Now, let’s set the tone here. I am not saying those aren’t good questions. All of them are very applicable to the decision making process when deciding which green features to include when building a new home or a home retrofit. However it is always interesting to see someone’s face who is a doubter of the benefits when I ask, “well now that you know the payback of upgraded insulation, what is the payback of those granite counter tops over the laminate ones instead.” Sometimes I get angry looks so I have to be careful. A good friend of mine, who is a building scientist, Dan coined that term. It has stuck with me for a long time.

The reality is sometimes you can quantify payback, sometimes you can not. For example, we promote and sell many solar thermal hot water heater systems. The math is pretty simple. The system costs $8,000. As a homeowner you are eligible for $3,500 in renewable energy tax credits getting the net costs down to $4,500. Our standard hot water heater is a tankless gas model. All the costs associated with that are around $2,500. So for $2,000 a client of ours can upgrade to solar thermal hot water providing 95% of their needs for decades. We have seen monthly savings average around $50 per month. That’s a 3 year, 3 month payback. After that period one has positive cash flow and has water heated by the sun.

But let’s consider indoor air quality. We spend probably $4-6,000 per house (1%) on many features including sealed conditioned crawl spaces, low VOC materials, < 2% duct leakage, and many other things to create a healthy indoor living environment. How does one quantify payback of a healthier home? Could the answer be less sick days from school and work, better attitudes from clearer thinking, less headaches maybe? Those items are priceless but impossible to pen a “payback” period on.

For our company our decision to build green is based on the commitment to build homes that use 40-50% less energy, have safer indoor air quality, are more durable, require less maintenance, and make less environmental impact. Those items alone may not address payback but we feel down the road at time of resales, green homes that have a proven performance record and certifications will be worth more than homes that do not.

When the situation arises with a client, banker, appraiser, or even “tire kickers” this is how I explain paybacks of green improvements. This example is only relevant for our company; I’m not trying to speak for anyone else. We have chosen to add $15,000 worth of green features not required by code to our average home valued at $450,000. That’s 3% higher than the builder down the street not certifying green. Most people still finance their homes. At today’s rates of 5-6% that $15,000 costs those folks somewhere between $80-$90 per month. Based off energy savings alone with HERS scores of 59 or better we should save $150-$200 per month on utility bills. At absolute worst case we pay for the investment. In most cases we have a 60-100% ROI. I am no Wall Street guy, but I would love to get those “paybacks” on my retirement investments.

If you would like more information about reducing your HERS score or about green building, please call us at 919-269-4555 or fill out our contact form.

Sincerely,

Chad Ray, “That Green Builder Guy”

As energy prices permanently rise and we start having to pay the “true” costs of cheap dirty energy, we won’t have the luxury as a nation to just keep paying the bills. In parts of Europe right now each home is assigned a rating, according to how much energy the house uses. The more energy a home uses compared to those around it present a dilemma for those homeowners. Do I make changes to my lifestyle or make improvements to use less energy, or do I take the risk of my home not being as valuable as other would be. In this country we are rating homes as well. Each new Energy Star house audit is assigned a HERS score.

Home Energy Ratings (HERS) provides a method to ensure energy and quality performance and communicate the value of energy efficiency to home buyers according to Green Build Media. The HERS scale is 0 to 150. HERS of 0 is a home that uses no net energy. HERS of 150 is a home that uses 50% more energy than that of a typical new home. The typical existing home has a HERS of 130 and the base line of an Energy Star new home is 80. Our homes at Olde Heritage regularly score HERS 50-65, meaning our homes are as much as 80% more efficient than the typical existing homes.

In certain places like the state of California and the city of Austin, Texas more emphasis is being put on every home having a HERS score both new and existing. As energy prices and demand increase I believe that the HERS measurement tool will become much more widely used in determining home values. The higher the HERS score, the higher the energy bill. Remember those four letters; you will definitely see them again.

If you would like more information about reducing your HERS score or about green building, please call us at 919-269-4555 or fill out our contact form.

