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豪华房子的绿色溢价？2.5％（包括伟大的设计）

A retired engineer can’t help himself when it comes to analyzing the cost of his new green home为LEED认证建造新房的决定是刘易斯和瓦莱里麦克马班的简单之一。“我们选择了LEED，因为我的最后制造业建筑工程在德克萨斯乐器（在公司37年后退休）是德克萨斯州理查森的莱德金建筑（晶圆制造工厂和办公楼），”刘易斯解释道。

“I became very familiar with the criteria and knew that it helped drive a good process for a green construction project, which resulted in lower energy cost and a smaller carbon footprint,” he says. “I also serve on the Texas Water Development Board charged with planning the water resources for the State of Texas for the next 50 years, and understand that we must start using our resources differently or face some tough environments down the road.”

Bringing commercial construction lessons home

Running construction projects for Texas Instruments to exacting standards of quality, including LEED certification, Lewis knew that the right design and construction team is critical to success: “We interviewed several well-known architects and builders who said they knew and understood green construction. It was clear that the team we selected was the most experienced and innovative.” The McMahans chose landscape architect David Hocker, design architect John Brooks, and building contractor Jim Sargent (Anderson Sargent) “based on their experience and passion with green construction.”

Editor’s Note:Jim Sargent是一个GBA咨询团队成员。John Brooks是GBA Pro会员和一个早期，频繁，贡献来自论坛。我们不知道他是谁，但我们认为我们应该。我们在此次采访中学到了约翰是建筑师，这是一个很好的惊喜。

Very early in the design/construction, Jim also brought in Andrea Fair of Guaranteed Watt Savers to help with the LEED process.

建立绿色的成本：minuscule

刘易斯说，他总是被问到“建立到利兹认证的费用是多少额外的费用？”在粗略估计“我们投入的额外节能和利兹认证，我们尚未以其他方式完成，”额外费用约占建设总成本的2.5％（仅限于900,000美元）。“我们家的大部分额外费用基于建筑风格和饰面，”刘易斯解释说，但肯定有一些能源效率和IAQ升级。

The cost of living green: fruitful

The payback on that 2.5% upgrade for energy efficiency and IAQ is 50% lower utility bills compared to the house the McMahans moved out of, which was similarly sized and located only 1/4 mile away. Electricity bills, Lewis says, are a little higher than forecast, “some due to higher rates using all green power (Green Mountain Energy) and some due to using a heat pump instead of a gas-fired heat system.” The neighbors are very interested in the house that bears a new LEED Gold plaque. Valerie and Lewis recently had an open house for neighbors and the building contractors. They “believe it is important to have our contractors see the finished product so they can be proud of what they created and share it with other prospective customers in the neighborhood,” Lewis says. And that’s good marketing for the builders and architects.

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