philadelphia

Philadelphia and Boston Groups Seek to Build the Most Energy Efficient Green Home Possible for $100,000

Postgreen has contracted ZeroEnergy Design to perform advanced energy modeling and consulting on the 100K House project in order to design the most energy efficient home possible on a small budget of $100,000 in the Delaware Valley region of the US.

Philadelphia, PA May 9th, 2008 — Postgreen and ZeroEnergy Design are determined to create an urban infill home that uses only 53% of the energy consumed by a standard new home while using a substantially smaller construction budget than is typical in the area. The combined effort is part of a case study - The 100K House - being built by Postgreen in an effort to prove that quality, green homes can be built for the same or even less cost than traditional homes.

Postgreen is working on a construction budget of only $100,000 USD to build the infill home in Philadelphia with the goal of achieving high energy performance and a LEED Platinum rating. The average US home of the same size will consume 2.5 times as much energy as the 100k house.

“In order to accomplish the lofty energy goals for the home on our budget, more time and care must be taken during the planning and design phase of every aspect of the home from insulation to HVAC equipment,” states Chad Ludeman, President of Postgreen. “ZeroEnergy Design is the perfect company to ensure that we will get the most bang for our buck in terms of energy efficiency on the 100K House and we are excited to have them be part of the project,” continued Chad.

ZeroEnergy Design focused on cost effective passive aspects of the house first, looking for additional ways to conserve energy. Then the active systems that consume energy were analyzed for efficiency, including heating, cooling, ventilation, hot water, appliances, and lighting. And finally, renewable energy systems were considered with solar thermal being the top contender.

Each improvement was reviewed on a cost versus benefit basis, considering the incremental change upon the home’s annual utility bills and Postgreen’s strict construction budget. “Knowing that 38 of the 136 possible points for the highest LEED certification score are energy related, any performance improvements we can make will not only be good for the LEED rating, but also good for the environment and the homeowner’s utility bills,” said Jordan Goldman, Principal Engineer of ZeroEnergy Design.

About Postgreen:
Postgreen is a real estate development company focusing on modern, green and affordable buildings and homes in Philadelphia’s urban neighborhoods. Our success is measured using a triple-bottom-line approach that ensures that each project benefits not only the bottom line, but the people in our community and the planet as a whole. Find out more at http://www.postgreen.com

About ZeroEnergy Design:
ZeroEnergy Design is a professional services firm providing Custom Home Design and Energy Design services for residential new construction. The unique collaboration between in-house architectural designers, mechanical engineers, and financial analysts drives a competitive advantage and enables the firm to deliver fully integrated design for high performance homes. (ZeroEnergy Design was formerly known as Independence Energy Homes). Find out more at http://www.ZeroEnergy.com

Contacts:

Chad Ludeman, President
Postgreen
215.739.1578
http://www.postgreen.com

Adam Prince
ZeroEnergy Design
1.866.412.5332
http://www.ZeroEnergy.com

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In case you haven’t seen the new plans for the 100K House project here are a few links:

• Flickr Slideshow
• Project Page
• 100K House Blog Post

Our architect, Interface Studio Architects (ISA), is finalizing the last changes we made in the last design meeting and should have them ready soon. We are going to open up the ground floor floorplan, create a full second bedroom and add a deck off of the master bed in the next iteration of plans.

There is one company in Philly that most locals know have paved the way for modern and green development in downtown Philadelphia. The company is Onion Flats and I have not been to their website in a while so decided to catch up on their projects this morning. If you’ve somehow never heard of them go their now and check out there past, present and future projects. Their site is all flash or I’d include some nice teaser pics for you.

I say they have paved the way for modern and green in Philly for a variety of reasons.

One, Philly can be especially resistant to modern architecture when it comes to getting the approvals needed to get a new project started. This has a lot to do with trying to preserve Philly’s history and culture, which is great, but the Onion Flats’ projects have now proved that modern architecture can enhance a neighborhood and a community without sticking out like a sore thumb. They have made it easier for all modern developers who follow them to get their project approved.

Secondly, they prove to the lenders that there is a market for modern and green in Philly. There are many architects, developers and realtors who know a virtually untapped market exists, but the banks like to see bricks and mortar + solid numbers to match. The Onion Flats give us nice comps to show that, yes - these homes will sell and everyone involved will not lose money.

Third, they have generated a lot of attention for environmentally responsible development in Philadelphia which helps grow the potential market for green while simultaneously giving great examples to the local and state government to encourage more of the same type of environmental responsibility in their programs.

Keep up the good work, Onion Flats!

