Demand Grows for Green Homes

Locally, the Guam Housing Corporation is pushing an initiative to build affordable homes that will also utilize modern sustainable building materials and methods.  Five companies are attempting to "woo" the GHC to not only adopt these models as a way to build capacity on Guam, but also to introduce "green homes" into the Western Pacific and Micronesia housing marketplace.  This effort is in line with a growing trend happening all across the United States.

The U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), the authority on all that is sustainable in America, estimates that there are as many as 150,000 LEED-certified green housing units worldwide, a number that more than doubled between 2011 and 2012 and continues to grow steadily.  

In their LEED in Motion: Residential report, the USGBC details the U.S. states with the most LEED-certified homes, with California in the No. 1 spot followed by New York and Texas.

With recently warm and dry summer months in Guam and similar conditions across the mainland U.S.,  most of us are bracing for what we all can expect to be higher energy bills-thus the benefits of creating LEED-certified houses are even more pronounced and more attractive to homeowners from Guam to Rhode Island.

"Our homes are more than just spaces that provide shelter," said USGBC President and CEO Rick Fedrizzi. "Homes touch practically every aspect of our lives and are a critical element of our overall sense of safety, identity and community. Enhancing our homes' efficiency and resilience offers an extraordinary opportunity to further the revolution in sustainable building and living practices so that it ripples outward to our communities."

The USGBC says that LEED-certified homes provide 20 to 30 percent savings in energy and water use compared to code-built homes, and they maximize fresh air indoors while minimizing exposure to airborne toxins and pollutants.

The LEED in Motion report also explores the multiple LEED rating systems for different types of homes, including new single-family homes as well as new and existing low-rise, mid-rise and high-rise multifamily buildings. USGBC is also developing a rating system for existing single-family homes

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The USGBC Residential report also includes the ongoing monitoring of home performance and accomodation for the growing number of people living in cities, recognition of the top 10 countries for LEED, demonstrating the international growth of green housing, the importance of local policy in spurring the uptake of green homes as well as noting the important connections between green homes and occupant health and well-being.

Will Guam add to the number of green homes in America? The GHC should be commended for this effort and homebuilders and developers alike in Micronesia should pay close attention to the results of this program as the move to sustainable homebuilding takes hold in the islands and is added to the list by the USGBC in 2015.

To find out more about how GET, LLC, through our metal building partners at Ceco Building Systems, can help your next steel building or aluminum roofing project, give us a call at 671-483-0789 or our website at www.get-guam.com for more information. 

Phasechange-A View Into Reducing HVAC Equipment Capacities and Maintenance Costs

The use of phase change materials is picking up interest across America as a strategy to reduce energy costs that is in line with a lighting retrofit and utilization of a building automation controls system.  With its nearest competitors about three years away from the gains enjoyed today by the North Carolina-based Phase Change Energy Solutions, this team is poised for a banner year in 2014.  As we rely more and more on our Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning (HVAC) systems to maintain building comfort, using Phase Change's BioPCM product is a logical step to reduce HVAC utilization and maintenance of those mechanical systems.

Depending on the internal loads, orientation and controls strategy, BioPCM can significantly reduce cooling.  For example, a zone with BioPCM properly designed into it might have a 35% reduction in peak cooling load and a 26% reduction of peak heating load. An engineer could actually downsize equipment accordingly and still meet American Society of Heating, Refrigerating, and Air Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) guidelines.  By "right sizing" HVAC design based on the calculated loads with BioPCM, not only will a building owner save on energy operating costs, but also on the initial HVAC capital costs.

According to the ASHRAE owning and operating costs database, the average building HVAC maintenance cost is $0.50 per square foot. Considering that the average building spends $0.46 on HVAC energy per square foot annually, the cost of HVAC maintenance is on par with the cost of HVAC energy usage itself. BioPCM reduces HVAC run-time.  This reduced HVAC system run time will not eliminate HVAC maintenance costs, but can reduce them significantly.  As an initial estimate, it can be assumed that the reduction in HVAC maintenance costs will be directly proportional to the reduction of HVAC system run-time.  For example, if a 68,000 square foot office building has an annual HVAC maintenance cost of $34,000 ($0.50/Square foot/Year) and BioPCM reduced HVAC run-time by an average of 23%, then the use of BioPCM would reduce annual HVAC maintenance costs by an estimated  $7,800.   

It is pretty clear that BioPCM reduces both peak cooling and heating design loads as well as reduces HVAC system run time. The reduction of peak design loads provides opportunity for designers to reduce capacities or in some cases entirely remove cooling and or heating systems. Reduced HVAC system run time reduces maintenance and extends system lifetime.

Want to try this in your building?  To find out more about how GET, LLC through, our metal building partner MCR Guam Inc.-and licensed Phase Change Energy Solutions partner, can help you get this thermal mass product give us a call at 671-483-0789 or our website at www.get-guam.com for more information. By the way-get up to 19 LEED Points with Phase Change BioPCM in your next project.