High Performance Homes: Often called Green Building, we call it High Performance building. What defines a high performance home? Many things, but there is no item list to make it high performance. High Performance Homes are more about approaches to the individual situation. Expensive windows and heating and cooling equipment will be all for naught if it is not properly designed and sited. If the home isn't situated to it's environment, it won't perform properly.
The biggest element of a high performance home in our environment is it's energy efficiency. it's important to construct the building
envelope tight, properly insulated, and weather resistant. It also needs to
breathe properly. You will hear more frequently, "build tight,
ventilate right." We also take care in designing homes to orient them properly on the site, leveraging solar gain when we need it, and blocking it out when we don't.
For a home to be healthier, we have to look at the components that go into it. We have to understand that the building acts as a system, and what we put in it and how we assemble it can have a dramatic effect on the home as a whole. Things that might makes us sick if we use one strategy and not another. You know that cool, new car smell that we love? It turns out that is really quite bad for us. Japan actually outlawed it in their cars a few years ago. It goes to a home as well. We have to consider what smells new might actually make us sick.
We want less maintenance. This is where sustainability works for you. We don't want to spend a lot of free time maintaining our homes: we want to live in them, not live for them. We'll use durable materials that have a long life. We also have to use materials that make sense for our climate.
The materials we use to build your home must be selected wisely. We don't want to end up with a lot of costly waste (that first "r" in reduce, re-use, recycle). There are many engineered products that we use in the structure that are stronger, more stable and use less of the raw resource itself.
The bottom line is that a high performance home (a green home) doesn't have to be odd looking and cost a lot. It just has to be well thought out. Think of a high performance home as choosing between a sports car and a school bus. Which one will be more comfortable, use less resources, pollute the environment less and get you there in style?