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Blu Homes is Growing.
I have dedicated many posts to Blu Homes over the years and it is exciting to see the amazing growth they have achieved. They recently opened a new factory in Vallejo California and shot the video you see below. They are an amazing company and doing great things to bring affordable, green, prefab homes into the world.
Earthly Inspiration Brings Forth Environmentally Friendly Designs.
I struggled with a title for this post not because I didn’t know what to say; I just didn’t know how to say it. I may have to change it later when I can finally find the words to describe the work of Tyler Blaine. So for now, I’ll just tell you about and show you the work.
Last week I had the great pleasure to meet with Tyler Blaine. Tyler is a young guy making a huge mark in custom home features that you, I or anyone would find hard not to love. He works with many mediums, from concrete, to metal, to wood and derives the inspiration for his work from the deserts of Utah. Taking what are solid mediums and creating fluid representations of plateau’s, mesa’s and rivers and turning them into sinks, tables, barbecues and bicycle racks.
The funny thing is that I have been stumbling upon his work while showing homes throughout the valley. Here and there I would see a sink or counter that really struck me as amazing and beautiful. I had no idea I was witnessing the creative genius of just one person and I certainly never expected to receive a chance phone call from the artist himself, but I did and now here I am writing a post about his work.
Created from base materials of metal, wood and concrete, he molds them into functional objects that invoke the spirit of the desert.
In order to the preserve the environment that inspires him he uses reclaimed and recycled material wherever he can. His concrete can be formed with 100% recycled glass aggregate and his carbon footprint negated through the use of a fly ash blend in the concrete. Woods are reclaimed from many sources or re-purposed from scrap lumber.
“If not wandering through mountains and hills as a child, admiring the beauty of the natural realm, I could be found wandering amongst heavy equipment, concrete footings and suspended decks. May father’s passion and integrity for his architectural concrete structures, have taught me to observe the craftsmanship and design of structures around the world, thus my inspiration to design and fabricate through industrial mediums. Interactions with the world’s humbling geography and geology have provided my life with unparalleled joy.”
So if you are looking for something beautiful and creative, something that invokes the spirit of the environment and you want to bring it into your home, you cannot go wrong with Tyler Blaine. Look him up and give him a call.
Photos from Thomas Design
Garbett Homes is building something, new, modern and green in Utah’s Daybreak community.
While spec home are just that, spec homes and typically built en masse in communities where everything looks the same, it is always refreshing to see when someone breaks the mold and does something a little differently now and then. Garbett Homes is doing just that in Utah and I love the change.
In the Southwest corner of Salt Lake County a not so little community called Daybreak has sprung up in the area where the old Kennecott Copper evaporation ponds used to be located and were subsequently cleaned up several years ago. (Click HERE for a PDF document from the EPA on this remediation) Daybreak is a community built around green living, close neighborhoods and Energy Star Certified homes, it takes an area where pollution was a problem and makes it a testament to the change that can happen. A light rail line is even being built to the community (someday…) so that residents can move easily to the heart of Salt Lake City and give those who work there an affordable opportunity for green living outside of the locales they would typically consider closer in. The concept is wonderful! However, until that light rail line is built it is a long way from being green when it comes to proximity to services and the current traffic situation.
In it’s short history the Daybreak style of home has leaned toward late 1800′s and early 1900′s styling where craftsman and Victorian homes were the norm. Something new has now come online from Garbett Homes and it is called the Solaris Collection.
What sets these homes apart is that they are in a modern design and a wide and welcome contrast to the the typical Daybreak craftsman redux. Actually, it is exciting! Very Exciting! Now if they could intersperse them amongst the other styles a little more, so it doesn’t just end up as another overabundance of homes that all look the same.
Some other noteable information on these homes is the materials that they are using here as well. From Hardi Board on the exterior, solar included in the price and r38 insulation in the ceilings, they are also making good strides in green building and energy efficiency with these homes. That and the base price is $206,000! Please note that I did not say GREAT green strides. These homes are Energy Star rated so please take that for what it is worth. It is a start and not the top.
Photos of the homes can be seen on the Garbett Website and through posts over at Grassroots Modern and Jetson Green. Once I have a chance to head out that way I will share some of my own photos and tell you more about the homes and my impressions.
Blu Homes – Continued Growth in A Down Economy
It is no secret that real estate has been in a state of decline for a while now and that decline has extended into what seemed to be a booming rebirth of prefab homes. The loss of MK Designs was a good example of this when she ceased marketing her prefab homes. This loss was soon turned around when Michelle Kaufman sold the rights to her designs to Blu Homes. So from these ashes Blu Homes, a company I have had the pleasure working with, has risen to carry the torch and continued to market and grow in a declining market.
