Tag Archives: energy efficient

Property Spotlight – Affordable Green Home

Posted on January 10, 2013 | Leave a comment

Lakiya Culley’s home started off as an idea by a couple of academics who didn’t want to play by the rules.

Four years later, after enlisting 200 students, a nonprofit organization and a government agency, as well as community leaders and countless sponsors, the concept has gone from an academic exercise to reality.

Have a green or energy efficient property and want to know the value? Contact the appraisers at www.scappraisals.com for your value questions.

Earlier this month, Parsons the New School for Design, Stevens Institute of Technology, Habitat for Humanity and the District’s Department of Housing and Community Development celebrated the completion of Empowerhouse. Located in the Deanwood neighborhood of Ward 7, the home is not only the District’s first “passive house” — a dwelling built to use substantially less energy — but also one of the few houses constructed in the United States that is both sustainable and affordable.

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Renovations; New Doors New Windows This may help deciding what you need

Posted on December 12, 2012 | Leave a comment

If there’s one thing guaranteed to cause arguments, it’s renovations.

Aside from the disruption of having tradies traipse through your home, the confusion over whether certain facts were actually communicated, and the sharp sense of unease watching the bank balance shrink, the biggest bone of contention has to be the vast array of choices.

We’ve gotten through bathroom taps, the toilet, the hand basin and what to cover the floor with. But the showstopper this week was something seemingly innocuous – the door.

The statement “I’ve ordered the door”, was met with stony silence. On one side of the fence is the argument for a bog-standard single-pane glass entry door that lets in plenty of light and garden views, but also heat and cold.

On the other is the desire for, at the very least, double-glazing, preferably with a low-emissivity (low-e) coating on one face to make the set-up more efficient.

Both sides of the fence are happy with a timber frame, which although requires more maintenance, suits the style of the house and is more energy efficient than standard aluminium.

The main sticking point is the price difference of the two different glazing options (several hundred dollars at most suppliers), and the fact that, as most companies don’t offer double-glazing as standard, it will throw the wait-time for the door out past Christmas.

For all the talk of building more energy-efficient homes, it seems most suppliers are still playing catch up. Few have off-the-shelf double-glazed doors, and those that do, stock them in limited sizes.

One company I contacted this week said they used to do a double-glazed unit, but found the double-glazing didn’t fit their doors so now they only offer single glazed.

Argh!!

While the argument is not yet settled on the domestic front, and the door deposit has not actually been paid, there has been plenty of reading of the Window Energy Rating Scheme (WERS) website, in particular the climate zone map and the window comparison tool on the Efficient Glazing site. NOTE: this is for Australia; USA uses Energy Star check out their website at: http://www.energystar.gov

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Demand Spikes for Zero-Energy-Cost Homes

Posted on May 1, 2012 | Leave a comment

A rising trend of super-efficient, solar-powered new homes allows homeowners to combat rising energy costs by giving back to the power grid. Some owners are even realizing a small profit from their home’s power-generating capacity.

Contact the appraisers at www.scappraisals.com to assist you with determining the value of purchasing an zero-energy-cost home.

Intelligent house layout and design, and home features such as dual-pane windows, air-tight duct work and high-caliber wall and attic insulation are curbing energy consumption. And when coupled with solar energy, captured through photovoltaic panels, these homes are becoming their own mini power plants that feed electricity to the grid.

In 2009, U.S. homeowners paid an average $2,200 for energy use in their homes, according to the U.S. Department of Energy. A growing number of homeowners have the opportunity to zero-out that cost.

“It’s too good to believe,” said Dave Spencer of his net-zero-energy home in Gainesville, Fla. Last month, his energy bill was $2.01 — and that was just because of service fees — after receiving over $10 in credit for energy his home generated. Both semiretired, Spencer and his wife, Sandy, moved into the 1,752-square-foot home last October and have not paid for any energy yet, he said.

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Tag Archives: energy efficient

Property Spotlight – Affordable Green Home

Renovations; New Doors New Windows This may help deciding what you need

Demand Spikes for Zero-Energy-Cost Homes

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