So there was some buzz about green, but the best part of green, the part that adds the most value to a home, the part that actually has a financial return, is the energy part. And the most comprehensive way to do home energy efficiency, is Energy Star. An Energy Star home is inspected, tested, verified and certified. There is no guessing about how good the energy job was. It is a comprehensive approach, including windows, doors, walls, ceilings, insulation, heating and cooling equipment, duct work, foundation, sealing and ventilation. The entire 9 yards. I always wondered, what does that mean, anyway, "the whole 9 yards"? Should we run a contest for the best answer? It does not need to be correct, just the most creative.

So we talked to a lot of people, some about Energy Star, some about Green Building, and some just about building homes and additions. We talked about the future; energy rate increases, renewable energy, resource management for houses (water), interior air quality in houses. And here is what most people agree on. The cost of electricity, while among the least expensive in the country, is going up. Did P P L say 65%? We say, OK, maybe the 65% is correct, for now. But we all think it will be closer to 80-90% over 24 months. Water usage and controls are going to become increasingly more important. How we handle rainwater in regards to ground water recharge as well as efficient use of water in our homes. And as we continue to build houses tighter, whole house air exchangers will become an important part of the ventilation system. You know, I just had a thought. Everyone touts a green house as being a cost savings because we can use a smaller HVAC system, so why not make the house even more healthy by using the HVAC cost savings to install the heat exchanger? Now that would really be a really nice trade.

Which only leaves ONE question, why is not every house built an Energy Star home? I just don't get it. It is just so obvious.

Well, that's my report for today.

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