Reducing Environmental Impact
As a full service firm, we offer complete environmentally friendly architectural design, building, and remodeling solutions.
Construction by its very nature disturbs the environment, and our projects are often located in very sensitive areas. It is always my goal when designing a home, and the goal of my team when building a home, to harmonize with the existing environmental site conditions, and most importantly to take care to minimize any unnecessary impact on the site. Daily inspections are made to assess the impact of the construction on the home site and the surrounding area, and to take any required corrective action to improve the conditions and reduce the impact.
Sustainable Forest Products
We have developed, tested, and employ many advanced construction techniques and energy saving systems in our homes. Operation and maintenance costs of a home are significant these days. Our use of hybrid dual fuel HVAC systems, LED lighting, and Sustainable Forest Products, significantly reduce these costs, and reduce the carbon foot print of our homes.
Our goal is to use a minimum of 75% fast growing Sustainable Forest Products in all of our projects.
“His knowledge as a builder was invaluable to us in making decisions on materials, energy efficiency, heating systems, etc. ”
LEED Techniques
Energy efficiency and environmental impact are at the center of all our design and construction techniques. We employ and extend LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) in all phases of our projects. We integrate numerous innovative and proven energy saving features into our eco friendly homes.
Energy Shell System
Our advanced Energy Shell System provides one of the most energy efficient thermal envelopes being used in wood framed residential construction today. This system creates a continuous thermal envelope from under the basement floor, to the peak of the roof. Along with our hybrid dual source HVAC systems, we are significantly reducing the cost of operating and maintaining our homes, as well as shrinking their carbon footprint.
Thermal Break Wall System
The walls of a home often make up the largest surface area, and thus allow the greatest energy loss by both radiant heat loss and air infiltration. An integral part of our Energy Shell System is our Thermal Break Wall System, a highly cost effective passive construction technique, which provides additional insulation, eliminates thermal bridging to the wall studs, while at the same time it significantly reduces air infiltration and interior noise levels.
Significant Cost Savings
Energy use testing was conducted during January on a recently completed 4500sf waterfront home designed and built utilizing our complete Energy Shell System. During the January test period this home required less than 30,000 BTUs of energy per hour, with an average outside temperature of near zero degrees. At current energy prices this converts to an approximate cost of only $.75 cents per hour for heating this home during the coldest portion of the heating season. This testing shows our complete Energy Shell System coupled with our dual fuel HVAC systems is significantly reducing both the long term operating costs, as well as the environmental impact of our homes.
Sharing Our Methods
As part of our sustainable environmental impact initiative, we are providing training to other builders in the New England area on these highly cost effective advanced energy saving construction techniques.