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Philosophy of Green
Content: Energy/Comfort>Building Envelope>Certifications>Net-Zero
The Green Building movement is getting its priorities in order.
Asheville home builders, buyers and green builders can have the biggest impact by focusing on one critical area.
The growing consensus of experts believe we should focus on three main points in this order:
1. Energy
2. Water
3. Materials
- Healthy, Indoor Air Quality IAQ obviously needs to be included.
- The best approach for building to reduce energy use can also increase comfort and IAQ.
Energy is the most important issue.
Monthly, Energy Use by our Homes and Buildings
accounts for 40-80% of our negative social and environmental footprints. 
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Reduce Energy Bills.
Help Society and Environment in most effective manner. Save Money.
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Money saved on home energy bills represents the best opportunity to reduce our environmental and societal damage.
Reducing Home Energy Bills reduces Hidden Costs including: Water, Soil, Air Pollution/Acid Rain, Mountain Top Mining, Coal Ash/Oil Spills, and Nuclear Waste and Disaster.
Money spent on a Homes Dirty Energy = Hidden Costs: burning coal/oil Coal/Uranium/Gas Mining & Extraction Radioactive Waste and Risk
Dramatically reduced Monthly, Energy Costs needs to be a top priority.
Existing homes and remodels should include as much energy conservation as possible.
With new homes, 50% - 100% less energy consumption is possible and affordable compared to existing or remodeled homes.
Asheville builders, even green builders typically do Energy Star, 15% better than code/law minimum: a tiny reduction in Energy Bills and Hidden Costs.
With the proper design and builders of Asheville NC new homes, 50% Lower Home Energy Costs can be just as affordable.
Reduce Energy Use Cost-Effectively Have Healthier Indoor Air Be more Comfortable
High Performance Building Envelopes are the most important piece of the puzzle.
The Building Envelope is basically the air barrier, insulation and doors/windows.
- A home's Building Envelope has the biggest impact on some of its most important characteristics:
- Comfort, Energy Use, Indoor Air Quality, and other operating costs like maintenance and durability.
It is the most permanent part of a home and the hardest to correct and improve once built.
A high-performance, envelope combined with the right home design, details, and connections offers the most affordable and effective opportunity to reduce energy costs by 50-100%.
Homes with High Performance Building Envelopes are more comfortable, more resistant to mold and have the healthiest Indoor Air Quality.
When one builds or rebuilds, they are responsible for that buildings lifetime of energy bills, resulting environmental/societal hidden costs and the health effects of the indoor air on the inhabitants. New homes and green homes most importantly reduce dirty energy costs and that is most effectively done with the building envelope.
This site helps buyers and asheville green builders discover the most important things to consider on the path of affordable, energy independence and healthy indoor air.
Certifications and Ratings 
LEED for Homes 
Building certifications and home ratings are third parties that verify buildings are built appropriately. Almost all new homes are getting certified with something. This only takes away the importance of a certified label if you dont know what you're looking at. A basic understanding of them, allows one to compare between homes and builders marketed as green and healthy.
A look at the most popular certifications used by asheville nc home builders and green builders.
ENERGY STAR/ HERS Index ENERGY STAR is a good start....Focus On HERS 
ENERGY STAR website ENERGY STAR is only 15% better than the poorest performance allowed by law. We feel all Asheville home builders should be committed to doing ENERGY STAR as a minimum.
Almost all certifications start with ENERGY STAR/HERS and then add to, or alter, the picture from there. The HERS Index is powerful in its modeling of home energy costs and resulting environmental/societal hidden costs.
The HERS Index is a point scale from <0 to 100.
- 100 represents a code built house (poorest performance allowed by law)
- 0 represents a Net-Zero-Energy Home: an ultimate goal in fiscal and socially sustainable living
- <0 would be a home that produces more energy than it consumes throughout the course of a year.
Modeling software combined with diagnostic results (mainly blower door test) from the completed home make this possible.
After purchase price, the HERS Index is the most important number for a new home. It is an accurate prediction of a home's monthly, energy-use which is the biggest source of most people's negative environmental/societal footprints.
The closer to zero, the lesser a homes Energy and Hidden costs.
Net-Zero-Homes reduce the environmental impacts of their entire community.
DO NOT be content with the ENERGY STAR label. ENERGY STAR and other certifications have a HERS index. This number along with the blower door test results reveal the most information of a home's energy costs and resulting level of harm on our environment.
Asheville builders, incuding most green builders score around the ENERGY STAR bare minimum of 85 which is actually kind of pathetic. This represents 15% better than the poorest performance allowed by law. It is a barely noticable reduction in energy costs and hidden costs. A rating of 50 can be just as affordable and would put us in line with a German, code-built home. In other words, most ENERGY STAR homes in asheville, would not be legal in Germany because they would waste too much energy.
Other Certifications use ENERGY STAR/HERS as a starting point and then use other criteria to build a more holistic picture of a green building. This is a great thing, but we take issue with how they tend to strip importance and relevance away from energy-use.
For example, take two otherwise identical homes. One home has a HERS rating of 70. The other house wastes more energy with a rating of 80, but because it used more recycled materials and has a rain barrel, it gets a higher level of certification. This is fundamentally wrong because the home with the score of 70 will have a much lower environmental foot print. This example would be the exception, but is designed to highlight the importance of the HERS rating and the greatest weakness in most other certifications.
Energy Star/ HERS is not perfect. The biggest drawback is tendency to reward bigger houses while penalizing smaller ones. At this point, it is still the best metric available.
