LEED Certification - Building Little Green Houses
Habitat for Humanity extends a hardy thank you to Megan Gilman and Active Energies for their many volunteer hours helping us to achieve LEED Silver Certification on all the Fox Hollow homes. We celebrate this tremendous accomplishment and appreciate the continued partnership as we develop plans for Stratton Flats!
Thank you Active Energies!
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Active Energies is providing consulting services and volunteer LEED testing to assist Habitat in achieving LEED certification, a points based award for incorporating green building and energy efficient practices into the homes. |
The Fox Hollow project used SIP (Structurally Insulated Panels) walls instead of traditional framing, high efficiency furnaces, advanced air sealing and performance testing, water conservation methods, energy efficient appliances and more to qualify at the Silver Level.
In addition to the energy upgrades, the construction team also added upgrades for safety and indoor air quality, including sealed combustion mechanical equipment, radon gas removal systems, verified exhaust from all bathrooms and kitchens, and fresh air introduced through heat recovery ventilators.
The home owners will enjoy a savings of 40-60% on their monthly utility bills without incurring increased construction costs to build their home, due to donated services. For example, current homeowners average $51/month on their utility bills with 4 gas appliances in each home and fairly heavy usage.
LEED certification is highly regarded in the building industry and HFHELC is grateful to be able to build such durable homes for our Partner Families.
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Megan Gilman, Active Energies - “We feel passionate about volunteering our time and services to help Habitat for Humanity achieve these goals. Habitat can serve as a perfect example of the ability to achieve energy savings in an affordable way, while also serving as one of the best examples of why energy efficiency is so important. Homeowners in our community can often spend hundreds of dollars each month in utility bills in our cold winters, which can be a significant burden. It is important for affordable housing to be affordable to operate, in addition to just being affordable to buy.”
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