SEM is helping certify the first LEED house in Durham.
BY VANESSA VOIGHT
DURHAM — A Durham open house focused on showing the community how to save green by going green.
NC Green Build is constructing the first LEED-certified single-family home in Durham, at 208 Regiment Way. LEED, which stands for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, is a building certification system developed by the U.S. Green Building Council. LEED-certified buildings undergo a third-party inspection process to make sure that the buildings were built designed using strategies to accomplish certain green standards, such as increasing energy savings and water efficiency.
Steve Frasher and Duncan Lundy, co-owners of NC Green Build, held an open house last week from 1 to 2 p.m. to educate the public about green building and demonstrate what green building techniques went into the house. Mayor Bill Bell attended the open house, along with other members of the community.
As the housing market has declined, some builders have cut back on features in homes to compete on price, Frasher said. He and Lundy took a different approach, trying to make homes more attractive to buyers by making them more energy efficient.
“We wanted to offer a product that hadn’t been offered before, a higher quality product,” Frasher said.
The “green” house, which is still under construction, has several energy-saving tricks incorporated into its design. The house was framed using less wood and more insulation, and has an air-seal package to keep drafts out. The duct work is located inside conditioned areas of the house, keeping it cooler so that it takes less energy to run. The roof features radiant barrier roof decking, a silver reflective surface that will reflect heat back up at the roof rather than down into the house, keeping the interior cooler.
All of these pieces can add up to major savings for homeowners. Jamie Hager, green building specialist at Southern Energy Management, the company handling energy inspections for the house’s LEED certification, estimated that the house’s base-line bill for heat, air conditioning and water-heating could be as low as $1,500 a year, without factoring in homeowner behavior or lights and appliances.
