The US Department of Energy just announced their 2023 Housing Innovation Award Winners, and we are thrilled to announce that for the third time, one of Deltec’s custom home projects was selected as a winner!

A team effort with the amazing homeowners (who acted as owner-builders, and were so inspired by high performance building that they started their own general contracting company), Deltec’s winning project was a customized Ridgeline Model, certified through the DOE’s Zero Energy Ready Home Program. This voluntary, third party green certification program sets forth a rigorous list of requirements during the design and construction of the home, including requirements for insulation, heating and cooling systems, water systems, and materials used in the home that maximize energy efficiency, comfort, and air quality. These requirements are achievable in today’s current building market, and yet represent a set of best practices for construction that tend to go well beyond what you typically see in new construction if such care and planning is not intentionally brought into the process.

Each year the US Department of Energy selects from among Zero Energy Ready Certified homes a subset of projects recognized as Housing Innovation Award winners. Additionally, from this group of winners a Grand Award winner will be selected in each of these four categories: Off the Shelf (projects with the best use of repeatable, cost effective features to achieve energy performance), Blazing the Trail (projects with the best examples of using innovation), Class is in Session (projects that spread education and training about high performance building), and DeCarbon Copy (projects that are exemplary in de-carbonizing the building process.)

The Housing Innovation Awards, and news as to which award winning projects are further selected as Grand Award winners, will be presented at the Energy and Environmental Builders Alliance (EEBA) Summit, where builders from all over the US with a focus on environmentally responsible building methods gather each year to share knowledge and resources. So stay tuned!

GreenAcres High Performance Home Consulting, the homeowners turned owner-builders who spearheaded the work to have their home certified through this program, recently sat down with us at Deltec to share their excitement in being winners of this award with their home. Their project set a new benchmark of energy performance for the Deltec system, with a new air-tightness score of 0.46 ACH50 (reaching Passive House levels of air tightness) and a HERS index of 37 without PV. Said the homeowners, “The combination of a Deltec precision assembled panelized building system and an innovative high performance build by a contractor like Greenacres HPHC LLC can deliver exceptional home comfort, air quality, efficiency, and durability.”

Deltec certainly agrees that a panelized home system is a great fit for anyone looking to achieve energy and environmental performance that goes well beyond the status quo, whether that is in pursuit of a Zero Energy Ready Home, or any other performance goal. To that end, Deltec’s Sustainability and Innovation Lead Leigha Dickens (top, left) will be presenting at the 2023 EEBA Summit, along with a panel of other builders, on the energy performance benefits of using panelized construction methods.

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The Inflation Reduction Act, passed in August 2022, contains generous, unprecedented new funding for energy efficiency for homes, whose energy use currently contributes significantly to US total carbon emissions.

Although much ado has been made about the potential money coming to homeowners (including, in some cases, claims that the government will pay to replace your induction stove, water heater, gas furnace with more efficient and all-electric options) consumers should realize that the details of many those programs have been left to states to implement, many will have income qualification requirements, and most critically, will only apply to existing homes.  Even an expanded personal income tax credit for energy efficiency upgrades–a common source of questions for us among Deltec customers–is specifically applicable only to existing homes, and not to new construction.

However, there are improved rebates available specifically for newly constructed homes as well, and they, too, are more generous now that the IRA has passed. But they are also not simple, and critically, most are not targeted at homeowners directly, though homeowners will still benefit.

The IRA’s path for incentivizing energy efficient new construction (as opposed to renewable energy systems, which is discussed separately below) is a revised tax credit for builders, and is tied to participation in one of two third party green building certification programs. 

The Expanded Federal 45L Tax Credit for Energy Efficient New Construction for Builders

Historically, building companies that built new homes projected to have reductions in heating and cooling costs below a certain threshold (as measured by an energy model as part of getting a home HERS score) were eligible for a $2,000 business income tax credit per home through the 45L Business Tax Credit.  Because qualifying for the tax credit requiring having a calculation performed, builders wouldn’t typically know if a project earned this credit or not until the end of year.  Congress also had to re-authorize this tax credit separately every year—something that was often uncertain until actual year-end. 

Going forward from 2023, and for 10 years without need for congressional re-authorization each year, this tax credit (still called the 45L tax credit) has changed. Builders can now earn a $2500 income tax credit for every certified Energy Star Home they build, or a $5,000 income tax credit for every DOE Zero Energy Ready Home. 

