home hunter october 6, 2013

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CYAN-AOOO MAGENTA-OAOO YELLOW-OOAO BLACK 012908

The house that ingenuity built heads to national competitionBy Kathleen lynn

The Record (Hackensack, N.J.)/MCT

HACKENSACK, N.J. Plants grow on the roof. A de-vice that looks like a crystal-line sculpture sucks moisturefrom the air. And a sensor g-ures out when no ones home,switching off the lights and airconditioning.

Welcome to Ecohabit, a two-bedroom house created by 60students at Stevens Institute ofTechnology in Hoboken, N.J.They hope that its gee-whiz

technology will help themwin the U.S. Department ofEnergys biannual Solar De-cathlon, which takes place thisyear from Oct. 3-13 in Cali-fornia. Twenty college teams,mostly from the U.S. but alsofrom Europe and Canada, willcompete.

The Stevens team also ishoping that the house, and thecompetition, will introducebuilders and homeowners toefcient technology that goesbeyond solar power. One of thefeatures is a computerized sys-tem that monitors energy useand even the weather report.

A lot of teams use this com-petition as a home showcase,

said Zak Moy, a 21-year-oldrecent Stevens graduate whoworked on the two-year proj-ect. Were engineers, so wesee this as a problem-solvingcompetition.

Under the rules of the com-petition, the house must behandicapped-accessible andsolar-powered, and it must use

products that are commer-cially available.

The 920-square-foot, one-story house has an appealingPrairie feel, thanks to its woodsiding, horizontal prole anddeep overhanging roofs, whichextend the living space ontotwo decks. The technologymay be sophisticated, but thedesign is simple: two rectan-gular boxes that lock togetherto form an L. One is the drywing, containing the livingroom and a bedroom/den. Thatwing is faced with red cedar.

The wet wing, which is

covered in ber-concretepanels, contains the kitchen,washer/dryer, bathroom andmaster bedroom, as well as acloset containing the heating,electrical and air condition-ing systems. The idea was tobunch all the plumbing closetogether, to minimize the dis-tance that water must travel.

The most efcient plumb-ing will have the shortest routefrom the heater to the tap,Moy said as he gave The Re-cord a tour of the home beforeit was dismantled and shippedto California.

The appliances, of course,are all the most energy-ef-cient available.

The wet wing includes agreen roof and green wall toprovide insulation and sound-proong. The roof will havelow-growing sedum plants;the greenery continues down aside wall, which will have cub-bies to hold plants, and ontoa at garden. All this helpsabsorb rainwater runoff.

The dry wing is roofed withsolar shingles; its the onlyhouse in the competition thatuses shingles instead of solarpanels, Moy said.

The home has a market valueof $300,000. Student design-ers tried to address the cost ofenvironmental innovations,which are often an obstaclefor the average homeowner orbuilder.

A lot of people feel (energyefciency) is too time-con-suming, too costly, Moy said.Solar energy takes a coupleof decades to break even.

Research has shown thatsome green technologies de-liver more bang for the buck.A 2011 study by the RutgersCenter for Green Building forthe New Jersey Association ofRealtors found that efcientframing and insulation tech-niques are among the mostcost-effective green buildingtools. The use of solar energy,EnergyStar appliances andmore efcient heating andcooling systems take longerto pay for themselves, but canstill be worthwhile, while geo-thermal energy which usesthe temperature of the earthfor heating and cooling isthe least cost-effective, the

study said.Moy said that one of the most

useful elements in the Ecohab-it house is the computerizedmonitoring system.

The spirit of this competi-tion is to show it isnt thathard, he said. Just learningand evaluating how much en-ergy youre using can help you

adjust your lifestyle.To that end, all the rooms

have smart sensors, whichare about the size of motiondetectors. They detect infor-mation such as temperature,humidity, and how manypeople are in the room. Thesensors are monitored bythe homes private computerserver. If no ones in the house,lights and air conditioningwill be turned off. The systemalso tracks how much energyis used by the appliances orsystems. Homeowners can ac-cess the information wirelessly

through their smartphones ortablets.It helps provide feedback to

help the residents make moreenergy-efcient decisions,Moy said. The homes com-puter system can even monitorthe weather report so itcan tell you, for example, thatyou should wait to do a loadof laundry till the next sunnyday, which will create cheapersolar energy. Or tell you tohold off on watering yourplants, because its going torain tomorrow.

