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USGBC Releases Green Homeowner Manual

In order to assist green building project teams and LEED for Homes project teams, USGBC has produced a LEED for Homes Homeowners Operations and Maintenance
(HOM) Manual.

Green House

The HOM Manual was developed to support the LEED for Homes prerequisite AE 1: Education of the Homeowner or Tenant, and to provide tips on maintaining a LEED-certified home. Be sure to read the Project Team Instructions for how to properly use and customize the manual.

The manual is available to all project teams and can assist anyone looking for information on how a home works.

Download the Basic Operations Training manual (AE1.1)

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Chicago to Welcome its First Prefab Green Home

The Green Home Institute () announces an exciting new addition to its LEED Homes roster in Illinois: the first prefabricated “green” home to be built in Chicago, which will earn the prestigious LEED Platinum certification upon completion. LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) for Homes certification provides third-party assurance that a home complies with rigorous technical requirements for energy and water efficiency, indoor air quality, non-toxic materials, and environmental performance. Square Root Architecture, along with Helios Design/Build and Indiana Building Systems, will be installing the prefabricated green home, a single-family residence in Chicago’s West Town neighborhood.

C3 Prefab in Chicago

“These days, more and more people see the inherent value of an energy-efficient, healthy home that reduces not only your energy costs but your environmental impact,” said Jason La Fleur, Program Manager for , the LEED for Homes verification organization overseeing the certification for the project, “By bringing the first prefabricated sustainable home to Chicago we are setting the stage for more projects of this nature.”

The ‘C3 Prefab’ house has been in design development for quite some time, working out issues with permitting and scheduling.  The building team is now beginning module construction and site preparation work, with the house scheduled to be completed by December. The home is the first C3 Prefab unit and was designed by Square Root Architecture to reduce energy use, maintenance costs, and overall environmental impact and used prefabrication as a means to achieve these goals. As a result, the owners will have substantially lower utility bills.

The green building features that will contribute to LEED certification include an energy-efficient building envelope including low-e glass windows, blown insulation and solar thermal panels for heating water. The design also features extensive use of day-lighting to reduce artificial lighting needs and a 3-story ventilation shaft to reduce cooling loads in the summer. The house is heated & cooled through a high-efficiency heat pump system zoned for each room. “New homes have to be energy efficient and environmentally responsible, period,” says Kate Votava of Square Root Architecture. “It just doesn’t make sense to build in the same archaic way when we know we have better technology at our disposal.”

C3 Prefab Kitchen

The ‘C3’ is built as prefabricated modules in a controlled environment in Northern Indiana, which helps to ensure consistent quality construction in a weather-protected environment. “There are a number of advantages to building in a factory setting,” said Jeff Sommers of Square Root Architecture, “there is more oversight at every level and an efficient, streamlined and systematic process in putting together the structure”. This leads to a final product that is well sealed, perfectly fitted and consistently performs at a higher level than its stick-built counterparts. Yet another advantage is that waste generated from one project built in a factory can be used somewhere else, reducing the construction debris by up to 90% as compared to a typical home construction.

The site is in Chicagos’ West Town neighborhood at 1404 W. Ohio, located within walking distance of public transportation, shops, restaurants and other conveniences. The lot has plenty of open space for the owners to start vegetable gardens and have a compost area. Rainwater will also be collected for outdoor gardening and water needs.

The modules arrive at the site nearly complete with conduit, plumbing, drywall, and cabinets already installed. Once at the site, they are craned into place and married together. As part of the LEED third-party certification process, they will be visited both at the manufacturer during the construction process as well as on-site once completed to ensure quality construction benchmarks are met.

As a result of incorporating energy saving products and technologies, the C3 Prefab home is projected to achieve a commendable 47 Home Energy Rating System score or better. (Homes must achieve a minimum score of 85 – on a 100 point scale — to be “ENERGY STAR” qualified). Based on this energy efficiency and inclusion of other green building attributes, the home is projected to hit the LEED Platinum rating.

Indiana Building Systems is well versed in building efficient homes. Owner John Guequierre states, “The ‘C3’ will be our ninth LEED Platinum home in the last eighteen months. That probably means we have built more LEED Platinum modular homes than any other company. More importantly, every one presents its own unique challenges and an opportunity to learn and improve. The ‘C3’ has our entire work force excited.”