That site again in case you missed it above is http://www.onionflats.com/

My wife an I have been very satisfied PhillyCarShare members for over three years. It’s always been convenient and originally kept us from needing a second car, and recently has enabled us to eliminate car ownership from our lives completely. We’ve noticed some changes in our transportation habits since joining including taking public transportation more often, walking or biking more often and driving much less when we do use on of the shared cars.

We joke that our weekends have become much more efficient because we thoroughly plan out trips to Lowes/Home Depot, IKEA or other destinations that require us to use a car due to hauling requirements (it’s hard to carry lumber on my motorcycle and don’t even get me started on the flat packed ikea furniture). We have turned what used to be 6 hour, life-sucking excursions into very intense but rewarding 45-60 minute trips to the dreaded home stores.

Anyways, the point of this post is to post some rather impressive numbers that I just received in my inbox from PhillyCarShare that they have calculated from recent survey results to back up that many others are experiencing the same changes in lifestyle that we have. These are not actual numbers but based on their surveys. Still, even if they are off by 20% or so, they are still impressive numbers. Keep it up PhillyCarShare!

From my inbox:

Don’t tell Toyota, but…since joining PhillyCarShare….

• You own 12,810 fewer cars. Wow! That’s about 2,000 fewer cars in Rittenhouse Square alone! 1,100 fewer in University City…you get the idea. Seriously, we did a recount – used all our fingers and toes. This is real. According to you, without PhillyCarShare you would have owned 23,610 cars. Now you tell us you own just 10,800 cars. Amazing.

Fewer cars means less pollution from auto manufacturing. But it gets better. You haven’t just traded mile for mile, bopping around in PhillyCarShare’s fun Mini Coopers instead of driving your old car.

• You drive 42% fewer miles. Our math gurus tell us that means 26 million fewer miles since PhillyCarShare’s inception.

• You’ve logged 4 million miles in hybrids that pollute 90% less than conventional vehicles. Wow!

• You’ve saved 1.6 million gallons of gas from driving hybrids and driving less.

• Former car owners are choosing more earth-friendly travel options:40% walk more, 34% ride public transit more, 18% bike more, 13% take taxis more.

• You’re pumping an extra $90 million annually into Philadelphia’s economy – money that stays here rather than flowing into the global auto industry. We estimate that each former car owner saves about $4,000 per year. That really adds up.

Here is the first article I’ve seen on the new green home stores I wrote about in this post a few weeks ago. It gives a bit more background on the founders.

http://www.philadelphiaweekly.com/articles/15528

There has been lot of talk about Philadelphia becoming a greener city lately to catch up with the likes of Chicago and NYC. One good sign of late was the opening of three new environmental home stores in the Philadelphia area. Below is a brief description of each in no particular order and I plan to have pictures or each store’s show rooms soon.

The first store is The Environmental Homestore which just opened its second location in Mount Airy. Todd Ballantyne is the owner and started this store at his home in Lansdale, PA by converting his garage into a show room.

I visited Todd about 2 months ago on a green home tour and he toured us around both his home and the garage show room. Both looked great and proved that Todd had gotten his hands dirty and tested most of the products himself.

Todd is very knowledgeable about sustainable building and home products. He has clearly done his research on all of his products and can go into great detail about such issues as what makes one low-VOC paint much “greener” than another.

I recently bought some low-VOC stain and sealer for my first green project in our new loft apartment and was very pleased with the service and product. Tracy helped me pick the stain I needed and knew that the ebony Bioshield stain I ordered needed additional tinting in order to come out black rather than simply dark brown.

I’m looking forward to checking out their new Mount Airy store which just opened and is quite a bit closer to me (I don’t like to leave the city if I don’t have to).

The next store is Greenable who has been in the planning stages of opening a store for a number of months. They just opened their store last weekend and I was fortunate enough to attend their grand opening party last Friday. I say fortunate because they supplied free beer, wine and food which scores points in my book every time.

The best part about their store for me is the location in Old City on Market St. in between Front and 2nd. This is less than a block away from where my wife works and only three train stops from our home.

The store is still coming together and they claim to have the widest selection of green products in the Philadelphia area. Another nice thing about Greenable is that they offer services as well as products. They have an interior designer on staff to help you with your green decorating or remodel and have a good network of consultants and architects as well.

Finally there is the Green Depot which has a nice online store and has recently opened a new store in Philadelphia. This is their third physical location with the first two being in Brooklyn and Massachusetts.

I can’t tell you a lot about their store as I have not had the opportunity to visit any of their locations or speak with the owners. The certainly have a nice online presence with a very wide selection of products for both residential and commercial use. When I find out more I’ll let you know.

So Philly, now you don’t have an excuse for not using sustainable and green materials in your home. You have three new stores to choose from and I can guarantee you that you’ll find much better service at all three than you would at any local Lowes or Home Depot!