not easy going 'green

8/14/2019 Not Easy Going 'Green'

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12 2010 home improvement The Port Townsend & Jefferson County Leader

Itsnoteasygoinggreen

By Scott Wilson

of the Leader

Living lightly on the

planet is increasingly thegoal o homeowners andbuilders who want their

dwellings to have a mini-mal impact. That concernis so widespread that the

green building movementis the most powerul neworce sweeping through the

building trades.But homeowners and

builders must be diligent

when studying the manygreen claims made or hous-ing. In many cases, green

is more a marketing sloganthan tangible engineering,

materials or techniques. That act has led to newscrutiny o green building

claims, also known as gre-enwashing. Its not suf -

cient to give a green hue tomaterials that might havesome recycled content but

are largely made o toxic,o-gassing materials, notedAlex Little, project manager

or Little & Little Construc-

tion o Port Townsend.

WhAT IS gReeN?

Green building incorpo-

rates principles, techniquesand materials that conservenatural resources and pro-

tect the environment, ac-cording to Little.

Another popular term is

sustainable building. Thatdenes materials and prac-tices that take an integrated

approach to addressing the

environmental impacts obuilding. It accounts or the

impact o building rom alie-cycle perspective, go-ing beyond the moment o

construction and beyondthe immediate site o thebuilding. Instead, it looks at

the lie o the home and the

long-term impact on thebuilding site.

Little is taking a nine-month course oeredthrough Olympic College

in Kitsap County that will,when completed, award

him with certication as aSustainable Building Advi-sor. That training is oered

by the National SustainableBuilding Advisor Program.What Little has learned

points to many actors that

must be taken into accountor a building or a building

project to be consideredtruly green.

mATeRIAlS

Building materials are aprime consideration.

Green practices call orhomeowners and builders

to use construction materi-

als that are not damagingsensitive orest ecosys-

tems either in the regionor across the world. Certainorest products are certi-

ed as having come roma careully managed orest.

See GREEN, Page 14

I like the simple defnition that

says the idea behind green

building is to meet the needs

o the present without

compromising the ability o uture

generations to meet their needs.Alex Little

Little & Little Construction

This graph from the U.S. Department of Energy and Livermore National Laboratory shows, on the left side, the relative proportion of energy sources in the UnitedStates. Flowing to the right, it shows the uses of energy. The darkest flow on the right represents used energy services. The lighter gray on the right represents rejectedenergy that is energy output that was not used or wasted.


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14 2010 home improvement The Port Townsend & Jefferson County Leader

Another technique is to use

recycled materials.Various industry councils

have been established tomonitor orest products. Onethat Little likes is the ForestryStewardship Council (FSC),which maintains an FBI-likechain o custody review otimber rom its source in theorest through its process-

ing and delivery. They makesure the wood comes rom amanaged orest, not a slash-and-burn operation, he said.They make sure it is milledin sustainable ways and thatit is delivered as a certied toits end location.

Attention is also paid to

how ar lumber or other ma-terials must travel. The mostenvironmentally sensitivepractice is to get lumber romsources as close to homeas possible to minimize theossil uels burned to deliver.Bamboo is exceptional ma-terial, Little said, but it hasto burn a lot o ossil uel to

come rom China.Fortunately, Little said,

some local suppliers hementioned Carls BuildingSupply and Edensaw Woods are experienced wholesal-ers or retailers o FSC materi-als.

Other materials and sup-plies ttings, some hard-ware, cabinetry, some ur-niture can be purchasedrom local manuacturersor cratsmen, urther reduc-ing the carbon ootprint o ahome.

CleAN mATeRIAlS

Products or materials with

extensive o-gassing have

become one o the primarytargets o the green build-ing movement. Many prod-ucts, rom carpeting and

other flooring to urnitureand even adhesives in woodproducts such as plywood or

particleboard, can containgasses that release into thehome over time.

Homeowners must con-sider the indoor environ-ment ater the job is done,said Little.

Dont choose materialsthat are going to o-gas, hesaid.

Its wise to try to avoidmaterials with signicantormaldehyde content, hesaid, which can includesome lumber products.

New urniture, cabinetry,flooring and paint should allbe scrutinized to minimizelater o-gassing. Some man-uacturers now promote

products that are ormalde-hyde-ree, said Little. There are also materi-

als that can hold too muchmoisture, resulting in prob-lems with mold and mildew.A household heating systemis capable o pushing moldthroughout the house, henoted. That leads to the con-

cept o a sick building, onethat osters illness.

eNeRgY eFFICIeNCY

Terric attention is paidto energy ef ciency as parto the green constructionethic.