C3 Prefab courtyard

The Chicago builder, Hans Fedderke of Helios, believes that the prefab movement will gain momentum in the near future. “I believe this will become the standard method of building and I can’t wait to see what lies ahead for sustainable modular housing here in Chicago,” he says.

For more information about the project, visit the C3 Prefab web site:

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Double-Up Points in MR 2.2 with Reclaimed Materials

The Materials and Resources (MR) credit 2.2 is one of the more challenging areas of LEED for Homes to get a handle on. First of all, the unique aspect in LEED for Homes is that credit is awarded on a building component – by – building component basis. This is significantly different from other versions of LEED.  For instance, a project can earn credit just for flooring.

Additionally, there are many options for how a certain building component actually earns credit. Here is an abbreviated adaptation from the Rating System on how MR 2.2 reads:

MR 2.2 Environmentally Preferable Products. Use building component materials that meet one or more of the criteria below. A single component that meets each criterion… can earn points for each.

  1. Low emissions (0.5 points per component) learn more AND/OR
  2. Local production (0.5 points per component) within 500 miles AND/OR
  3. Environmentally preferable products (EPP) (0.5 points per component). Depending on the component, and possible ways of earning EPP credit might include

A missed opportunity for many LEED for Homes projects is that last point, using reclaimed materials. These are products that often come from a deconstruction project on another home. For example, some LEED for Homes projects use reclaimed lumber for interior framing, or reclaimed wood flooring.

The bonus is that most reclaimed material is almost always found within 500 miles – so the project team can earn (2) half-points (or 1 full point) because the material meets points (a) and (c) above. This is a great quick way to double-up points in MR2.2.

Project teams have several sourcing options for reclaimed materials, including local Habitat for Humanity ReStores, as well as the Rebuilding Exchange. Often, these materials are cheaper than if bought new, so using reclaimed materials is a benefit to the LEED scorecard and a benefit to the project budget.

For a nice handout to share with  project teams explaining, please download this Materials Reuse in LEED for Homes flyer, created by the ReBuilding Exchange and USGBC Illinois.

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Two Affordable LEED Homes to be Built for Greenbuild

Habitat for Humanity Lake County has teamed up with USGBC and Bank of America to build two LEED Platinum homes side-by-side as part of the Greenbuild 2010. The homes will offer a miniature regional green building case study in occupancy costs down the road for two construction types.

Both homes will have the same floor plan and appearance but will be built using two different construction methods. The Greenbuild Legacy Home project will feature state of the art ICF and panelized construction, while the second home, targeted for 75% competition by Greenbuild, will be built using conventional stick construction as an opportunity for Greenbuild attendees to view its construction process. Currently both homes are aiming to achieve LEED for Homes Platinum certification. Construction cost data and performance will be tracked and published for both homes once both are complete. USGBC’s commitment to affordable green housing extends beyond Greenbuild, as fully 40% of the homes in the LEED for Homes program are affordable.

The Green Home Institute will serve as the LEED for Homes Provider on the project. Learn more about this affordable housing project by viewing the full article at Real Estate Rama.

Wood frame home on left, ICF home on right

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LEED Midrise earns LEED Platinum

This 4-story affordable housing development leveraged the development team’s quality building practices already in place, and with only minor modifications, allowed the team to earn LEED Platinum certification.

Commons at Buckingham – a LEED Platinum Midrise project in Columbus, OH

In order to achieve the level of LEED platinum, fixture specifications were changed, and a complete building exhaust and return air system was added. Commons at Buckingham is a very special effort, by providing housing for 100 formerly homeless persons, 10 of which are U.S. Veterans.

The Commons at Buckingham is 100 units on a 0.6 acre site. Ruscilli Construction Company through great effort were able to construct this building on a very small site, and were able to achieve a rate of 88% for all construction waste to be recycled. Additionally, Ruscilli and their sub-contractors were able to donate many tons of ‘waste’ to a local community college for use in their construction trades training program.

PROJECT BASICS

LEED FactsProject Type: Affordable
Conditioned Space: 60,791 sq ft
Units: 100
Buildings: 1
Lot Type: Infill
Construction Type: New Construction
KEYS TO SUCCESS

Roof Insulation Value: 38
Windows: Alum.NexGen
Lighting: LED
HVAC Type:PTAC/RooftopReturn

The Density of this project is what makes the project truly sustainable, 100 units on .6 acres.