Energy Star for Homes and the DOE Zero Energy Ready Home are both federally run green certification programs, and If you’ve visited this blog before, you’ll know that we talk a lot about the value of such programs for homeowners and builders alike.  Earning these labels is not automatic—it still requires hiring an Energy Rater during the build process and following each program’s requirements during design and construction, and testing the home at the end, which typically incurs some construction costs in the form of hiring the Energy Rater to oversee the program, and potentially upgrading the specifications of the home from code minimums in your area.  For the latter, we find that most Deltec homeowners are interested in specs for their home that already do that, and as for the former—the tax credit is one way that projects can potentially more than offset those costs.

Even though homeowners themselves do not receive this tax credit, they can benefit from the quality assurance, resale value, and science-backed best practices provided by those programs.  Builders benefit too, in the form of reduced callbacks and comfort complaints from homeowners, marketing credentials—and now this expanded business income tax credit.  The expansion of this tax credit is likely to drive expanded interest in green building among builders, which in turn can drive expanded use of and experience with green building and building science in the industry.  This too, only benefits homeowners looking to build a new home that works the best that it can. 

Renewed Solar Energy and Geothermal Heat Pump Tax Credit for Homeowners

The IRA also expanded a very popular income tax credit for solar electric, solar hot water, wind, and geothermal heat pump systems, one that has been in use since 2006 but was starting to sunset in recent years.  As of 2023, the Federal Renewable Energy Tax Credit has been renewed for another 10, offering a 26-30% income tax credit for the costs of installing one of these system types.  Unlike other IRA provisions, which, as discussed above, apply specifically to either new homes or to existing homes but not both, this tax credit applies equally to a new construction project or to adding these technologies to an existing home, and unlike the 45L tax credit for energy efficient new construction, this is a personal income tax credit for the homeowner, not the builder. 

What About Other Incentives for Green Building?

Outside of the federal government, there were already a variety of incentives for energy efficient building from state, utility, or local governments.  This database, maintained by the North Carolina Solar Center, is the most comprehensive tool for researching rebates, incentives, and government policies to incentivize energy efficiency and renewable energy across the country.

We have seen that incentive availability varies widely across the country, with investor-owned utilities, and more populous areas, more likely to have incentive programs available than rural areas or areas served by electric cooperatives.  Utilities are the most likely entity, after the federal government, to offer incentives, although, like the IRA programs, utilities are more likely to reward only upgrades to existing homes, and fewer have programs that apply to new construction.

However, there are some noteworthy new construction utility programs out there.  Here are few that our clients living in eligible areas have taken advantage of:

Duke Energy Progress/Duke Energy Carolinas Residential New Construction Rebate:   Available in parts of North Carolina, and very recently added to parts of South Carolina, this program offers a rebate of 70 to 90 cents per kilowatt hour of energy saved, based on a HERS energy model, up to $6,000 to $9,000 (depending on whether your build site makes you a Duke Energy Progress, or a Duke Energy Carolinas customer.)  Although this rebate is for builders, owner-builders are allowed to participate. 

Duke Energy also offers a 5% energy rate discount to homeowners living in certified Energy Star homes in North and South Carolina.

Efficiency Vermont Residential New Construction Program offers technical assistance, a whole-home certification program and up to $6000 incentive for certifying to it, incentives for specific upgrades such as drain-waste heat recovery, balanced heat recovery ventilation, or all-electric construction.  Incentives go to builders, owner-builders possibly being eligible. 

Wisconsin Focus on Energy offers a cash incentive to builders who build to the Focus on Energy certification standards, potentially including owner-builders.

Build Green New Mexico: New Mexico offers a a Sustainable Building Tax Credit for homes and commercial buildings earning either LEED Certification or Build Green New Mexico certification.  This tax credit appears to be available to both homeowners and builders of new homes.

A Reminder: Deltec Offers a Rebate of our Own

Third party green building certification is such a great way to ensure quality in our projects that we at Deltec offer our own rebate to customers and their builders who get a green building certification—and this one DOES go to the homeowner!  You can read the details of that program here.

The Bottom Line

The IRA has expanded previous tax credits available for new green building in ways that are relevant to those building new homes—but the devil is in the details, because the programs available for new construction are different than the ones touted for upgrading existing homes.  Federal incentives align with participation in two federal green building programs: Energy Star for Homes or the DOE Zero Energy Ready Home, and qualifying for these programs likely requires designing in some of the same energy efficiency upgrades from the getgo.  Many Deltec homes have been built to these standards, in fact, many of our customers are already interested in getting that level of performance in their new home. 

