Part3 in my series – "How to build a better house". Last week we talked about advanced framing techniques, which in simple terms replaces lumber with insulation material and maximizes the wall that’s insulated. This effectively improves the thermal resistance or R-value of a wall. As a reminder on how important advanced framing is, let's look at the comparison of a standard wall vs a wall constructed with advanced framing again:

A standard wall assembly using R-13 batt insulation will have an effective R-value of 11.1. An "advanced" wall assembly will have an effective R-value of 14.6 or 30% higher than the traditional wall. 

This week I want to focus on the different kind of insulation materials we can use to use that give you the most energy efficient green home.

In general, insulation is one of the most important components in any responsibly built structure, especially in green buildings. Insulation reduces energy consumption and if properly installed, can reduce draft dramatically. From that perspective, any insulation material is a “green” product.

The choice of insulation material will be covered in my next article "Insulation techniques……or how to build a better house – Part4" and has a lot to do with where the insulation is installed (wall, ceiling, roof, crawlspace etc etc), the climate area you live in and the specific details of your wall assembly.

So let's look at some of the different kinds of insulation materials that are out there these days:

Fiberglass Insulation:
This is the standard in the building industry today. High-density fiberglass makes the same wall cavity 15 to 20 percent more effective in reducing heat loss. The majority of manufacturers now incorporate at least 30 percent recycled material, and there are quite few products that carry third-party verifications for their recycled-glass content. If Fiberglass insulation is used as a batt, it is important to know that most of them are manufactured with phenol formaldehyde as a binder, though some products use alternative binders or no binder at all. So be sure and investigate the contents of the product you want to use in your green home.

Cellulose Insulation:
Is primarily made out of recycled newspaper, but not always from post-consumer sources. It is often damp-sprayed into open cavities, or blown into closed cavities at relatively high density. Cellulose adds to the airtightness of the house—and by forming a good infiltration-barrier. It is also less quality control dependent in filling voids than fiberglass batts (in simple terms… not as easy to mess up

Rigid Foam Insulation:
Rigid foam insulation applied to framing yields added infiltration resistance, reduced frame conduction losses, and higher overall wall R-value. Extruded polystyrene (XPS) and polyisocyanurate (polyiso) rigid foam insulation used to be made with ozone-depleting CFC blowing agents, but when ozone depletion was identified as a major environmental problem, the CFCs were replaced with HCFCs through international agreement. HCFCs were eliminated from polyiso insulation as of 2003, but they are not scheduled to be totally eliminated from XPS until 2020. Polyiso is currently produced with hydrocarbon blowing agents. Expanded polystyrene (EPS) rigid foam has long been made with non-ozone-depleting pentane rather than HCFCs.

Spray-Polyurethane Foam insulation:
One of my favorite insulation materials, spray-foam is an excellent choice for most buildings. Though slightly more expensive than the other materials mentioned above, the qualities of spray-foam will give you "a lot of bang for your buck". As the name implies, it is sprayed into open cavities and quickly expands to about 100 times its original volume. Most manufacturers claim R-values of about R-3.8 per inch. Several manufacturers sell water-blown products though there are still quite a few that use HCFCs or hydrocarbon blowing agents which are harmful to the environment and your health. So again, beware of what you buy.

Of course, there are a myriad of products available on the market today. If you want detailed information, I have included some manufacturer links below. If you want to find out specific product details while you are in the process of building your home, try the product directory at http://GreenBuildingAdvisor.com (Paid subscription) or http://www.buildinggreen.com/ (Paid subscription). They have great product databases with all the relevant product information.

I should mention that most of these materials can be installed in different ways – Loose fill, batts, spray or rigid boards. What to use "where" and "why", will be covered in my next article.

Be sure and come back. Don't miss next week's article. Insulation Techniques… or “How to build a better house” – Part4

Links to other articles in this series:

Thermal Bridging… and how it affects a wall assembly – Part1

Advanced Framing Techniques – Part2

Some Manufaturer Links:

http://www.certainteed.com/- Fiberglass

http://www.applegateinsulation.com/ – Cellulose

http://www.knaufinsulation.us/ – ECOBatt

http://www.demilecusa.com/ – SprayFoam

http://www.icynene.com/

Sources:

http://www.greenbuildingadvisor.com/

http://www.buildingscience.com
http://www.toolbase.org
http://resourcecenter.pnl.gov
http://www.energysavers.gov

1. Install of a conventional 15 SEER system – $12,500.00
2. Additional cost for Geothermal – $19,500.00
3. Total Investment to install Geothermal – $32,000.00
4. 30% Federal Tax Credit – $9,600
5. Total additional cost for Geothermal after tax credit – $9,900.00

After the tax credit the total additional investment in a Geothermal system is $9,900.00. Yes, that still seems like a bit more but now let's look at how fast you will receive a return on that investment. On average a Geothermal system has a life span of twenty years compared to a conventional system which on average of 15 years. So above you saw what you have to pay out but let's take a look at what you will get.