THE LEED FOR HOMES DIFFERENCE
Construction Waste Management Plan: YES!
On-Site Performance Tests: YES!
Custom Durability Planning Checklist: YES!
Third-Party Verified Documentation: YES!
About the Project Team

Developer – National Church Residences
General Contractor – Ruscilli Construction Company
Architect – Berardi + Partners, Inc.
Engineers – Jezernac – Geers and Assoc. Kliengers and Assoc. Prater Engineering
Landscape Architect – The Edge Group
Green Rater – Sol Development

Buckingham LEED Scorecard

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Builder pitches net-zero energy LEED homes

Solar panels and wind turbines sold Meg Barrett and Doug Smit on the Prairie Ridge Estates development in New Lenox. “I would be an ambassador for this type of technology,” Barrett said. (David Pierini, Chicago Tribune / July 28, 2010)

A newly formed company thinks the beacon that will attract homebuyers to its patch of dirt in New Lenox isn’t a clubhouse or walking paths, the extras that once drew attention to new subdivisions, but 30-foot-tall vertical-axis wind turbines.

Prairie Ridge Estates, as envisioned by local developers Jim and Phil Regan, could just possibly become the nation’s largest net-zero energy subdivision, filled with homes that produce as much energy as they use during a year.

But selling 132 lots of really green housing also could prove a formidable task for Energy Smart Home Builders, and not just because homebuilding has screeched to a halt.

View full Chicago Tribune article

Reproduced from Chicago Tribune, Aug 3, 2010.

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GreenBuild registration discounted until Sept 7

We’re fortunate this year to have the world’s premiere conference and expo on green building coming to our backyard from November 17-19 at Chicago’s McCormick Place.  Here are some of the residential highlights:

Note: Early bird registration discounts will end Sept 7!

Nov 18: Residential Summit, the premiere conference and expo for green building will feature an entire Residential Summit on green homes. $250 (early rate) / $300 rate after Sept 7.  More details.

Here are some additional details on pre-conference Workshops being held:

HOMES 301: Implementing the LEED for Homes Rating System. Learn to become a LEED AP+Homes. Tuesday 11/16 Early/LateMember: $275/305

Non-mem: $330/380

HOMES 401: Green Rater Training. Learn to become a certified Green Rater to verify LEED for Homes projects. Monday and Tuesday, 11/15 and 11/16 Early/LateMember: $660/690

Non-mem: $795/845

REGREEN 301: Implementing Residential Green Remodeling. Learn to become a certified REGREEN specialist.(both USGBC and ASID members are honored for membership rate) Monday and Tuesday, 11/15 and 11/16 Early/LateMember: $475/505

Non-mem: $575/625

 

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Frank Lloyd Wright home seeks LEED Certification

A speculative home designed by Frank Lloyd Wright that has fallen into disrepair will now be an intersection of historic preservation and green building, as Eifler and Associates embarks on a LEED for Homes rehabilitation in Glencoe, IL.

Rendering upon completion

The Ross House was built as a “spec” house for Frank Lloyd Wright’s attorney, Sherman Booth, who planned to develop an entire community of homes designed by Wright called “The Ravine Bluffs” Development. Landscape Architect Jens Jensen was named as a contributor to the project. The Sherman Booth house was the first to be built, followed by five rental homes, including the Ross House, to provide income for Mr. Booth. To provide unity to the development, Frank Lloyd Wright also designed a bridge and three sculptural markers for the development.

The Ross House was designed as a modest 4 Bedroom, 1 Bath Home roughly 2,000 s.f. in size, with an open porch and a full basement.  The home was built using conventional “balloon-frame” construction, consisting of 2×4 exterior wall framing, 2×10 floor joists, clad with stucco and a cedar shingle roof.

Unfortunately, Ross House has been vacant for the last three years, and the radiator piping and interior plumbing pipes were destroyed by freezing 2 years ago. Subsequent alterations and a general lack of maintenance have led to considerable deterioration of this landmark structure. Concerned with the condition of the house, Landmarks Illinois placed the house on its endangered landmarks list in 2009.

Eifler and Associates are taking on this latest rehabilitation project with three broad goals:

  1. Return the exterior of this historic Frank Lloyd Wright-designed house to its original appearance (removing a front-entry vestibule addition from a later owner)
  2. Restore original interior finishes where possible, but update the house to contemporary standards (modern MEP systems, contemporary kitchen)
  3. Rehabilitate with green building to reduce the energy use, use recycleable and sustainable construction, and achieve LEED for Homes certification.