The post What are the New Rebates for Green Building? appeared first on Deltec Homes.

 Q: I am planning on using ductless mini-splits.  Do I still need a fresh air ventilation system?

A: Yes! There is a misconception out there that whole house fresh air ventilation systems are only applicable to fully ducted HVAC systems, and that is simply not true.

Whole house fresh air ventilation is a recommendation for indoor air quality for every new home, and even for many existing ones.  Some states even require whole-house fresh air ventilation by code.

There are several different ways to do whole-house fresh air ventilation if you are going to do it; however, the most energy efficient way is with an Energy Recovery Ventilator (ERV) or Heat Recovery Ventilator (HRV.)  (Which one depends on which area of the country you live in, although the material difference between the two in many places are not that large.  Having one at all is more than half the battle.)

These systems consist of a small mechanical unit, separate from the indoor air handler of your standard heating/cooling system, with at least four ducts.  One duct brings fresh air into the home from the outside, passing that air through a heat exchanger core inside the unit.  Another exhausts stale air from the home, also passed through the heat exchanger.  A third duct pulls that stale air from the living space to the unit, and might be as simple as a register in a central location, like a laundry room, hallway, or bathroom* (*in some climates, if you have an HRV.)  Meanwhile the system would have at least one fresh air supply duct to the home.

An energy recovery ventilator hanging in a mechanical room. Ducts come off it it and in this case run throug the floor to a supply register in the living room for fresh air, and a return register in the hallway for stale air. Those air streams pass through the energy recovery core inside this unit.

The confusion comes in when people believe ERVs/HRVs must be installed so that this fresh air supply dumps into a central duct system.  That is indeed one way that an ERV/HRV can be set up, and doing so takes advantage of the existing ductwork to distribute this fresh air widely throughout the house when the system HVAC fan is running.  But it is also perfectly permissible to install a dedicated supply vent (or several) just from the ERV or HRV.  In fact, some green building experts argue that keeping these systems separate is a better approach.  In order to be economical, and realistic with available space for duct runs, many homes duct a fresh air supply to their great room, and maybe one to the main bedroom suite as well.

Fresh air ventilation design, like all HVAC design, often has more than one “right” answer, several pros and cons to choose between, and can be floorplan dependent.  But what is not in debate is that fresh air ventilation is essential in new, air-tight homes, and ERVs/HRVs offer the best way to achieve it.

Q: Should I insulate my basement walls, or the floor over my basement?

A: When designing basements, two related but separate questions must be asked about the room(s) within them:

1.) will this room be finished space? and

2.) will this room be a heated/conditioned space?

Usually when a basement space is finished, it is also heated/conditioned, so that is simple enough. But when you are planning to leave some or all of basement space unfinished, either for the long haul or with plans to come back and finish it later, you might choose separately whether or not that unfinished space is still a heated space, which in turn affects the code rules for how it should be insulated during construction.

If a basement room is unheated, you are required by energy code to insulate the floor over it, thermally separating it from the heated rooms above. Meanwhile if a basement room is heated/conditioned, then the walls around it must be insulated, thermally isolating it either from the ground or from adjoining unheated rooms. For a given basement space you must do one or the other, but you aren’t required to (and it doesn’t usually make sense) to do both.

 If you have a basement with some of each, that can be where the details get tricky, as getting the insulation and especially the air barrier between those rooms requires paying attention to the details.   The Energy Star for Homes Air Sealing Checklist can be a helpful resources for getting those air barriers right.

An example unheated basement room, photo taken from a random home I once visited. The concrete block exterior wall is not insulated–it’s not required to be. The ceiling above the room is insulated, it is required to be. The wall dividing the unheated room from heated basement rooms on the other side IS insulated. However, that insulation could be improved…it should actually be covered with a rigid air barrier such as drywall to meet Energy Star for Homes performance standards. Whoever built this house should also pay attention to what’s going on in the floor system above that insulated wall–is it blocked off to keep air from moving between the two spaces?

Considerations for thinking through if a basement room should be heated, or unheated:

1.) is there an air-handler and/or HVAC ductwork within that space? Or even a water heater? if so, it tends to make more sense to insulate the basement walls in those rooms, not the floor, as HVAC equipment is most efficient when located inside conditioned space, and the equipment being in that room may serve to minimally condition that space anyway.