This rise has been noticed by the Boston Globe who published a wonderful article on Blu and shared a video of one of their latest designs. The folding prefab home. Basically, the entire home is built and folded offsite and then move to the final location and unfolded. With prices ranging from $75,000 to $250,000 Blu Homes is moving toward a very innovativeand unique product that will appeal to many. Very exciting!
Check out the video below for a great piece on the unfolding home.
Living Green in 9th and 9th. – 1048 S. Lake, 84105
UPDATE: A Home Energy Rating was recently conducted on this home and it came back with a HERS score of 55! Click here to learn more about what a HERS rating means.
Living green in the city is not always easy to do when the inventory of green homes is as small as it is. Well, your opportunity to live green, while enjoying the convenience of one of Salt Lake City’s most walkable neighborhoods, is here with this home at 1048 S. Lake Street.
Designed by A. K. Smith Architects this home was built with the environment in Mind. With an exterior of Structural Integrated Panels (SIPS) this home is already 65% more energy efficient than standard frame construction and 2 1/2 times stronger! But the exterior is only the beginning, an emphasis on green living was made throughout this home with everything from home automation systems to carpet made from soy and corn oil.
So what makes this home so green?
-ICF Foundation and Insulated Slab: An insulated concrete foundation excludes the interior of the home from the temperature fluctuations of the outside world. The slab maintains ambient temperature of Earth, 55°.
-Radon Gas Removal System: Ensures healthy air and proper vetilation to the outside.
-SIPS Panel Construction: With the walls and roof made up entirely of SIPS Panels this foam features strong walls with an R40 insulation value. The ceilings, being twelve inches thick have an R80 insulating Value.
-Solar: This home has been built with passive solar features to reduce heat gain in the summer and optimize sunlight in the winter. Natural daylighting is featured with optimal window placement, skylights and unique translucent panels in the upstairs hall that allow daylight to move between floors. To top this all off the home has been built with the future in mind and is ready now for your future active solar needs.
-Radiant Heating: Powered by a tankless water heater, the highly efficient , 3 zone radiant heating system will not only heat the home, but your hot water. A highly efficient secondary forced air system will take the chill off of the second floor on those super cold winter nights, but the open stairs and living area will allow the radiant and fireplace heat to rise throughout the home on most nights, without the need of the forced air system.
-Pella High Performance Windows and Doors: These ultra efficient windows protect you and your home from extreme heat and cold along with blocking UV rays.
-Low Flow Water Fixtures an High Efficiency Hallogen and CFL Lighting.
-Interior Finishes: With no or low VOC finishes throughout this home you know that the air you breath is free of harmful compounds. The Timbercreek cabinetry is custom made of bamboo and feature Blum softclose hardware, the kitchen counters are IceStone and made up of 70% recycled glass and the clear glass backsplashes are also recycled. The Mohawk Carpet throught the home has been manufactured from Soybean and Corn sugars and is 100% recyclable.
-Home Automation: Control everything from the fireplace to the thermostats with your Control4 Home Automation System. Not only is this extreme convenience it is also energy efficient. Wouldn’t be cool if you could control everything in your home with your iPhone? Well, you can with this home.
Control4 uses dimmers, timers and occupancy sensors to reduce energy waste. A typical 3-bedroom home with a Control4 system will eliminate over 850 pounds of CO2 emissions each year. That’s like not driving a car for a month! Control4 also lets you control the amount of wattage used by light bulbs, which not only saves electricity and reduces energy bills but extends the life of bulbs as well.
Appliances: In your kitchen you will find highly efficient Bosch Appliances with an EcoSense Dishwasher and Energy Star rated refrigerator along with a Bosch gas cooktop and Bosch Convection Oven.
[book id='5' /]
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1048 S. Lake Street
Salt Lake City, UT 84105
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EcoDrain – Make your cold water warm to heat your hot water less.
Quite some time ago I posted about the ReTherm drain water heat recovery system. It is a very cool system that uses the hot water going down your drain to heat the cold water going into your water heater. Doing so reduces the amount of heat needed to heat your hot water. Giving you a theoretical 30% reduction in heating costs.
Now a new product has come online called the EcoDrain. I have to say that I like the looks of the EcoDrain better. Also, from what I see, it appears that the EcoDrain heats the cold water going directly to your shower and it does not first send it to your water heater. By doing this they see a potential energy savings of 40%. A little more savings and a tidier mechanical makeup makes this a very cool product in my book.
So how does it work?
The EcoDrain™ is a small, easy-to-install device with no moving parts. The key to saving you money is the heat-exchange channels.