1. Average monthly savings in your electric bill  - $325.41
2. First year savings – $2,361.86 (or 33 trees)
3. First year ROI – 23.857%
4. Estimated lifetime savings – $78,097.29 (or 661 trees)

After the third year you will have saved $7,445.78 by using Geothermal and by the fourth year $10,179.93, which means that you have seen a 100% ROI by the fourth year of using your Geothermal system. So now not only are you doing what is best for the environment you are doing your wallet a favor too!

What we know today as "Advanced Framing Techniques", was originally developed in the 1960's as Optimum-value engineering (OVE) framing techniques under a Housing and Urban Development (HUD) initiative to cut the cost of houses by omitting unnecessary lumber. The approaches did not get widely adopted at the time. However, with the passage of time, many of the original OVE techniques have been incorporated in what we today refer to as "advanced framing". Advanced Framing includes OVE framing techniques such as increasing joist, stud, and rafter spacing to 24 in.; placing doors and windows on stud layout; and using stacked framing for direct load transfer. Application of advanced framing not only saves on lumber and labor costs, but also supports better insulation detailing and reduces the occurrence of drywall cracking.

The image below illustrates some of the advanced framing techniques.

Advanced framing, as the name implies, means using framing lumber intelligently in wood framing by:

1. use of common material dimensions (24-inch grid) as a basis for design to maximize material use and minimize waste and
2. efficient load transfer to reduce unnecessary framing members from the home.

As you can see in the illustration above, some of the techniques used include stack framing – allowing for the use of single top plates, elimination of wood beams/headers in non-load bearing walls, and two-stud corners. Framing around openings in exterior walls limited to those framing members needed for vertical load transfer or horizontal load resistance.

Looking at this from a broader view – what does this do for our exterior wall assembly and my house in general? Well… besides cutting back on material waste and material usage – which increases resource efficiency, one of the main goals of green building – incorporating these techniques allows us to install more insulation in exterior walls.

In simple terms: Advanced framing actually replaces lumber with insulation material and maximizes the wall that's insulated, which improves the whole-wall thermal resistance or R-value.

So let's look at a comparison of R-values in a standard wall vs a wall constructed with advanced framing:

A standard wall assembly using R-13 batt insulation will have an effective R-value of 11.1. An "advanced" wall assembly will have an effective R-value of 14.6 or 30% higher than the traditional wall.  

If you're a homeowner, you're probably reading this going: "How does this affect my wallet?" – I have some simple stats for you. Fully incorporating advanced framing techniques may result in:

• Materials cost savings of about $500 or $1000 (for a 1,200- and 2,400-square-foot house, respectively)
• Labor cost savings of between 3% and 5%
• Annual heating and cooling cost savings of up to 5%.

 (Source & detailed calculation: http://www.energysavers.gov)

So if you are currently in the market shopping for a home, ask if the home you're considering was built using advanced framing techniques or with other systems like SIPs or ICFs – which I will cover in future articles. If you are in the process of building a new home or undertaking a major renovation, ask your builder to incorporate these techniques. You will end up with a better home.

Links to other articles in this series:

Thermal Bridging… and how it affects a wall assembly – Part1 of 7

Sources:

http://www.buildingscience.com
http://www.toolbase.org
http://resourcecenter.pnl.gov
http://www.energysavers.gov
 

 Imagine you could go to Home Depot and for a few hundred dollars purchase an appliance that plugs in like a blender and generates a chunk of the energy your home needs, renewable and emissions-free.

Once a pioneer at Real Networks in Seattle, Chad Maglaque invented the Jelly Fish wind turbine–It’s a 36-inch-tall rooftop wind turbine that you can plug into a socket in your home–no fancy setup required–and generate up to 40 kWh a month, about enough to power a home-full of LEDs or a room full of CFLs. It also comes Wi-Fi and WiMax equipped. He calls it the PC of renewable energy; meaning, the Jellyfish will do for the wind power industry what the personal computer did for the computer industry.