2.) How easy is it to detail the wall insulation vs the floor insulation? For instance, if you are building a basement with superior wall–a common choice for Deltecs–or an ICF, then the walls are generally pre-insulated, and it makes the most sense to treat the rooms enclosed as part of the heated space, even if the conditioning there is only minimal.

3.) What do you eventually plan to do with the space? A lot of people with some section of unfinished basement do have plans to go on and finish it one day, yet energy code requires that you make the deicison: floor insulation or wall insulation, at the time of construction. If it will be a very far off time indeed before you finish that space, it might make sense to go ahead and treat it as unheated space, knowing that later you will have to come back and add a heat source and insulate the walls. But if it’s going to be relatively soon, there might be some merit in going ahead and insulated the walls now, and designing your heating system to factor in that space. That’ll be less re-working you have to do later.

Q: Should I use a tankless electric water heater for my (small Deltec/spread out Deltec/Deltec that wants to eventually use some type of solar electricity?)

A: Unfortunately, there’s no perfect water heating solution, but our answer for a tankless electric water heater in particular is usually: probably not.

It’s very common for excited homeowners to design their floorplan without thinking through things like where to locate the water heater. I get it: to most people that part isn’t as exciting, and space can often be at a premium especially in smaller homes.

It’s also a growing trend for people to be considering an all-electric home, and (as mentioned in previous blogs) there are some good cost reduction and environmental benefits to doing so.

The convergence of those factors: no space for a tank water heater, and yet a desire to be all-electric, can sometimes have people planning to install a tankless electric water heater. Compact and inexpensive (sort of) to install, they can seem like the logical solution.

Unfortunately, there are some big caveats to tanklesss electric. (There are caveats to every water heating choice.) While tankless electric water heaters are no less efficient than their standard electric tank cousins, in terms of kilowatt hours of energy consumed over a year, they usually need to pull an incredibly high number of kilowatts at once to provide adequate hot water for bathing. Electricity is great at heating water, but you need a staggering amount of it at once to heat that water fast. It’s not uncommon to see tankless electric water heaters rated at 14 to 32 kilowatts. That’s like turning on 140 to 320 (1 kilowatt = 1000 watts) 100-watt incandescent light bulbs at once, every time you run the hot water.

A photo of a chart at a home improvement store showing the recommended tankless water heater size, in kilowatts, for the climate zone and number of fixtures. In some situations the recommended product is rated at 32KW!

This is terrible for the electric power grid in general, because it can cause issues with transmission and distribution of power, especially if multiple homes within a community are doing it. And for homeowners it can mean higher than expected installation costs, because a typical 200 amp service to a home may not be adequate to provide this much power, and upgrades to the electric service to the home may be required.

Another important comparison for those with solar ambitions: the size of the average residential solar array for a new, energy efficient home varies based on the location and home size, and whether or not there are batteries in the system, but you might see anywhere from 4 to 10 kilowatts of solar recommended. Even if the tankless electric water heater is draws at the lower end of the scale, 13 kilowatts, it already exceeds the maximum output the solar array can produce. The result is that an electric tankless water heater is not going to be getting much of it’s power from your solar array, that will have to come from the grid.

In some designs, electric tankless may make sense. A small floor plan, not a lot of space, not much planned use for bathing, maybe no other option. But for many customers with high performance goals and all-electric goals, a heat pump water heater, standard electric tank, or even a solar hot water system, may be a better choice.

The post Deltec Green Building Q&A: Spring 2022 Edition appeared first on Deltec Homes.

I’m talking about the gas stove (including propane).

It was certainly a sticking point for me.  I was one of those people who needed a gas stove. I consider myself a good cook, and the gas stove had become an important part of that self-image. Good cooks used gas. Bad cooks used electric. The still-electric alternative often proposed by green building experts, induction, was just a dressed-up version of electric. The best of the bad, but still bad.

Fast forward to my current home that I bought last year. In a tough housing market, compromises were made, and I ended up with a home with no gas hook up. In fact, gas was not available at all in the entire neighborhood. 

Alas, I was doomed to electricity as an energy source. I was distraught. But, I made lemonade out of lemons, and I purchased an induction stove. I bought a Bosch Benchmark Induction Stove.