This gut rehab project is a bit unique for a LEED project as many of the interior and exterior finishes will remain in place. However, due to the home’s balloon framing, the team will be retrofitting insulation into the existing walls to increase the homes insulation and air sealing in accordance with energy efficient standards, yet allowing the interior plaster walls to remain in place.

Additionally, the historic integrity of the windows will be retained, and interior insulating glass storm windows will be installed to create more efficient fenestration.

When finished, the Ross House will also feature a geothermal heat pump for heating and cooling, solar photovoltaic panels on the detached garage, cabinets created with FSC-certified lumber, rainwater harvesting for landscape maintenance, and energy-efficient lighting.

Projects such as the Ross House in Glencoe and the Holbrook Mill project in Aurora are great examples showing us how through LEED for Homes, preserving our architectural heritage and green building can go hand in hand preserving a legacy for future generations.

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Energy Star Homes to significantly change in 2011

New Energy Star for Homes Guidelines

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has released the Version 3 Guidelines for ENERGY STAR® Qualified New Homes.

The new guidelines are quite a step up from the existing Energy Star guidelines, and specify two compliance paths. The prescriptive path applies only to homes that fall within the size limits of a Benchmark Home. Under the prescriptive path, the builder must meet the requirements of a reference design and mandatory testing requirements. The reference design requires insulation levels that meet or exceed the 2009 International Energy Conservation Code (IECC) requirements, as well as setting forth standards for HVAC equipment, domestic hot water, thermostats, ductwork, lighting, and appliances.

The Mandatory Requirements for All Qualified Homes require professional third-party rating for thermal enclosure, HVAC, and water management. Many of these measures are currently being done now in LEED for Homes projects, such as the pre-drywall inspection and the Durability evaluation and third-party verification.

In the Energy Star v3 performance path, homes must meet a target score on the Home Energy Rating Service (HERS) rating scale, using RESNET-accredited home rating software as well as meeting the Mandatory Requirements and having all insulation, windows, doors, and skylights meeting IECC 2009. The new 3.0 guidelines go into partial effect for most new homes on 1/1/2011, and full effect on 1/1/2012.

On a related note, LEED for Homes is also planning a revision in 2012, which will likely go out for public comment this fall. Many of the optional performance tests in LEED for Homes, such as outdoor air flow (IEQ 4.3), bedrooms and kitchen / bathroom exhaust (IEQ 5.3) and air supply (IEQ 6.3) testing will be required as part of the Energy Star v3 changes. Keep your eyes open to see how the next version of LEED for Homes will take into account the Energy Star v3 changes.

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New LEED for Homes Pre-approved ID Point

LEED for Homes project teams that sign up for USGBC’s Building Performance Partnership (BPP) are now eligible to earn an optional point in Innovation and Design (ID) point for Utility Tracking, which will be done via EarthAid.net.

LEED for Homes BPP

For the residential market, providing performance data for energy and water usage after occupancy is not required as in other versions of LEED rating systems. Instead, this new ID point will be awarded if homeowners voluntarily enroll in the BPP program.  Ideally, this will eventually allow USGBC at the aggregate level to collect and analyze data to see how LEED homes actually perform post-occupancy.

Why would homeowner’s care? Well the partner USGBC is using for this event is Earth Aid, which actually gives consumers credit for saving on their energy costs as compared to other homes in their area. The more energy saved, the more points are accumulated that can be used at retailers and local vendors. Best of all, this service is free.

LEED for Homes project homeowners can sign up with Earth Aid here:

*Note – LEED projects must use that full URL as it is unique to LEED for Homes (you’ll see the LEED for Homes logo appear in the upper-left here, and after login, when you as the Rater are verifying this credit).

Here is the official ID language:

Approved ID Request: Utility Tracking
Maximum Points: 1

Intent
To provide advanced monitoring and reconciliation of energy and water use at the whole building and end use levels. To provide for the ongoing accountability of building utility consumption over time.

Requirements

Prerequisites
None.

Credits
The homeowner must enroll in the USGBC Building Performance Partnership (BPP) for all applicable metered utility accounts, prior to submitting for LEED Certification.

Verification and Submittals
Supporting Verification made available by the Project Team:

  • Present a screen shot of the log-in screen to verify the enrollment of each utility account in USGBC’s Building Performance Partnership.

Verification Team:

  • Visually verify that the project successfully enrolled each applicable utility (ie, water, gas, electricity) in BPP.