Sincerely,

“That Green Builder Guy” Chad Ray

For the past 3 years we have participated in the Green Home Builders of the Triangle “Spring Green Home Tour.” This event is much smaller then the Parade of Homes but it is very niche and focused driven. That means the people who come know what they are looking at or are looking for more green building knowledge. These homes are toured from framing stage, completion, or in between. People love seeing what’s behind the walls of a home touted as being green. There’s not many “tire kickers” coming to a green home tour. Most people come “loaded for bear” with questions, comments, and opinions. It is a great experience from my prospective, because those visitors are my target market.

We have picked up one custom home project each year we have participated. If you are a builder or a homebuyer looking for green, I highly recommend you ask for local green builders to come together for such an event. If you have a person interested in participating in such a tour, please call your local Home Builders Association and suggest they consider a local Green Home Tour. These tours not only bring awareness to the green home but the green movement in general. Green Building is not a fad; it is a permanent facet of the industry to build better homes. Tours also promote educational awareness, the local economy, and enable local residents to benefit as well. Please visit click here to view the web page on our local tour here in Raleigh, NC region. We are happy to share what we know. That is how we all learn.

If you would like more information about green building, read our green building presentation, give us a shout at 919-269-4555 or fill out our contact form.

Sincerely,

“That Green Builder Guy” Chad Ray

The answer is future energy demands.

People at the top already know we can’t discover enough oil, dig enough coal, and put up enough solar panels to create the energy our country and the world will need to meet human demand in the near future. Our greatest fuel source is conservation. If we all saved 10-20% of the energy on all forms we are using, the United States would be well on its way to becoming energy independent one day. That’s the reason for the $1,500 Energy Star tax credit and $2,500 worth of rebates offered by Progress Energy and others. It’s cheaper to pay the incentives than build the plants or deal with the problems ahead. And I think that’s great. I couldn’t agree more with this plan of action.

But now back to our original question. Do these incentives make people invest the money to conserve? Although they certainly present a positive scenario, the answer is no. The reason I say they aren’t the sole factor is our energy is still relatively cheap. It’s sad to say but human nature isn’t to act until we feel pain or to the brink of destruction. We eat too much and then we become fat. We drink until we become drunk. We pollute until we can’t drink or swim. So we will continue to use cheap and dirty energy as a nation until we all feel more pinch in the wallet or we wake up to the travesty of mountain top coal removal, Gulf Coast oil disasters, global warming with universal consequences, and unfortunately more things that.We can’t win over the masses by only offsetting the cost part only of energy improvements.

In my opinion we must pull all hands on deck including domestic oil with safer back ups, cleaner CO2 scrubbing coal plants, more solar, more wind, more biofuel, more biomass, more geothermal, and definitely more conservation. We must keep developing ways to make clean energy cost less then dirty energy if we want people to use it. Truth is most people could care less about environmental concerns. Once people who do care accept that, we start thinking of how to work with those who don’t. The answer is profit. Make a cleaner planet profitable, and we will achieve all goals at hand. That is OK. We must get to that point. Tax credits and utility rebates are only one way to get people to act. You want to see someone act quickly, take money out of their pocket or put it in it.

If you would like more information about about green building and living, give us a call at 919-269-4555 or fill out our contact form.

Sincerely,

Chad Ray “That Green Builder Guy”

Green building has definitely made us a better company and helped us tremendously during a down market.  However, just because we build green doesn’t guarantee success.  All of the core principles my parents put in place for over 20 years - prior to us building a green home - are the foundation of our success. Examples of those principles include:

• build a good team of people who you can rely on
• treat all people respectfully
• be honest
• keep open lines of communications
• “don’t be too big for your britches”

That last one is one of those slogans you just have to be from here to understand.  Simply put, we want to be the best, not the greenest.  Green building is part of being the best.  No one could  can honestly state that a home that uses less energy, has safer indoor air, requires less maintenance, is more durable, holds and builds more value, and has less impact on our global environment, isn’t a home that is better than one  that does not have those characteristics.

But its just one piece to the puzzle.  For all of us in any industry we have to be the best we can be to help us survive and thrive in the future.  Never forget we can do things the right way and still be successful. To learn  more about green building, please call 919-269-4555 or complete the contact form on our website.

We need to be building as many homes with green technology right now because lifetime costs saving outweigh any up front small costs. I hear many arguments that adding any additional costs to new homes is a bad thing. My response is “indoor plumbing added costs, but I sure am glad we did it.”

