The Green Parent

by Karen Adams
Sustainable Concept House

My husband and I bought a ½ acre lot in the Texas Hill Country about 4 years ago.  When we were talking about our “dream” house, we had the same vision-for it to be as independent as possible for water, to be super energy efficient and to have a healthy indoor living environment.  So, we weren’t sure if that was “green,” but we knew we wanted it to be made in a sustainable way using earth-friendly materials that would stand the test of time.  So began the journey.  Between our architect, myself, and my husband, we must have read 100 books about green construction and materials and decided, after everything we read and learned, we wanted to build a PRACTICAL Green Concept House.  So no hay bales, SIPS or the like.  We wanted to use a local builder whose subs were already trained in conventional construction.

The biggest thing we learned was how important good design is.  Our architect, Ben Adam, AIA, of Boerne, designed the house using passive solar principles.  That is to say he tapped into Mother Nature to help us.  He designed the house using a few simple strategies:

• Orient the house to face south to limit harsh western sunlight, capture solar and prevailing breezes for natural ventilation and to provide day lighting with windows on north and south faces. Minimize glazing on east and west exposures to reduce heat gain.

• Specify a “cool” roof that provides low heat absorption and has high reflectivity at the proper angle to maximize solar absorption for solar hot water heating and future PV panels and allows ease of water harvesting.
• Include roof overhangs and structures over windows and use shading where needed

• Specify a super efficient insulation package, such as Optima®, a loose fill fiber glass insulation for closed cavity applications
• Use energy efficient low e-glass windows
• Use landscaping to help with windbreaks
• Use the earth to heat and cool the house (geothermal)

Because we adhered to smart design principles for our region (Texas is hotter than it is cold) we got a real-live reality check.  Our geothermal installer called me and said “your architect did a heck of a good job designing this house.”  And I said “well yes, isn’t it beautiful?”  And he said, “Well yes, but I was talking about how much tonnage it will take to heat and cool your home.”  He went on to explain the fact that our house, because it was well designed, would take 1 ton of A/C for every 1,400 square feet (it is a 3,500 square foot house).  Then he said that the last house he just speced was about the same size but it required 1 ton of A/C for every 400 square feet!  So that is when it sunk in that good design makes good sense and cents!

One surprise we did encounter was the fact that the Homeowners Association where we are building was not completely supportive of the project, which was a big downer.  How could they not love the fact that we were going to be one of the only Platinum LEED Certified houses in the region?!  Because we wanted to do a six week open house, that’s why!  But we compromised and settled on one week.  Since our lot is in a subdivision and has covenants associated with a HOA, it really does fit into our practical sustainable model.  So folks need to be aware of these types of hurdles as they begin a project.

Since Griz and I have two boys, 14 and 11, we wanted to make sure that we have the healthiest home environment possible, so that meant using products that do not have any harsh VOCs to contaminate the air.  These can come in many forms, put are particularly prevalent in paint, adhesives and carpet.  We eliminated carpet totally, have gone with Sherwin-Williams’ line of no VOC paints and are working with our cabinet maker about using green glues.  Also, two family members suffer from asthma, so in conjunction with eliminating as many VOCs as possible, we will also have an air exchanger to insure we have a good balance of outside air and conditioned air.

Right now we have drilled our geothermal wells and have the exaction plan in place.  Our plan is to pour the slab in early September and have the house finished next summer.  You can check the status of our building at our website, Sustainable Concept House or our Sustainable Concept House blog.