** Update 9/15/2013 – This home is about to go back on the market – If you are interested is learning more now please contact the homeowner below.
Scott Phillips, Associate at The Inovo Group and homeowner of Ann Arbor’s 1st LEED Certified Platinum Home is a passionate blogger about the success of green his certified home. Scott gives us a unique perspective of his home that was certified back in 2008. Beyond the requirements of LEED, Scott has installed 15kWs of Sunpower PV panels on his house and they have been near net-zero energy over the five month period since the install.
This video is a description of the benefits of living in a green home by the homeowners of 723 Spring Street, Scott & Linda Phillips. They discuss the positive life-style changes as well as the advantages of “living local” near down-town Ann Arbor. Scott and Linda talk about needing fewer cars, water conservation, indoor air quality and their aspiration to be a net-zero energy home soon.
“The project team started with a broad set of goals. Since these were spec homes, they needed to have market appeal – more square footage than the smaller homes in walking distance to downtown. At the same time, they needed to minimize footprint so that the lot would have lots of green space and areas for water infiltration. By building up and taking advantage of the long East/West axis of the lot, each home would have roof space to hold enough solar panels to go net-zero. By creating open floor plans, the small footprints of the homes would be spacious and feel larger. Durability and excellent thermal performance would be addressed through a combination of Structural Insulated Panels (SIPs) and Insulated Concrete Forms (ICFs). The HVAC systems in the house would augment that performance and use the least amount of energy for the structure. To the extent possible, the significant non- invasive trees on the lot would be preserved. One last goal was to have the home fit in the neighborhood of older homes. By staggering the homes, we created more solar-gathering opportunities, and decreased the mass of the homes at the street. This helped the homes appear to be in scale, and by designing for the Victorian era, we were able to build in details that were similar to surrounding homes.”
“The location of our homes, downtown Ann Arbor, contributes significantly to the owners being able to live a low-carbon and healthy lifestyle. The homes are also very tight, and our duct leakage was virtually zero when tested before drywall. Good low-flow water fixtures and recirculating hot water save operational costs, as does the geothermal system. South side windows are 3 times the area of north-facing windows, and an ERV keeps the air fresh when the windows are closed.”
Builders: Meadowlark
You can follow along the journey and continued green success of the home at the follow websites…
The web-enabled Enphase Enlighten Monitoring constantly collects real-time PV system data transmitted from the PV system.
http://pinterest.com/
Complete project profile can be viewed here