We in the building industry have to make sure we always build homes that the market can afford as we are still providing the American Dream. However, in my opinion, we equally must provide new housing that uses less energy that save money every month, has safer indoor air for healthier families, low maintenance, highly durable homes that will be more valuable by the future.

We can do this all having less impact on our global environment and adopt these new standards industry wide for the long term sustainability of our industry. If you would like to learn more about green building technologies, just give us a call at 919-269-4555 or visit our website for more information.

We need to learn from our mistakes from the past. Let’s not build large homes for individuals who can’t afford to furnish them, operate them, take care of them, or make payments on them. We need to utilize green technology and build homes that use 50% less electricity and gas. Let’s build homes that use better materials and bring in fresh air mechanically and don’t make the inhabitants sick.

That’s the green future I predict industry but what about the present? How can we put back tens of thousands - if not hundreds of thousands - of workers to earning money for their families until the demand for new homes increases? Maybe President Obama’s Home Star program is a good start as it provides tax credits to existing homeowners up to $3,000 for making energy efficient improvements to their homes.

As a green builder we made the move to existing home retrofits this earlier this year and we do it to keep people working. In a healthy market there would be 1,000,000 new homes a year built in the United States. There are over 100,000,000 existing homes that need energy efficiency improvements which translates to 100 times more work! Energy retrofits are not exactly the same meaning those jobs won’t use everyone at the job site. The work is sometimes harder, more complicated, and pays less. The good news; however, it that is keeps people working.

Our building industry work force needs to invest in themselves and learn the basics of building science including: air sealing, combustion safety, air flow, and many other topics. Make no mistake however, there’s no one more equipped to insulate an existing home than the company that insulates new homes. The same premise holds true for the HVAC technician, carpenter, etc. and we need the general contractors to start leading the way. We need a positive impact immediately for the consumer, for our industry, and for our country.

One energy retrofit can put money in our pocket, money in the consumer’s pocket from savings, money in the suppliers pocket, money in the utility’s pocket to delay new power plants, and money in Uncle Sam’s pocket to become more energy independent. We multiply that times 100,000,000 and imagine the prosperity and strength of our nation and planet based off conservation and energy efficiency. Now is the time to make efficiency happen and if you would like to learn more please call Olde Heritage at 919-269-4555 or visit our website.

Lesson #1- Don’t buy things you don’t need, can’t afford, or won’t help your family.

As a green builder our message is all about using resources such as electricity, gas, water, and materials more wisely in order to conserve money and resources. My grandmother taught me lesson #1.

She lived in a nice, comfortable home which she took great pride in. For her it was a culmination of hard work between her husband’s labor and her taking care of the family. It wasn’t anything special, but it was her home. She never envied anything anyone else had or cared a thing about “keeping up with the Joneses.”

At some point, as a nation, we entered a competition to see who makes and spends the most money on homes, cars, and clothes. They all got bigger and more expensive. At points in my life I to wanted more and bigger; however,  the “Great Recession” we are all in has been a wake up call for all of us. Maybe we all can come down from the clouds to a more sensible ways to live our life. Green homes that are designed well for use of space, use less electricity, are more durable, and require less money to maintain. My grandmother would say these were good things.

Lesson #2- We are put on this earth to help one another.

The world my grandparents grew up in was hard. The work was difficult and the pay was low; however, they were happy. They loved each other, their kids, and their community. Every family - both black and white - helped one another make a living, raise children, grow crops, and care for the sick and elderly. As a child I got a small taste of that. Now as an adult it seems we are all too busy or care too little about our neighbors to go back to that way of life.

In general we all make more money, live in bigger houses, and don’t have to grow our own food, but I think at times we are not as content. We live in different times, but I think we can boil it down to something very simple: Life is a mixed bag of chores. There are things we need to get done each day. Along the way you can be a giver or a taker. Life used to be almost full of givers and a few takers. Now, there are many more takers then there used to be. People are in our lives who take too much of our time, money, energy, and even our soul. When we are a giver and surrounded by other givers, life is a beautiful thing. We will always have bad times in our lives, but I pray someone will be there to help us all get through by giving of themselves.

I could go on for days about how beautiful of people my grandparents were and the lessons I learned from them. If you are a parent, grandparent, or just someone’s friend, make sure you give of yourself. We all need one another to learn from. That’s how human kind has evolved to this point.

