Low-E Windows

Low-E Windows

Habitat for Humanity Earns LEED Certification for Ninth Home in Grand Rapids, Michigan Area

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Dec

For a Grand Rapids, Michigan family, this Christmas was particularly special as it moved into a $110,000 LEED-certified home built by Habitat for Humanity and sponsored by Spartan Stores. The home is the ninth for which Habitat’s Kent County chapter has received a LEED rating (including one Platinum and two Gold) under USGBC’s LEED for Homes Pilot Program. The Mast family moved into their new house in mid-December after providing the required 300 hours of service to Habitat after their application was approved in March. Kent County’s Habitat chapter built the first low-income LEED-certified house in 2006, and has constructed each of its homes similarly ever since. At a ceremony that handed keys to the home to the Masts, executive director of the chapter Pam Doty-Nation observed that “there are a lot of big home builders who say they can't afford energy-efficiency, [and] we’re demonstrating that, yes, you can afford it. If we can afford it, you can afford it.”

The house itself includes a number of green features, including recycled newspaper insulation, double-paned, argon gas low-E windows, and compact fluorescent light bulbs. According to Habitat, the green premium for the project was approximately $5,000, but it expects that the Masts will save $1,000 annually on their utility bills.

Green Prefab in the Catskills: Alta Log Home, Fleischmanns, New York

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Dec

by Stephen Del Percio

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USGBC’s LEED for Homes (“LEED-H”) Pilot Program is now closed; the organization’s constituents voted on its final approval during a period that ended a few weeks ago, and the system’s formal introduction should be forthcoming shortly. Three projects in New York State earned certification from USGBC under the Pilot Program, and we’ve presented two of these residences to you previously. The Morrisania Homes, a Silver affordable housing development in the Bronx, made our list of the top five 2007 New York City green buildings, while the Callahan House in Skaneateles, just outside of Syracuse, received Gold early this summer.

Alta Log Homes is a Catskills-based manufacturer of prefabricated wooden log residences. It offers fifty different models, as well as custom designs, and its Greenbriar model in Fleischmanns earned New York’s aforementioned third LEED-H rating (Certified) back in August.