Category: solar

16
Jan
2018

green home design closes the wealth gap in the US

Sustainable homes may seem like a luxury, but green design solutions can help close the wealth gap in the United States. For any potential homeowner, and particularly important for the low-income housing market, green affordable homes lower electricity and repair bills helping to achieve both environmental and economic sustainability.

Homeownership has been linked to a wide variety of social and economic benefits, including better mental health, neighborhood connectivity, and wealth accumulation. But the risks of homeownership are different for low-income households than other income brackets. Low-income homeowners are more likely to have to pay for repairs or maintenance costs that are beyond their budget. Lower-income households also pay a higher share of their income towards electricity bills than middle or high-income households.

Well-designed, environmentally-friendly and affordable homes can help make buying a good investment, no matter your income level.

When Charlottesville VA | Asheville NC architects hays+ewing design studio [heds] designed and planned a ten-home green affordable home development, we reserved two of the homes for Habitat for Humanity. Two families were selected by Habitat as the new home owners. Both were immigrants – one family had moved here from the Philippines and had co-habitated in a small apartment with a relative for seven years. The other family was from Afghanistan. This family had lost their husband/father and their home on the same day.

As the architects for the two homes, we focused on a few green affordable home solutions: keeping energy and maintenance costs low while using low-cost materials. We super-insulated the houses, making sure they would keep the warmth in during the winter and the heat out during the summer. We optimized for passive solar too, which meant shading out unwanted summer sun but allowing sunshine to penetrate the houses in colder months. Finally, we used Hardiepanel, which requires little upkeep, for the house siding, so the long-term maintenance costs would be low.

We also thought about what it would take for the residents to thrive in their new home. We created a common courtyard to foster community. We also convinced Habitat to frame an opening for a future stair to a basement so the families could rent their daylit, insulated basement and thereby subsidize their income. Through thoughtful design and incorporation of green affordable home best practices, hays+ewing design studio [heds] is helping these families find economic stability in their new adoptive city of Charlottesville.low income housing virginia architects

In addition to the two Habitat for Humanity homes, we also designed a single-family, spec home on land we owned in the same community. We wanted the house to be sustainable but also affordable – the home sold before framing was even completed, a nice testament to the appeal of the home.

Spec homes are rarely designed sustainably. For, instance the better developer might integrate a “flash and batt” approach to insulating the walls, which means using 2” of spray foam insulation with batt insulation on top. This helps to reduce air displacement but there are still losses where the cold air is transferred at the wall framing. For this project heds architects used 5” of spray foam insulation in combination with an insulated plywood on the exterior. The insulated plywood thus acts as a break between the cold air and the wall framing to prevent the thermal bridging. You can see this strategy, along with our use of SIPS panels, solar hot water heating, and passive solar strategies in the diagram below.
virginia architects green strategies

A 1432


This 2000 square-foot home was affordable despite its ambitions. It won a Virginia Society of the AIA Award of Excellence and a jurist praised the project as “boots on the ground” sustainability in the spec housing market.

As these two projects highlight, sustainable best practices make closing the wealth gap possible by lessening the risks low-income home-buyers face. Having both economic and environmental sustainability doesn’t have to be hard.

Co-written by Allison Ewing and Emily Hays

28
Jul
2016

Solar Energy: Let the sun shape the roof

Solar energy is becoming more affordable by the day (see blog post 3/16/2106).  Before long, the cost for solar power will become cheaper than grid-sourced.  Twenty years ago the payback on solar was roughly equal to the lifespan of the solar array.  Still, we designed our roofs to accept solar panels, looking forward to the day that the economic case could be made to mount those panels on a project’s roof.  Recently-built Solar Faber project has not had to wait for those panels – with a return on investment of over 5%, the economic case can now be made.  The big, south facing roof of the project was designed with that intent.  What’s more, if the sun shapes the roof, the roof shapes the interior of the house, adding height and interest.  It’s a two-for-one proposition that makes so much sense for both the environment and the quality of life for the building owner.

Solar energy: roof design

If the sun shapes the roof, the roof shapes the interior.

09
Mar
2016

Solar Power becoming dirt cheap

A new product will make solar energy dirt cheap.  Solar power used to have a payback of about 20 years. The lifespan of photovoltaic (PV) panels was about 20 years, making solar a difficult sell given the high cost. We knew one day the price of PVs would become cheaper than fossil fuels and that day is not far off. While oil prices are coming down, so are PVs –the price of solar and other green technologies are offering affordable options to renewable power.  In fact, some projections see the cost of solar becoming cheaper than fossil fuels within five years.  Researchers developing the new solar cell made with perovskites (current technology uses silicon), project the technology will cost just 10 to 20 cents per watt. Currently, solar costs around 75 cents a watt.  The  U.S. Department of Energy projects 50 cents per watt will allow solar power to compete with oil.

A new start-up Oxford Photovoltaics is commercializing the product.  Meanwhile, solar cells made with silicon are also coming down in price.  All this is great news for achieving net zero at an affordable cost. Solar power, green architects virginia