USA Today - Home Energy Funding Around Corner?

The Senate will likley vote within the next 10 days on an energy bill that includes rebates worth up to $8,000 for homeowners who do energy efficient retrofits.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., included the Home Star program -- also called "cash for caulkers" -- in scaled-back energy legislation unveiled this week. His bill also aims to boost oil spill liability and natural gas-powered vehicles but does not cap industrial greenhouse gas emissions.

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"The senator stressed he'd like to get this done before the August recent," slated to begin Aug. 9, says Larry Laseter, who represented companies backing the program at a press conference today with Sen. Reid. The Home Star Coalition includes trade groups and major companies such as Lowe's, Home Depot and Sears.

President Obama has promoted the Home Star program, which gives homeowners rebates for energy efficient retrofits. Here, he spoke in December at a Home Depot in Alexandria, Va., about the value of such upgrades.

By Susan Walsh, AP
The Home Star Energy Retrofit Act, which President Obama has touted, has moved quickly through Congress. In May, the House of Representatives passed the two-year program with bi-partisan support.

"It's just a good, common-sense bill," says Laseter, president of WellHome, a home-retrofit company, adding it will create 170,00 jobs, save homeowners' money and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

The program would give rebates for adding insulation, sealing ducts and installing efficient water heaters, heating units, windows and doors. The rebates would be worth $1,500 per measure, capped at 50% of project costs or $3,000, whichever is less. They could reach $8,000 for a whole-house retrofit that can prove, via a thorough audit, that it has halved energy use.

"The impact is immediate," says Laseter, noting that plenty of contractors are ready to go.

The program could help lower the construction industry's 24% unemployment rate, says Bracken Hendricks, senior fellow of the Center for American Progress, a self-described "progressive" research group.

"It's very much a made-in-America strategy," Bracken tells Green House, adding that efficiency upgrades aren't outsourced to foreign countries.

Congress has taken other steps to promote home efficiency. It's funded federal tax credits for certain Energy Star products and efficiency upgrades, $300 million for the "cash for appliance" program, which states rolled out this year, and $5 billion in three-year stimulus funding to weatherize homes.

The House approved $6 billion for Home Star, while Reid's bill calls for $5 billion.

Storm proof house in Tampa

As Florida’s housing market continued its struggle early last year, custom builder Bobby Alvarez realized it was time to differentiate his company. Demand was rapidly shrinking for the multi-million-dollar, 40,000-square-foot mansions the 28-year veteran of the Tampa building industry is known for.

“With the huge houses, we didn’t feel like the market was going in that direction forever,” he says. “My partner and I and the people in our office wanted to move toward green building.”

To attract clients looking for high-performance smaller dwellings, he founded Alvarez New Concepts, a spinoff company to his custom building business. In December, he completed his first sustainable project, a 2,500-square-foot home in the city’s walkable Hyde Park historic district certified to NGBS-Gold and Florida Green Building Coalition-Platinum.

But in his quest to set his new company apart, Alvarez didn’t stop with sustainability. Knowing that his customers are concerned about coastal storm safety, he also designed the home to be ultra hurricane resistant under the Institute for Business & Home Safety’s Fortified for Safer Living (FSL) designation.

The program’s rigorous requirements go beyond state and local building codes to increase a home’s resistance to natural perils. For example, the Alvarez house had to be able to withstand 140-mph winds, 20 mph stronger than code requires.

SEALED TIGHT
Alvarez and engineer Paul Kidwell found that high-performance home building utilizes many of the same products, principles, and technologies that ultra-weatherproofing does. For example, FSL’s mandate for an ultra-strong outer envelope meant the house would be built to super-tight and energy-efficient standards, starting with its concrete foundation and walls.

The two-story concrete block walls were poured with 4,000-psi concrete and reinforced with steel every 2 feet, Alvarez says. PolyMaster R-501 foam was injected around the concrete block for an R-value of 4.6 per inch.

“The first thing we planned for was to start out with a very tightly sealed house,” Alvarez says. “The house has lots of layers of insulation.”

Walls were insulated to R-19 with ¾-inch Owens Corning Foamular 250 rigid foam, followed by M-Shield paperless reflective insulation from Fi-Foil applied on ¾-inch furring strips.

An acrylic sealer from Porter PPG was used to protect the exterior of the concrete block. Workers then applied James Hardie’s Hardiewrap weather barrier followed by pressure-treated 2x4s, required by the FSL program for extra strength. The exterior was finished with 5/8-inch-thick Artisan Lap siding, also from James Hardie.

No area of the home was left uninsulated, Alvarez says. The attic and the ceiling between the floors were sprayed with Icynene LD-R 50, a renewable water-blown foam insulation and air barrier made from castor oil. Hilti spray foam was used to fill gaps around pipes, vents, ducts, outlets, and windows.

For extreme water and wind protection under the high-wind-rated Galvalume roof, Alvarez and his crew relied on the Huber Zip structural panel sheathing system and a secondary water barrier, peel-and-stick Polystick TU Plus, a rubberized asphalt waterproofing membrane.

High design pressure- and impact-rated windows and doors from Pella meet FSL criteria to resist wind-driven rain and to protect against windborne debris. In addition, pre-engineered wood roof and floor trusses were designed, installed, and anchored to resist the higher-design wind speed.

STRONG AND GREEN
Besides its super-sealed, ultra-insulated shell, the home also boasts an array of other green features, including a rainwater collection system; Energy Star-rated appliances; LED recessed lights; two tankless water heaters; a Rainbird Smart Control irrigation system; and eco-friendly floors, countertops, and cabinets.

Built as a concept home for about $700,000 and now occupied by Alvarez’s son, the project has generated new customers interested in both its sustainable and stormproof features, Alvarez says.

“They like everything about it, they can’t believe how many things we took into account when building it,” he comments. “They’re overwhelmed with all the details.”

Although the market in his area is still slow, Alvarez believes that clients who tour the home will remember his company when they’re ready to buy, and he says he plans to build more high-performance homes in the near future.

DISASTER-PROOF
The 10-year-old FSL program has designated about 250 homes across the country for their strength against perils such as hurricanes, tornadoes, wildfires, hail, and earthquakes, says media relations manager Joe King. In some jurisdictions, including 18 coastal counties in North Carolina, owners of FSL homes can receive a discount on their insurance premiums.

Because a significant percentage of Americans live within 50 miles of a coast or within wildfire-prone areas, incorporating durable building techniques into green projects makes sense, King says.

“Resilient construction goes hand in hand with green construction,” he notes. “And one of our houses is going to last, because the owners are not going to have to replace it after a disaster when everyone else has to come back in and rebuild.”

Jennifer Goodman is Senior Editor, Online for EcoHome.

http://www.ecohomemagazine.com/news/2010/07-july/case-study-tampa-house-built-to-sustainable-and-storm-resistant-standards.aspx

Garage Door Florida Website Launched

When you think of green products for your home you probably don't think of your garage door. It is the largest moving part of your home and helps insulate your home from outside temperatures. Typical wooden doors need frequent maintenance, re-painting and needs to be replaced every 5-7 years. A new website, Garage Door Florida provides Florida homeowners with information on composite garage doors that are great for homes on the Florida coastal areas.

The Garage Door Florida website was launched by Eden Coast LLC, an Atlanta based manufacturer of high quality eco-friendly garage doors. The quality of the doors must be seen to be believed. The stain and painting options are matched to the colors of your home and each Eden Coast Garage Door is custom made in their Atlanta manufacturing plant. For more information please visit their Garage Door Florida Website.