Reducing energy con-sumption is the biggest

thing you can do to reducethe environmental impact oa home, said Little. A long-term view o your homeand its impacts is an essen-

tial part o a green buildingethic, he said.

You want to reduce the

energy consumption or thelie o the home, he said.You want to have a reallywell-insulated shell so theenergy consumption is lowor many years.

For that reason, thosebuilding or renovatinghomes should seriouslystudy the costs over the lie

o the home, not just theinitial construction costsor those o the rst ewmonths.

You may spend an extra$10,000 to get a better heat-ing system and insulation,and the payback may take 10years, Little said. But youregoing to be in that home or

50 years.Suf cient insulation,storm windows, blockingdrats all have a role toplay.

Insulation technologiesand techniques have im-proved dramatically in re-cent years, and new homescan be incredibly energy

ef cient. In act, one o theissues or owners o newhomes is to be aware thattheir entire house is a sys-tem, and as a system, itsparts must be mastered toget the most out o the de-sign and materials.

For example, an en-ergy-ef cient home that is

extremely tight against theweather can prompt oneresident to open the win-

greenContinued from page 12

See GREEN Page 17

By Scott Wilson

of the Leader

Interested in a green home? Todd Hulbert, president o Tolleson Builders,

believes the word at the top o the green home listis nothing new: insulation.

The best thing you can do is to make sure thehome is tightly sealed as ar as air gaps, windows,electrical outlets, etc., Hulbert said. Probably themost environmentally riendly thing you can do ismake the house energy eicient.

That perspective takes into account the liespano a home. The impact o construction is minimalcompared to the overall cost o energy use over theliespan o a home, he said.

The goal: Keep the energy youve bought in the

house to reduce the amount o energy you need.

From that starting point, here are Hulberts otherbest green practices:

-- Solar-assisted hot water heaters make it easy toheat your water.

-- A geothermal heating system that relies onthe earths steady temperature to preheat water isextremely reliable and extremely inexpensive onceits hundreds o eet o tubes are in place, about 6 eet

under the home. However, Hulbert added that sucha system is quite expensive to put into place. It willpay o in 20 to 30 years, he said.

-- Photovoltaic power generation allows ahomeowner to spin your meter backwards at leastduring summer months.

-- Energy-eicient light bulbs use ar less energyand last longer than standard incandescent bulbs.

Hulbert noted that alternative power sources,especially solar, are advancing by long strides, andnew capabilities are being oered with each passingyear.

Other locally based companies can helphomeowners or remodelers get green with clean orenergy-eicient products and services.

SolAR PoWeR oPTIoNS

Power Trip Energy, based in Por t Townsend, is oneo the areas leading providers o solar panels orhomes. Frederickson Electric also does this work, as

do other providers.Je Randall o Power Trip noted that using solar

power does not just mean using panels. Use o

Green

is the word

See WORD, Page 16

This chart shows how much energy is used by buildings both residen-tial and commercial based on all energy usage in the United States.


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The Port Townsend & Jeffer son County Leader 2010 home improvement17

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Continued from page 14

dows while another turns onthe heat.

Both private and govern-

ment sources are involvedin programs to help make

homes more energy efcient.Puget Sound Energy hasrebates or both commercial

and residential buildingsthat build in high-energyefciency, especially or

those that replace oldorced-air systems with ef-

cient heat pumps. Commer-cial buildings that use ener-gy-efcient lighting can getassistance, and modern light-

ing systems come equippedwith motion-triggered oc-

cupancy sensors that shutlights o when the last per-son has let the room, even

temporarily.

A gold home

Little & Little has been inthe quality home construc-

tion business or a long time,and Alex Little has a bit o asmile when discussing green

building. People ocused ona quality construction job or

a home they expect to livein or a long time have beenusing green techniques longbeore there was a word or it,

he said.Some customers want to

build green, he said. Oth-

ers just want a good-qualityhome. We educate them toknow that a good-quality,

well-thought-out home and agreen home are pretty much

the same thing.For example, Little recently

completed a home on Mar-

rowstone Island.The customer was set on

making really good choices,

not because they wanted a

green home but because,when you think about, it just

made sense.The result? The home was

the rst in the state named as

See GREEN, Page 18

green


4/418 2010 home improvement The Port Townsend & Jefferson County Leader

Gold Certied by the Nation-al Green Building Standard,

a monitoring partnershipbetween the National As-sociation o Homebuildersand the International CodeCouncil. That means an in-dependent third party veri-ed that the home achieveda level o quality that makesit, in many categories, threetimes more energy ef cient

and environmentally sae asa home that simply meetsthe building code.

