USGBC Awards Local Falls Church Home LEED® Silver Certification
By STEVEN VALLEY
Falls Church Times Staff
January 17, 2011
This past Sunday, one of Falls Churches buildings was honored with a distinguished award, the home at 1011 N. Tuckahoe Street was awarded LEED Silver certification by U.S. Green Building Council for achievement in green homebuilding and design. LEED for Homes is a green home certification program that rewards homes that are designed and built to be energy- and resource-efficient and more healthy and durable for the occupants. LEED-certified homes complete a technically rigorous process that includes a home energy (HERS) rating and onsite inspections to verify that the home is built to be energy and water efficient, environmentally sound, and a healthier place to live.
1011 N. Tuckahoe Street is one of only about 100 Washington area homes that have been certified using LEED and the first LEED-certified home in the City of Falls Church. The home was built by Charles and Anjali Hansen, who are now enjoying their new home with their three young children, two beagles and three chinchillas.
“As a LEED-certified home, 1011 N. Tuckahoe Street serves as a model of greener living for the entire community,” said Nate Kredich, Vice President of Residential Market Development for the USGBC. “The home sets the example that we can all live better by reducing our environmental footprint, cutting our utility bills, and coming home to a greener place to live.”
Located only a half-mile from the East Falls Church Metro stop, 1011 N. Tuckahoe Street is within walking distance of public transportation, shops and other conveniences. The home focuses heavily on reducing energy use. The six-bedroom project married the brickwork of the original 1946 colonial with new structural insulated panel (“SIP”) construction and features low-e argon windows, high efficiency lighting fixtures, and EnergyStar appliances. Other green features include a geothermal heating and air-conditioning system, an underground rainwater cistern and low-flow plumbing fixtures. Low VOC (volatile organic compounds) paint, cabinets and bamboo flooring have been used throughout the house.
The U.S. Green Building Council is a nonprofit membership organization whose vision is a sustainable built environment within a generation. Since USGBC’s founding in 1993, USGBC has grown to more than 18,000 member companies and organizations and a comprehensive suite of LEED green building certification systems. Its membership includes corporations, builders, universities, government agencies, and other nonprofit organizations all sharing USGBC commitment to a prosperous and sustainable future for our nation through cost-efficient and energy-saving green buildings. Visit www.usgbc.org for more information.
LEED for Homes is a third-party certification system for building and designing high-performance green homes that are energy-and-resource-efficient and healthy for its occupants. Developed and administered by USGBC, LEED for Homes awards points to projects in eight categories of environmental performance: Innovation & Design Process, Location & Linkages, Sustainable Sites, Water Efficiency, Indoor Environmental Quality, Energy & Atmosphere, Materials & Resources, and Awareness & Education. To date, more than 5,000 homes have achieved certification with LEED for Homes program, and over 20,000 have registered and are in process. For more information, visit www.usgbc.org/homes.
By Steven Valley
January 18, 2011
Something is wrong here. You quadruple the size of the house and get LEED certified? I wonder how much more energy the mansion uses, compared to the original small house, where many generations of similarly sized families have been raised? Seems like LEED is designed to promote “green” products rather than reduce energy use.
John is correct and I remember the question being asked before, but no answer of course. I guess this is better than the “green” homes being built next to the library featuring extra insulation, thermal windows and energy star appliances. Maybe that developer will use solar panels there to take advantage of the lack of trees (ahem).
Actually, John, with our geothermal HVAC system, the added insulation (the old house had virtually none) and the air-tightness of the new SIP panel construction, the house uses LESS energy than it did before the remodel. And , we didn’t quadruple the size of the house nor did we even triple it. We protected and kept many mature trees and planted new ones. We also kept much of the old brick walls and interior framing, rather than just knocking down the old house completely. Indeed, we recycled, donated or reused over 80 percent of the old house instead of just sending it to a landfill. I’d be happy to answer questions about LEED, if you’re interested.
The Geothermal HVAC systems is what makes this project work well. Geothermal heating is the most effective energy improvement measure that can be implemented, and it will give unequaled comfort and longevity. Google “Geothermal Book”
Kudos to Charles for jumping into the discussion and sharing some details! Great to see this kind of construction (and attention) in Falls Church.
Charles, thanks for the clarification and sorry I was wrong on the numbers – the house sure looks a lot bigger but it is impressive that the energy use is lower. And I know I am pushing against current desires for dream homes, builders bank accounts and real estate agents urging that bigger is better, but I am simply sorry to see so many large huge houses going into a neighborhood of modest houses. LEED is a great thing for new buildings but maybe we also need incentives for households that reduce their overall ecological footprint. That is a much tougher proposition (I have a long way to go in my old, poorly insulated house) but might encourage some to retain their smaller homes, reduce energy costs and have other benefits like not increasing run-off from our already stressed suburban yards.
I agree with John and thanks for the clarification, Charles. Best of luck with your new home.
John/Robert – the old house had just two bedrooms, which certainly was not going to work for our family of five. We also put in an in-law suite, looking toward the day when one of our older family members may need to move in with us. Could we have simply bought a larger home in Falls Church? Yes, but it would not have been as sustainably built as this one turned out.
As for run-off, all of our downspouts are connected to our new underground rainwater cistern and any overflow from the cistern, which might occur with a tropical storm-type event, is piped into a new dry well. So, we not only don’t need to use city water for landscape irrigation, run-off from our lot is virtually nil — which is another huge improvement compared to the old set-up.
During design, we were very careful in that we didn’t want the new house to dwarf either our neighbors or the lot. I think we did a good job on both counts.
Feel free to drop by sometime, we’d be happy to show you around!