Publication date: 08/21/2009

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Building 'green' doesn't have to break budgets

These days it seems like the word "green" is a favorite buzzword in the home industry. Building energy-efficient new homes is catching on, and homebuilders are adding many green features to their homes that are good for the environment and easier on a home owner's utility bills.

A great example of what can be done in the area of green homebuilding is the Somerset Collection Show Home and Living Green Design Center, which runs through Sept. 30. The focal point is the 5,000-square-foot show home located on Willow Street in Birmingham. The home features all the amenities you would expect in a high-end home, but the unique thing is that it is truly a green home.

Dominick Tringali of Dominick Tringali Architects, (248) 335-8888, www.dtarchitects.com, designed the home with the intent of having a green footprint, but at a manageable cost.

"To specify, all the green features in this home cost between 10 percent and 15 percent more than standard materials," Dominick said.

"Green" features that were specified for this Somerset Show home, which was built by Custom Homes by Durocher, (248) 549-8500, include energy efficient-insulation features such as a sealed attic, house wrap and the blue board Styrofoam insulation for the basement foundation, all from Dow Chemical.

Tringali's firm also specified energy-efficient lighting systems that turn lights on slowly to save energy and help light bulbs last longer, as well as built-in sensors that shut off lights in a room when they detect a lack of activity. The heating and cooling system features smart house technology that helps monitor and control the home's heating and air conditioning to provide optimum comfort and save energy.

Other green features include low-VOC products throughout the home, along with natural/sustainable building materials. On the exterior, the green approach was used in landscaping and includes rain barrels that store rainwater and then are used to water the lawn and flowers, and landscaping that featured ground cover rather than a lawn to save on water consumption.

While the Somerset Show Home is in the high-end price range, Dominick indicated building green can be tailored to any homebuilding budget.

"We recently finished a green Habitat for Humanity home in Oakland County that was built for around $100,000, and we are currently working with a builder on two more green homes in the $300,000 to $500,000 price range," he said. "Each home is unique, and we take the approach of specifying the best and most cost-effective, long-term green system for a home based on the style, location and budget."

The good thing is building green does save the homeowner on energy costs, and, over the long-term, can make up the difference in the 10 percent to 15 percent added cost. For example, the green Habitat for Humanity house that Dominick Tringali Architects designed actually saves the homeowner approximately $80 per month on energy costs.

Another builder in the area focusing on green building is Woody Gontina at Gontina Building and Design in Clawson, (248) 246-8031, www.gontinabuilding.com. The firm recently built a 3,700-square-foot home in Bloomfield Township with environmentally responsible construction that included energy efficient building methods, systems and materials. Features included geothermal heating-and-cooling system, top-grade insulation, and Energy Star windows and appliances. The home was built following the Leadership in Energy Efficiency and Design green building rating system that is geared to have more efficient, healthier homes that are good long-term investments.

"It's our mission to focus on spaces that require fewer resources to construct and maintain and are sustainable," Woody said. "We look at every aspect of a home when deciding what we can do to make it greener, from minimizing construction waste to looking at how we can maximize the amount of natural daylight to help improve solar heating potential."

Woody said that obviously the level of green for a new home depends on the budget, but that even if someone has a limited budget, there are many ways to make the home "greener."

"In most cases, we start with making sure we have a tight building structure to minimize air leakage and lower the heating and cooling loads," he said. "So even with a smaller budget, we can focus on a well insulated home with energy efficient windows to help conserve energy."

In addition, the Living Green Design Center at Somerset Collection is filled with "green" merchandise from the mall's stores, along with green building ideas for a variety of partners for this event. For more information, visit the Somerset Collection Web site at www.somersetshowhome.com.

You can also join me live on Aug. 29 as I broadcast my radio shows from the Somerset Collection.

Note: This article was accurate at the date of publication. However, information contained in it may have changed. If you plan to use the information contained herein for any purpose, verification of its continued accuracy is your responsibility.

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