And you know what? I am glad that I did.  It turns out I vastly prefer it to gas. I get the same precision of gas with some added benefits, including energy efficiency, a lower carbon footprint, and significantly better indoor air quality. I have read some reports which state that induction can be up to 90% efficient at delivering heating energy to the food, while gas stoves hover in the 40-55% range.  I have joined several professional chefs and experts in our preference for induction over gas.

These are the things that I have found, through my personal experience, that induction does as well or better than gas:           

1. I think I get the same or better quality of control as I had with gas and the food tastes just as good.
2. With the boost feature, I boil water for things like pasta incredibly quicker (up to 50% quicker by some reports).  
3. I have much better flexibility and control with low temperatures and warming (this was especially difficult for me using gas for melting ingredients or making sauces).
4. Clean up with a glass top is often much easier and faster than with gas.
5. Near instantaneous cool-to-the-touch elements after turning it off (avoiding burning yourself after, which I have done before).

These are the things that I have learned to live with:

1. There can be a slight buzzing with only a few pots (which isn’t that bad–just noticeable).
2. You need to be careful about scratching on the glass surface (and I have a few minor scratches already).
3. I had to spend a bit more, but in the scheme of things I think it still provides good value.

And now that I have overcome the emotional hurdle of using induction over gas, I have realized that gas is an inferior choice for several important reasons.

First is safety. This can be a huge issue that I learned firsthand in my last home. Malfunctioning gas stoves can be very dangerous. I was making something in the oven and my CO alarm went off. I thought this was strange, since I could see the burner flames in the oven.   But I sheepishly called my fire department out of an extreme abundance of caution. Fast forward 10 minutes later, and the fire department was urgently pushing me and my pets out of the home. While the oven was working, it was malfunctioning, and producing dangerous levels of carbon monoxide: the odorless, colorless gas that is often dubbed the “silent killer”.

Every year more than 400 Americans die from carbon monoxide poisoning, which can be produced without warning when a combustion appliance malfunctions.  If I hadn’t had a CO alarm, or hadn’t taken it seriously when it went off, I could have been a statistic.  (Which underlines the very strong emotional attachment I had to gas stoves since I still wanted another one in my current home, even after that scary experience.)

Second are the environmental and health issues caused by gas stoves.  Even properly functioning natural gas and propane stoves release formaldehyde, nitrogen dioxide , and other harmful pollutants into the air. These pollutants can reach unhealthy levels inside your home even with an exhaust fan.  There is a growing body of research on the harmful health effects of gas stoves, and the bad news on this front keeps mounting.

A 2020 Rocky Mountain Institute report reveals that homes with gas stoves contain approximately 50-400 percent higher concentrations of nitrogen dioxide than homes with electric stoves. This level of indoor air pollution results in levels of indoor pollution that would be illegal outside.

According to the EPA, brief exposure to high concentrations of nitrogen dioxide in the air can lead to coughing and wheezing for people with asthma or other respiratory issues. Prolonged exposure to the gas can lead to the development of asthma and potentially increase susceptibility to other respiratory issues.

And kids can be especially prone to ill effects. Multiple studies have found that gas stoves have been linked to increased risk of asthma in kids. In a recent Slate article, they state that “A 2013 meta-analysis of 41 studies found that children living in homes with gas stoves had a 42 percent higher risk of experiencing asthma symptoms, and, over their lifetime, a 24 percent increase in the risk of being diagnosed with asthma.”

So, while I was a reluctant converter to induction stoves, I now find that it was one of the smartest choices I could have made. From a cooking standpoint, I get everything I want from a gas stove—plus some—while I have created a much healthier and safer environment for my family and me.

What’s not like about that?

Written by Scott Cocking/Marketing Director

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Attending the official switch-flipping ceremony brought things full circle for me for several reasons. As a board member of our local Green Built Alliance, I was happy to see one of our flagship programs, Appalachian Offsets, make this possible. Yet the event had personal significance, as my husband, an Asheville native, attended Issac Dickson as a child, and I was able to bring our 11 month-old-son to see the switch flipping at the same school his father attended. Back when I was in elementary school, I was once given an assignment to create a design for how to make our school better. budding environmentalist that I was, I proceeded to draw school covered with skylights and solar panels. I remember the teacher said that was neat, but, probably impractically expensive–yet here today, I got to see that idea realized for a real elementary school.