Homes are rated on sever-al standards, including lot de-sign, minimal waste, energyand water ef ciency, indoorenvironmental quality andbuilding owner education.

A similar rating systemis available or commercialbuildings through the LEED(Leadership in Energy andEnvironmental Design, de-veloped by the U.S. GreenBuilding Council) process. The new Northwest Mari-time Center is near the endo its LEED review.

For the Marrowstonehome, Little noted that evenhow the home was situatedon its orest lot was a keycriterion. Siting a home hasmajor environmental con-

siderations, such as disturb-ing the surrounding orestas little as possible, preserv-ing natural runo patternsas much as possible, andcreating stormwater sys-

tems that are ef cient andenvironmentally sound.Other eatures in the

home include highly ef -cient appliances, includingtoilets that use only a rac-tion o the normal water orflushing liquids.

I like the simple deni-tion that says the idea be-

hind green building is tomeet the needs o the pres-ent, said Little, withoutcompromising the ability outure generations to meettheir needs.

Alex Little

Continued from page 18

green Tax credits available

for energy upgrades The American Recov-ery and Investment Acto 2009 provides energyincentives or both indi-viduals and businesses.Check www.irs.gov ormore details.

Through Dec. 31, 2010,

homeowners can claima 30 percent tax crediton eligible energy-sav-ing improvements, up toa maximum tax credit o$1,500 or the combined2009 and 2010 tax years. The cost o certain high-ef cienc y heating andair conditioning systems,

non-solar water heatersand biomass stoves allqualiy, along with laborcosts to install the items. The cost o energy-ef -cient windows and sky-lights, doors, and qualiy-ing insulation and certainmetal and asphalt roos

also qualiy or the taxcredit, though the costso installing those itemsdoes not count.

These improvements

must be done to an exist-ing home and a principalresidence. New construc-tion and rentals do notqualiy.

There is a second taxcredit or homeownerschoosing to go green that

is designed to encourageinvestment in alternativeenergy equipment. Theresidential energy-ef cientproperty credit equals 30percent o what a home-owner spends on qualiyingproperty, such as geother-mal heat pumps, small windturbines, solar hot water

heaters, other solar energysystems and uel cell prop-erty. Generally, the creditincludes labor costs. Thereis no cap or the amounto credit available on theseitems, except in the case ouel cell property, which hasa limit o $500 per .5 kW o

power capacity. Tax creditqualications or theseproducts expires Dec. 31,2016. Existing homes andnew construction qualiy, as

long as it is a principal resi-dence. Rentals and secondhomes do not qualiy.

Not all energy-ef cientimprovements qualiy orthese tax credits, so hom-eowners should check themanuacturers tax credit

certication statement be-ore buying or installing anyproducts.

The IRS cautions that themanuacturers certicationis dierent rom the Depart-ment o Energys EnergyStar label. Not all EnergyStar-labeled products qual-iy or the tax credits.

Eligible homeowners canclaim both o these creditswhen they le their ederalincome tax return. Becausethese are credits, not de-ductions, they increase ataxpayers reund or reducethe tax he or she owes. Visitwww.irs.gov or proper

orms to ll out, and or themost recent tax credit in-ormation. Again, check orspecic guidelines beoreyou buy.

Two heads form Terrapin Architecture Terrapin Architectureis a new collaboration o

Port Townsend architects

Richard Berg and Eric

Kuzma.

With their combined

proessional expertise,

they will provide betterdesign solutions, greater

individual attention, and

building designs reflect-

ing the most current envi-

ronmental and energy-e-

cient design strategies.

The new rm is located

at 719 Taylor St. in Port

Townsend, ormerly Rich-

ard Berg Architects.

This new collaborationbrings together a passion

or timeless architectural

design, whether modern

or traditional, Berg and

Kuzma said. Both archi-

tects share special expe-

rience in historic preser-

vation as well as the use

o exposed timber as a

structural and decorative

element. Terrapin Archi-tecture also specializes in

utilizing energy-ef cient

design and construction

strategies that make good

economic sense, placing

less emphasis on trendy

green ashions.

The rms design or the

new Quimper Unitarian

sanctuary and addition on

San Juan Avenue will re-sult in Jeerson Countys

rst Built Green commer-

cial structure. Additional-

ly, Terrapin designer Jesse

Thomas was recently certi-

ed by the Passive House

Institute. He brings knowl-

edge and analysis tools or

energy-ef cient construc-

tion to the design studio.

Contact Berg or Kuzmaat 360-379-8090 or through

the website at www.terra-

pinarchitecture.com.

not easy going 'green

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