 “The Jellyfish Wind Appliance is a small 36-inch tall vertical-axis wind turbine (VAWT) with a solid-state controller and a variable-speed induction generator that plugs directly into an existing wall socket and automatically generates power whenever the wind blows. The Jellyfish can be mounted on rooftops, wind towers or even existing street light poles – which are already pre-wired to the grid and have the tower already in place! And, it can generate up to 40 kWh per month in moderate winds enough to light an average home using energy efficient light bulbs with a target price under $400 the Jellyfish would be an affordable option for many households and developing communities looking to harness wind power for the first time. His idea is that the utility or the city will subsidize the $400 cost down to $199 or less with tax rebates. One vision is that the Jellyfish may help enable district wind energy co-ops. Neighbors may be able to join together to work with the power utilities:

 Working in tandem with the existing power grid, the Jellyfish enables large-scale distributed-generation, delivering power exactly where it’s needed and reducing the demand for costly transmission infrastructure.”

In celebration of #EarthDay I thought it was in order to write about some of the myths that still exist about green building. As a custom builder and remodeler of energy-efficient and healthy, so called "green" homes, clients always ask…

1. Are green homes or remodeling projects more expensive?
   The short answer is: NO! They can be, but they don’t have to be. Green building is not about using fancy expensive materials, or all renewable energy systems. Green building is all about applying sound building science principles in design and execution of your project. This means designing and building a home correctly for it’s site and climate conditions. Fron there, clients can go a step further and incorporate material upgrades and renewable energy systems if they choose to.
    
2. All the green homes I always see on TV look weird and different! Can I build a green home, but not a "weird" looking home?
   Green homes don’t look any different than any other home or structure. Please understand that on TV, you are always shown the "extreme" – in technology AND design. An energy-efficient, green home can be of any architectural style, it can be a modern home, a tradition french style or any architectural style you desire. Modifications should be made with certain architectural styles to accomodate proper design for the climate zone your home is built in. 
    
3. If I install a tankless hot water heater, bamboo floors and recycled material countertops, will I make my home green?
   NO! You are making better material and component choices than most other people make. But if you truly want to make your home more efficient and healthy to live in, there are many other things you should do first. Making a home healthier and more efficient requires a systems approach. This means establishing a plan so you can have measurable results of the improvements you make. Hire a knowledgeable and certified professional to establish a plan and design for your project.

 Written by:

Marc Kleinmann
EGC Custom Homes
http://DallasGreenBuilding.com
m.kleinmann@EGCDallas.com 
  

As a member of the Dallas Green Building Alliance I feel it is necessary to let consumers know what green building programs are in our area.  Green Built Texas has been a valuable resource to the green community for some time now.  All members of the Dallas Green Building Alliance are members of Green Built Texas.

What is Green Built Texas?

Green Built Texas is a voluntary partnership of local home builders, industry supporters, and sponsors committed to creating awareness and interest in the construction of higher-performance, lower-impact residential homes in Texas. The program has a construction protocol that Home Builder Association (HBA) members have deemed essential in order for a home to be recognized by the program. Homes built to this protocol conform to higher standards of site management and waste recycling, water efficiency, indoor air quality, energy efficiency, materials, and homeowner education.

Membership in Green Built Texas is open to both Builder and Associate members of the Home Builders Associations in the State of Texas. Through special events and media outreach, the HBA endeavors to make homebuyers more aware of its green building program and its participants. Green Built Texas also provides educational seminars and is affiliated with the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) National Green Building Program as its certification processes offer an alternative method to Green Built Texas recognition. A similar agreement with the U.S. Green Building Council enables homes built to the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design for Homes (LEED-H) protocol to enjoy the same benefit.

GBT is better able to serve its members thanks to the resources offered by these national programs. Meanwhile, the national programs benefit from a vibrant state and local initiative serving as a conduit for certification.

The HBA’s goal is to establish a green building program that is recognized by municipalities and consumers throughout the state. Green Built Texas has also established a program for low and mid-rise multifamily construction and will soon create higher levels of green building achievement that will allow builders to advance their building product to meet both consumer desires and their own business plans.

www.greenbuilttexas.com

Benefits of a Green Built Texas Home-click on this link to view benefits

http://www.greenbuiltnorthtexas.com/benhome.htm

Construction Protocol- Click on this link to view protocol:

http://www.greenbuiltnorthtexas.com/documents/GBNT_ProtocolVersion2_official.pdf

Or is it? There is a lot in the news lately about whether this whole Green Movement is based on a hoax or not.  My take on that as far as Green Building goes is, “What does it matter?”  Sustainable development makes sense all the time, not just because it’s a fad or that its popularity has resulted from government policies and concern about Climate Change.

Building more energy efficient housing saves consumers money through lower utility bills and extends existing energy supplies.  Using re-manufactured products or products from forests with sustainable replenishment policies also extends the life of valuable resources.

Reducing product waste helps extend the life of existing landfills in population centers with growing communities.

So building Green saves money, is smart and contrary to what Kermit says, “It is easy being Green”

Blog Written by:Wesley Scott
wes@archwaysandceilings.com
www.archwaysandceilings.com