These flattened, sealed channels were developed to maximize the surface area of the heat transfer space and to create optimum flow turbulence in the outgoing waste water and incoming fresh water. The EcoDrain™ is installed directly in the shower drain line and features a double wall of separation between fresh and waste water to eliminate the possibility of mixing, plus an interior non-stick coating to prevent soap, hair or debris collecting inside.
Source: EcoDrain
Green retrofits make a 100+ year old home green.
The ecohome owned by Gil Schalom and Penney Poyzer and located in Nottingham, UK is an excellent example of everything that is right about turning existing home green. Granted there is a great need for new green homes and urban infill, but ultimately the greenest thing you can do is make an existing home green and avoid the disruption of more land and the use of new materials.
So what makes this home so special. Well, everything they have done over the last 10 years or so has taken this home from a leaky, drafty space to a tight, ecofriendly abode.
From Treehugger:
Penney and her partner Gil Schalom have been hard at work for over ten years converting their home into what they hope will prove a model for other retrofits. Along the way they’ve cut their gas bills to just UK£20 a year (US$30), and their modelled domestic CO2 emissions from 19 tonnes to just half a tonne.
Below, you can see a rendering of the home with the full list of updates.
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Flat-plate solar collectors for heating water -
Roof insulation 300/400mm thick, made of shredded surplus newspapers
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Roof lights with insulating (low emmissivity) glass
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Natural plasters - clay and lime based
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Super-insulated hot water tank100mm -
Ozone friendly drylining to front face to maintain exterior brick appearance
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150mm exterior wall insulation with rendered finish
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Space saving bath and thermostatic shower -
controls can save water Heat recovering fans limit ventilation heat loss
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Draught lobby in porch -
Environmetally friendly paints -
Energy efficient appliances -
Triple- and double-glazed timber windows treated with natural fungicides and stains
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Second hand, natural and reclaimed furnitur -
Stripped floorboard -
Copper rainwater goods with filter for rain harvestin
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160mm natural floor insulatio -
Rainwater storage for use in WCs, washingmachine and outside ta
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Low-flush WC -
Non PVC waste pipe -
Composting chamber for solid waste from WC
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Separator lets liquids drain off and solids into composting chambe
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Decking from English green Oak provides longevity without toxic pressure treatmen
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Organic land management utilising the principles of permaculture. Growing our own food saves on packaging and transpor
Source: Treehugger and ecohome
The sun shines brightly and the wind blows on the stimulus package.
There is a silver lining to every cloud and from the reports I have been reading, the stimulus package is a big dark cloud. So where is the silver lining? Well, let’s look at the green lining as laid out in this Cnet article.
Overall, there is $50 billion for energy programs, much of it focused on energy efficiency and renewable energy, and $20 billion in tax incentives for renewable energy and efficiency, according to a conference report released by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s office (click for PDF) and an Associated Press analysis. Provisions include:
- $5 billion to weatherize homes of up to 1 million low-income people.
- $11 billion toward smart-grid technologies to run the power grid more efficiently.
- $13.9 billion in loans to subsidize renewable-energy projects and transmission.
- $6.3 billion in state energy-efficient and clean-energy grants.
- $4.5 billion to make federal buildings more energy efficient.
There is $2 billion for advanced battery manufacturing and over $2 billion for carbon capture and storage demonstration projects, according to a Wall Street Journal comparison of the House and Senate versions.
The bill has $400 million in spending to create the Advanced Research Project Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) “to support high-risk, high-payoff research into energy sources and energy efficiency in collaboration with industry,” according to Pelosi’s office.
In transportation, there is $8.4 billion for mass transit and $8 billion for construction of high-speed railways.
When it comes to you and I as consumers and homeowners, there is even more good news:
For us there is even more incentive to invest in renewable energy and a tax credit of up to $7500 for energy efficient vehicles.
The $2,000 cap for the 30% solar hot water credit has been lifted and the $4,000 cap has been lifted for wind energy investment.
And, very exciting news is out there if you are renovating an existing home:
To retrofit existing homes to be more efficient, the bill extends and expands tax credits for purchase “such as new furnaces, energy-efficient windows and doors, or insulation,” according to the committee report. The House and Senate versions extended these credits to 2010 and increased the level to 30 percent with a cap of $1,500 on combined purchases, according to Environment and Energy Daily (subscription required
So see, Whether you are Republican or Democrat and have hope or no hope at all, you can’t help but see this silver green lining.
Insurance is getting greener everyday.
It has been some time since I last posted on the availability of insurance for green homes and insurance that would allow you to rebuild green. Since that time there have been some great developments in this area. Continue reading