A new-age dehumidierhangs on the wall of the din-ing area. Air is sucked in atthe bottom, then dries out as it

passes over tubes covered in aliquid salt solution, and comesout drier at the top. Condensa-tion is sent outside, where itevaporates. The system takesabout 200 watts of power,compared with 750 watts fora traditional humidier, Moysaid.

The walls contain something

called biologically basedphase-change material, a pas-sive technology that helpsstabilize internal temperature.The material, a bubble-packedsoy-based parafn, absorbsheat during the day and melts;as it cools and solidies againat night, it releases the heat.So in the southern UnitedStates, for example, you canhave temperature swings of20 degrees a day; this productreduces that variation to 4 de-grees, Moy said.

In a standard home, you haveto run water and wait for thehot water to reach the faucet.In this home, water is heatedon demand.

It heats it when you need it,Moy said. Youre saving en-ergy and not wasting water.

When the water is hot, a but-ton in the bathroom goes from

blue to red so you know itsready.

About 60 students from anumber of d ifferent disciplinesworked on the project overtwo years. Architects and en-gineers occasionally clashed,according to Moy. The archi-tecture students would comeup with an idea, he said, andthen the engineers come inand say, You cant do that.

After the decathlon, thehouse will be donated to aveterans resource center at

California State University-San Marcos.

Whats the point of justbuilding a house to try to wina competition? said Moy. Ifyou can help someone out atthe same time, why not?

Zak Moy explains the diference between sholar shingles, that

he is holding, and solar panels at a home the Stevens Instituteis entering in the U.S. Department o Energy Solar Decathlon.The home is being disassembled in New Jersey to send to thecontest in Caliornia. (Kevin R. Wexler/The Record/MCT)

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Does your house have what homebuyers are looking for?Whether your home is on

the market, or you plan to sellone day, knowing homebuy-ers preferences can help youmake smart upgrades that willincrease your homes value and

offer a great return on invest-ment.

Luckily, a 2012 survey by theNational Association of HomeBuilders (NAHB) is givingsavvy homeowners a clearlook at what potential buyersare looking for. Here are a fewinsights:

WindowsWhen it comes to windows,

energy efciency is the primeconsideration for consumers.ENERGY STAR rated win-dows, triple-pane insulatingglass windows, and Low-Einsulating glass windows arethe three top must haves anddesirable types of windows

among new and potentialhomebuyers, according to theNAHB survey.

With that in mind, when re-placing your homes windows,

youd be wise to look for thosefrom an ENERGY STARpartner thats committed tomeeting the strict criteria of theU.S. Environmental ProtectionAgency. For example, Simon-

ton Windows has developedglass packages for each climatezone -- Northern, North Cen-tral, South-Central and South-ern -- which utilize insulatingglass units to drastically reducethe transfer of heat and cold, aswell as block ultraviolet rays.

As far as materials are con-cerned, opting for lower main-tenance vinyl frames is a goodbet, as survey results fromthe study also show that vinylframed windows are the lead-ing preference for homebuyersfor their low-maintenancefeatures, durability and greatinsulating factors.

More information about EN-ERGY STAR qualied vinyl

windows can be found at www.simonton.com/energystar.

StorageHomebuyers want great

storage features, like laundryrooms, linen closets, garagestorage and walk-in pantries,says the NAHB survey.

If you dont have these fea-tures or the budget to knock

down walls or build additions,you can at least make the mostof the storage you do have. Getorganized and use easy-to-in-stall closet systems that t intoyour existing closets. Doing sowill put your home in the bestlight possible.

Entry DoorsHomebuyers want quality and

beauty in their doors and entry-ways, according to the NAHBstudy, and berglass doors aregaining popularity. Its no won-der, since the door is the rstthing anyone sees when enter-ing a home and berglass doorsare durable as well as aestheti-cally pleasing.

