A consortium of contractors who are members of the Hamptons Green Alliance (www.hamptonsgreenalliance.org) have come together to use their respective expertise to create a house that seeks platinum status in the US’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Green Building Rating System. The consortium believes the luxury home on Long Island “is expected to represent a future blueprint for advanced green building throughout the US”.
Using what has been termed IPD (Integrated Project Delivery), the planning and design phase of the HGA House (as it was known during the one year project) was extensive and included more stakeholders than is typically involved in a traditional building project. In addition to the owner, architect and contractor, this team included other trades that would be involved in the renovation – heating and cooling, insulation, painting, lighting, smart home technology experts – all coming together. A video on the renovation is accessible at www.hgahouse.com.
One of the key goals of this project was to reach embedded carbon neutrality. While many projects claim carbon neutrality of the operation of the building by being energy free or independent of purchasing energy produced from fossil fuels, this house accounts for the embodied carbon footprint of the components of the home, the carbon footprints of the subcontractors who built the home as well as the embodied carbon footprint of the materials used by this home. It has been the intent of the Hamptons Green Alliance to deliver to the owners a true carbon neutral home through the purchasing of carbon offsets from the Chicago Climate Exchange equal to the embodied carbon footprint.
The Hamptons Green Alliance’s initial goal in agreeing to take on such an ambitious project on a not-for-profit basis was largely educational, said Frank Dalene, a founding member of the HGA and president of Telemark, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Hamptons Luxury Homes which served as general contractor for the project.
Embodied carbon neutrality
As the project team came together it became clear the owner, architects and HGA members jointly aspired to raise their level of expectation for each of the major objectives of the project. To build sustainability and to use as little energy as possible changed to achieving net zero energy, rather than simply a well-built green house. Reducing the carbon footprint for the new structure evolved to the home becoming carbon neutral. Following LEED guidelines and being certified turned into become LEED Platinum and attempting to achieve the highest LEED point total for residential construction in the country, Dalene said.
This particular home is unique in that it incorporates new technologies that have been designed specifically to achieve a net zero energy though an imbedded carbon neutral footprint. Since this is a renovation of a building that was destroyed by a fire, the team had available past energy records. This enabled them to have a benchmark for comparison for future energy savings. And those savings are expected to be substantial: more than $250,000 over the next 30 years.
Major attributes have helped attain the goals of the HGA House include: super insulation design and installation; geothermal heating and cooling; an evacuated tube solar thermal system; thin-film photovoltaic solar power and conventional solar power panels; rainwater harvesting; LED Lighting; and smart home technology.
Renewable Energy Magazine will be interviewing executives from the HGA next month to find out more about this Net Zero Home and the challenges faced combining luxury and sustainability.
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