Dramatically reducing Monthly, Energy Bills is one of the more responsible things a person can do. Fiscally and Socially.
NC Healthy Built Homes
Asheville Healthy Built Homes Healthy Built Homes web page WNCGBC Western North Carolina Green Building Council web page
It is quite affordable to upgrade to the Healthy Built Home HBH certification put out by the Western North Carolina Green Building Council WNCGBC. It is a simplified points system that goes beyond ENERGY STAR to include seven different criteria: site, water, building envelope, comfort systems, indoor air quality, materials, and lighting/appliances/renewables. The program successfully educates asheville builders and home buyers in all areas of the green building movement. This is the most recognized certification in Asheville and Western North Carolina.
LEED for homes
LEED for Homes webpage of US Green Building Council USGBC United States Green Building Council home page
Like NC Healthy Built Homes, ENERGY STAR/HERS is a prerequisite. LEED for homes can be considerably more expensive than other options. It has a relatively complex points system requiring time investments on part of the individual certifier. Depending on the complexity of the house or target market this can end up being a great investment. The main advantage to LEED is its national recognition.
Passive House
Passive House US website
Passive house (Passiv Haus) is a certification, and not necessarily but often a Passive Solar House (Passive Solar Design).
Certifications that use point systems involve thousands of moving variables, some of which have little effect on a home's environmental foot-print. Passive House focuses on the main source of a home's environmental foot-print. Resulting homes are considered by many to be the greenest by far.
By doing away with "optional points" and designing to a "target energy budget", Passive House standard homes use 90% less energy than code built homes. This is mainly done by an uber strict appoach to air sealing, insulation and windows; The Building Envelope.
Passive House was created in a different climate than Asheville's. Germany has a heating dominated climate with fewer days of sunshine in the winter. Depending on local elevation, we have a climate where cooling with de-humidification is almost as important as heating. We need specific mechanical equipment to accomplish this. We generally do not need as much insulation as Northern climates and we can rely on passive solar heating more.
Passive House is working on adjusting thier system to accomodate different climates. The HERS rating, at this point, is adjusted for our climate and can be used in a "target energy budget" manner by designing a home to score a certain HERS Index rating. Solar energy in the form of Photovoltaics (PV) is allowed to contribute in a HERS rating but not a Passive House certification, which relies on building envelope upgrades like more insulation.
One of Passive House's best arguements for super insulation is that it tends to be permanent and doesnt require maintenance.
HERS doesnt account for the future costs of failing transformers, PV panel degradation, and replacement or maintenance of HVAC systems.
The impressive thing about Passive House is the ability to bring a home's energy use so low (HERS of around 10 or less) without the use of PV arrays. The Building Science Corporation BSC, a team of our continent's best building scientists, have been influenced by the Germans, but raise some important questions to details of Passive House requirements and recommendations.
Perhaps the most important issue: When does it make sense to spend money on a PV system instead of extra insulation? Many feel that money would be better spent on a Grid-Tied PV system instead of a diminishing return of super-insulation, especially in our more mild climate. BSC and Passive House are remarkably close in thier Northern insulation recommendations except for the levels needed under slab.
Lifestyle Occupant Behavior Daily routines and habits
In the world of Passive House and Net-Zero-Homes, occupant behavior becomes a major influence on performance. Thanks to technology, people who dont want to alter thier lifestyle can offset thier environmental impact by investing in more renewable energy.
Fine tuning our daily habits is an easy way to dramatically reduce our energy consumption while sacrificing little in our lifestyle.
Home Energy Monitors have made remarkable breakthroughs recently. For only 100-300 dollars one can use this device to display and monitor the exact amount of electricity being used and how much that energy is costing you in real-time. Energy reductions of 10-20% are possible by allowing the entire family to view the impacts of thier daily routines that influence energy use. A display of "cents per hour" shows the cost of a single light being switched.
The software included with most of these monitors allows us to fine tune our appliances and comfort systems as well. It might be possible to save money by setting the thermostat lower in the Summer to better de-humidify the air. Only with a monitor can we fine tune our mechanical systems to such a degree.
Net-Zero-Energy Homes: Why they are so important
Net-zero-energy is the ultimate goal in building responsibly.
- Energy bills disappear as do the main source of the homes environmental/societal negative impacts.
- They also dramatically reduce the environmental impact of their entire community.
Electricity used in the home represents only 1/4 of the energy needed to create, transport and convert it. All that wasted energy represents huge amounts of social and environmental costs. When homes produce enough power to offset thier use from the power plant, they are actually supplying energy to thier neighbors during Peak Demand Hours. This reduces the need to build more power plants and reduces the amount of electricity lost in creation, conversion and transport, exponentially reducing the hidden costs of dirty energy.
The cost to go Net-Zero is more affordable than ever. With an efficient home the size of our Springtime Cottage (1430-1800 sqft) one can expect to pay 9000 to 17,000 after tax credits to install the Solar PV panels and net -metering system to make it possible.
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Cost effective Water Conservation
Please visit our blog for the continuation of Cost-Effective water conservation in Asheville and Western North Carolina on our Asheville Builders blog.
Rainwater Harvesting and Collection in Asheville and Western North Carolina looks at cost-effective methods of utilizing rainwater in our climate.
We hope this information will prove useful to all Asheville Builders and Buyers. Visit Asheville Green Building Science page to learn important fundamentals of Buildng Science or visit Asheville Custom Home Builder to see our building services.
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