With quality in mind, consid-er selecting a door with a com-plete system of componentsengineered to work togetherand sourced from the same

manufacturer. A door systemdesigned to work together forlasting performance, securityand energy efciency, such as

Therma-Tru berglass doors,can withstand severe weatherconditions along with day-to-day family activity. They alsoprovide the home with strong

protection from air and waterinltration.

Dont forget to add somebeauty and detail to your entry

door. Request decorative, clearor privacy doorlites and side-lites to reect the personalityand style of your home.

More information about up-

dating your entry doors can befound at www.ThermaTru.com.

Dont make home upgradesblindly. By taking the pulse of

homebuyers, you can ensureyou get a great return on yourinvestments.



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Home improvementprojectsperfectfor fall

Home improvement proj-

ects can add value to a homeand do-it-yourselfers knowthe sweat-equity that goesinto such projects can givehomeowners a greater senseof pride in their homes. Butno two home improvementprojects are the same, andhomeowners should knowthat certain projects are besttackled during certain timesof the year.

Fall is a great season towork on your house, as theweather is often at its mostagreeable once the summerheat has gone and beforewinter weather arrives. Thefollowing are a handful offall-friendly home improve-

ment projects for homeown-ers looking to i mprove theirhomes.

Roof repair

Whether youre repairingor replacing the roof, fall isa great time of year to dustoff the ladder and get somework done on your roof fora variety of reasons. Firstand foremost, fall is idealfor roof work because youwont have to be up on theroof with the summer heatbearing down on you. Thiscan make the project movealong more quickly, which isespecially benecial if youare paying laborers to workon the roof. The fewer hoursworkers are xing your roof,the less you will be payingin labor costs.

In addition, xing up theroof in the fall ensures thosewinter storms, be it rain orsnow, wont nd their wayinto your home via leaks. Aleaky roof in winter is hardto x, as the roof surfacecould be treacherous in thewinter and winter winds canmake it dangerous to be upon the roof at all. Address-ing leaks in the fall can pre-vent damage to your homes

interior, which can mount

up if a leaky roof is not ad-dressed until the followingspring.

Window work

When the weather outsidegets frightful, poorly insu-lated windows can allowcold air into the home. Thatoften has a trickle-down ef-fect on nances, forcing youto turn up the thermostat inan attempt to offset the coldair pouring into the home.Whether you need yourwindows replaced or simplyneed to patch up any leaks, aproactive approach to leaky

or older windows in the fallcan save you from unnec-essarily high heating billscome the winter. Addressingleaky windows also makes ahome more comfortable forits inhabitants.

Fall is the ideal time toaddress a homes windowsbecause the temperat ureoutside tends to be pleasant.This means you likely wonthave to make much of an ef-fort to offset the elements,and open windows in thefall wont make your homesinterior very hot or cold likethey might if you were totackle the project during thesummer or winter.

Fixing the floors

Wood ooring is a hotcommodity for many home-owners. But not all ooringcan be added to a home atany time of year. Thatsbecause cer tain types ofooring employ adhesivesthat need temperatures in-side the home to be withina certain range, and thatrange is often within 70oto 80o F, which makes falla great time to install suchoors. Colder temperaturescan make it difcult for the

ooring to dry and bond,

which will prove problem-atic down the road. Whatsmore, many people entertainfriends and family come latefall and into the holiday sea-son, and it can be dif cult todo so if you are busy install-ing new ooring.

Painting projects

Painting is another homeimprovement project thatseems tailor-made for fall.A fresh coat of paint or anew color scheme aroundthe house can give a homean entirely new look andfeel. But paint can be pun-

gent and the aromas maylast if its applied at a timeof year when it cant drywhile the windows are wideopen. Paint fumes inside ahome can make the homeuninhabitable, but paintingat a time of year like the fall,when you can keep the win-dows open during and afterthe project, can help air thehome out.

But interior painting isntthe only painting projecthomeowners can tacklein the fall. Many exteriorpaints are temperature -sen-sitive and need the tempera-ture outside to be above 40oF. Paint that freezes wontdry properly, and home-owners might be left with acostly and unsightly mistakeon their hands. Fall tempera-tures tend to be amenableto both interior and exteriorpainting p rojects, ju st besure to check the weatherforecast before making yourrst brush st roke.

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home hunter october 6, 2013

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