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Heritage Creek
Homes - In The Green
ENGLEWOOD - Go down the checklist of
green building methods and materials and
you will see that Beechwood Builders' new
Maplewood model at the Heritage Creek has
most of them.
»Building Green", Energy-efficient
appliances, check. Spray-foam insulation in
the attic, check. Impact-resistant windows,
check. Metal roof, check. Poured-solid
walls, check. Florida-friendly landscaping,
check.
"Check, check, check," said Beechwood's
president, Jeff Gates. "We have a four-page
list of checks right down the line."
But then you get to the box for
photovoltaic panels on the roof, and
you see that it is checked, too.
That is what sets this house apart from many
others than are designed and promoted as
green. Beechwood has taken the big step of
installing PV panels on the roof of one of
its two models at the all-green subdivision
on State Road 776, 1.5 miles south of its
intersection with Jacaranda Boulevard.
"The PV system is the glitz, the big deal
that makes its own energy," said Gates.
"The solar water heater is the state of the
art," he added. "We bought the best we could
to make sure we had the energy efficiency
that we were looking to attain."
Such technology does not come cheap. A
5-kilowatt system of PV panels can cost
$45,000, said Kirk Maust of Bradenton-based
Solar Direct, which installed this system.
Beechwood's model, which is on Nostalgia
Street, has a 2.8-kw array. "Not counting
air-conditioning, that will pretty much run
the whole house," said Maust.
But with each dollar increase in the price
of crude oil, which translates into higher
electric bills from the power company, solar
power becomes more cost-effective, said Mike
Greig, Heritage Creek's developer.
"We were already convinced to go this way,"
said Greig. "To the extent we did is further
than we thought we were going to go. A lot
of builders get minimal green points ... and
most of them (their homes) aren't certified.
We were going to go for certification, but
we didn't plan on going as far as we did
with the solar and everything else."
This is not "affordable" housing, though.
The custom-designed houses in the
subdivision will typically be priced in the
350's and up. The models are sustainably
sized at about 2,100 square feet of
air-conditioned area.
But that does not mean green tech is
unaffordable. It actually "pays the
homeowner back," said Mike Evans of
Eco-$mart Inc., the Sarasota-based
green-building firm that consulted on the
project.
He noted that while the cost of the green
tech might add $75 a month to the mortgage
payment, that cost will be more than offset
by lower utility bills and insurance
premiums (as a result of the home's
wind-resistant features).
"You might add $75 to your mortgage but save
$150 on your electric and insurance bills.
So it pays to build green," said Evans.
Greig estimates the model will have a
monthly electric bill of $65. For it to be
$0, the house would need a larger PV array,
said Maust, with a $10,000 battery backup so
excess power could be stored on sunny days
and accessed on cloudy ones, "if you want to
be self-reliant and off the grid."
But the cost of solar is partially offset by
a federal tax credit of up to $2,000 and a
state rebate of up to $20,000, said Maust,
allowing the system pay for itself in 10 to
12 years.
"We've seen a real escalation in sales the
last year and a half," he said.
Rob Struckman, of Green Sustainable
Consulting & Certification in Venice, was
the lead consultant on the project, and
convinced Beechwood to make the extra
investment in PV power.
"We put extra things in this house," said
Struckman. "I want this to be the greenest
house with the highest rating from FGBC (the
Florida Green Building Coalition). We're
going to be in the 240 to 260 range (out of
a possible 300 points). My goal is for this
to be the No. 1 house in Florida and let
everyone else come after us."
Besides the photovoltaic power, each model
has solar water heating; water- and
energy-efficient appliances;
water-conserving plumbing fixtures; a
resource-efficient landscape, with
pine-needle mulch, that is certified by the
Florida Yards & Neighborhoods Program;
recycled drywall; recycled and sustainable
carpeting and wood flooring; paint that
off-gasses no volatile organic compounds (VOCs);
and low-VOC adhesives. And, all the light
fixtures have compact fluorescent bulbs. |