Do your part today.

The topic of this blog is to ask the question what does “normal” mean post the “great recession.” More specifically, ask yourself the following three questions:

• Do I see the world as a whole and my immediate environment differently than 2-3 years ago?
• Am I using resources including time, money, food, and energy more efficiently than 2-3 years ago?
• And lastly, ask yourself am I looking at my future or my children’s future differently than 2-3 years ago?

As we now begin “the recovery” period, I feel we all are figuring out new normals in our life. I see great opportunity in this new thought process for plenty of us. As a small business owner, I control my future destiny on some level. My parents’ generation and beyond know what real tough times were. I, too, now see the payoffs to disciplined savings, smart planning, calculated risk taking, and the value of great people who can depend on each other. My new normal is to do more in life while being smarter, being better, and relying on a great team more than ever.

Let’s change gears now into the world of green building and existing home energy retrofits. I believe the days of building McMansion energy hogs that drain the pocketbooks of their residents forever are over. I also believe the days of the average house in North Carolina wasting 30-50% of its utility bills on air loss and inefficiencies should also be over. As individuals and as a nation we can’t afford to be wasteful anymore. Never before have so many put so much emphasis on energy conservation and efficiency. The time is now to make a difference. Those are the biggest tools in the shed towards energy independence one day.

Would it make a difference in “normal” if 100% economic recovery happened in one day? Not really and here’s why. Many experts say energy prices could double as early as 2020 due to population growth increased plug load, and the world’s emerging markets. In short this falls into “the big three” as I like to say. We need more energy, food, and water in our world today. This process has only started. The recession has brought energy costs to the forefront which is why we believe everyone should live in a home that uses less energy, is more comfortable, and makes less impact on our global environment. Again that’s not rocket science, just good sense.

The new “normal” is a world when we have to do more, and use less. The cross over of this concept was inevitable for new home building and energy retrofitting of existing homes. We are also seeing this in many other aspects of our lives. For example our farmers, soldiers, doctors, factory workers, scientists, and many others have to figure out ways to provide more while using less resources. We must in order t0 compete in another new “normal”, the global economy. Russia, China, India, and many other developing markets have seen the American way of life our leaders and soldiers have provided for us. New capitalistic markets are emerging all over the world. That is a subject for another day in itself; but in short, people all over the world want to enjoy the things like Americans do - like meat and potatoes, cars, and electricity.

I believe anyone willing to work for these things has a right to them. The problem goes back to “the big three.” There is not enough food, water and energy to sustain almost 9 billion people to our standard of living. Make no mistake, we must develop ways to do more while using less. We must develop ways for individuals, companies, and countries to be profitable and sustainable. That’s right, I said profitable. One of the top challenges of the twenty first century is to develop cleaner and greener ways of life that cost less than dirtier alternatives if we want the world to do them. We are not there yet, but maybe one day that too will be the new “normal.”

Sincerely,
Chad Ray “that green builder guy”
Olde Heritage Builders and Energy Savers of NC

Q. My house has a musty smell and my air never feels “fresh”. Is there something I can do?

A. Absolutely! Many crawlspaces or basements in a mixed humid climate have a “moisture” issue. That problem creates other complications such as mildew or mold. With dehumidification and a controlled climate environment such as a sealed crawlspace, those issues can be eliminated. If you would like more information, please contact us and we can help you solve your problem and help your air to feel “fresh” again. Please contact us for more details and we look forward to helping you.

Q. I don’t know where to begin with being energy efficient. What can you recommend?

A. Simply put, there are a lot of things we could do. However, let’s focus on two that anyone with a home over 5-7 years old can do to lower their energy bill with.

1. Attic insulation. In most instances one can easily access their attics to add R-Value usually in the form of blow-in fiberglass insulation. Before that’s done attic sealing of holes, pipes, and other penetrations beforehand can help even more.
2. Air ducts. The average home wastes 50% of the air coming from your forced air system before it gets in your home! A very big loss of money and energy - both now and especially in the future!.

If you would like to submit a question for Chad, please fill out the Submission Form on our Contact Us page.

til next time,
Chad Ray “ That Green Builder Guy”
Olde Heritage Builders and Energy Savers of NC