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A $2,000,000 green home

Greg Smith| Posted inGeneral Questionson

Reprinted from[email protected]

Environmental Lawyer Spends $2M Building a Home That Meets Green Building Certifications
ABA Journal (09/06/13) Cassens Weiss, Debra

It took environmental lawyer Eric Lemelson three years and about $2 million to build a house in Oregon’s wine country that meets three stringent green certifications. The 3,500-square-foot, four-bedroom home meets Passive House certification requirements for an airtight building heated by solar power. It also is LEED Platinum certified and Minergie-P-ECO certified, a program originating in Switzerland that emphasizes comfort while consuming fewer resources and less energy. Lemelson traveled to Switzerland to learn about the Minergie requirements, and hired a construction company led by the president of the Passive House Alliance. Some of the green features of the home include a heat-recovery ventilator that brings in fresh air, and outdoor window overhangs and external window shades to control light and keep the home cool. The energy bills for the home are expected to be under $50 annually. Lemelson manages two foundations, one established by his parents to encourage inventors, and another that focuses on climate change in the Himalayas.

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Replies

  1. GBA Editor
  2. Greg Smith||#2

    Martin,

    Thanks for the reminder! I rememeber the discussions on GBA (I think I may have even made a comment), but I failed to make the connection yesterday when I saw the short blurb that I posted.

    On a different note, would you mind sending me an email? There is something I want to pass to you that you may find interesting. thanks, Greg

  3. Expert Member
    Dana Dorsett||#3

    Seems a bit silly to have an R92 attic and R48 walls, R56 foundation in a climate as temperate as Yamhill County OR, where the mid-winter mean temps are over 40F:

    http://weatherspark.com/#!dashboard;a=USA/OR/Mcminnville

    http://weatherspark.com/#!dashboard;a=USA/OR/Yamhill

    Maybe by going nearly 2x what they might have actually needed on R-values with normal glazing/floor ratios allowed them to add a significant amount of glass for taking in the winery-views(?), but it feels a bit a "My R is bigger than your R" statement, which could at least partly explain how it hit $2M-USD (over $500 per square foot of living space.) There's no need to hit those R-values (or price tag) to meet/beat PassiveHouse targets in a western OR climate, not even close. It's doable with R-values barely more than half that, without feeling like you're living in a dark cage.

    While it's fun to look at the details of projects like that, their excesses give the wrong impression- the notion that low-energy high-performance homes with zero or near-zero energy use are only possible for those to whom price is no object. There are probably designer/builders capable of profitably building 3, maybe even 4 decently appointed houses that size with comparable energy use in that climate on a two-megabuck budget. There seemed to be a large consultant contingent on this one, which was probably a serious cost adder, which may explain some of the price tag.

    In New England people are building smaller (= more expensive per foot) Net Zero Energy homes for $200-250/foot price tags to the home buyers, in a climate with average winter temps more than 15F colder than Yamill County OR, and with higher seasonal cooling loads too. Quite a bit more expensive than code-min tract housing to be sure, but within the reach of at least SOME of the 99%.

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