This project comes full circle for Deltec, as well, because it was funded through the Appalachian Offsets program, to which we have been a contributor for several years. Appalachian Offsets is a carbon offsetting program: individuals or businesses can use the tools on the program’s website to calculate the environmental impact, in terms of tons of carbon dioxide emitted into the atmosphere, of their various activities. They can then purchase an offset to counteract those emissions, and those offsets deliver funding to energy efficiency or solar projects in the community that can deliver these emissions reductions. The Appalachian Offsets program has been around since 2009, and it has funded numerous other solar energy or energy efficiency improvements for non-profits, schools, churches, or low income housing communities in Western North Carolina. Nationally, as well as internationally, offset markets are growing as a way for individual and corporate citizens to make contributions to fighting climate change.

Every year since 2018, Deltec Homes has tallied up the miles traveled within the continental US by our homes packages as they were shipped to our customer’s job-sites, and used the Appalachian Offsets calculator to estimate the equivalent CO2 emissions. We then purchased offsets for those emissions, helping, along with more than 100 other businesses and individuals, to raise the funding to make the Isaac Dickson solar array happen.

Some people might ask, wait a minute, isn’t a offset just a way to pay to keep polluting as usual? Shouldn’t entities hoping to reduce their carbon footprint commit to reducing energy use to begin with? And while offsets are growing in popularity, so are criticisms of offset programs’ abilities to actually deliver what they promise. Surely, we can’t all just offset our way out of the climate challenges we face?

I would argue that the answer is not “either, or” but “yes, and.” Offsetting is one tool, a free-market mechanism to delivering energy savings and renewable energy to our community at large as quickly as possible. While it isn’t sustainable in the long run for a company or individual to eliminate their entire carbon footprint forever through offsets alone, nor is it often technologically or economically feasible for most entities to live in this society and totally cut off their carbon footprint, either. We still use energy for business, personal matters, food, transportation. We should take every step to reduce the impact of that energy through all means: investment in energy efficiency or renewable energy where feasible, policies (whether personal, or organizational) to facilitate more conscious consumption, advocating for greener sources of fuel for the electric and transportation systems we depend upon…and also giving back to the community where and when we can. Think of it less like an “indulgence” and more like a charitable contribution to your community to fund the change you want to see in the world. Plus, using a tool to calculate your carbon footprint can help you discover the most impactful places where you can make a difference in reducing it on the front end.

On the transparency end, it comes back to local solutions to global problems. While some offsetting programs promise to avert cutting down a tree in Brazil, or deliver a cleaner burning stove in Kenya, I can walk down the street and see the projects funded by Appalachian Offsets in my own community, and to me, that has clear transparency. Any involvement with a program aiming to make society better involves research to understand how it works, and checking whether it aligns with your values and goals. To me, all of these potential carbon offsetting projects could be important, and we should continue to monitor the space and participate in creating systems to monitor and verify what offsets work and what don’t–but participating is still the first step.

Appalachian Offsets is not just for businesses. Individuals can contribute as well. Last year I decided to use it to calculate and offset my family’s carbon footprint as well. Even calculating your carbon footprint can help you see a useful way to get a picture of the impact of what you do, and the impact of any potential reductions you may be motivated to make.

-by Leigha Dickens, Deltec Homes Green Building and Sustainability Manager. Also posted at greenbuilt.org

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A few weeks ago, we posted the exciting news that we had been honored by the US Department of Energy with our second Housing Innovation Award for a Ridgeline F project recently completed with a builder partner in Wilmington, NC. Housing Innovation Award winners are chosen from among homes certified to the DOE’s Zero Energy Ready Home program, and were recognized at the annual Energy and Environmental Builder’s Alliance (EEBA) conference in Denver.

During the awards ceremony we just learned that not only were we one of four Housing Innovation Award recipients in the category of custom for buyer under 2500 square feet–our project was selected as the Grand Winner in that category! We are so honored, as there were many exciting projects on display.

Some other interesting tidbits from this year’s EEBA Conference and Housing Innovation Awards ceremony:

• North Carolina was once again well represented among award winners, with three separate winners from North Carolina, and two of us from Asheville!

• Collectively, the Housing Innovation Award winning homes will save over $2 million in energy costs over their first 30 years of life.

• Research presented showed that that high performance builders think the next major innovation to revolutionize building will be automation and off-site building.

US Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm spoke during the award ceremony, reiterating the importance of the built environment in solving our emergent energy issues in society at large. Homes that are built to use dramatically less energy, through electric sources that are “ready for zero” with the continued growth of solar and battery storage options, and homes that are built with materials and construction methods that reduce greenhouse gas emissions, have a key role to play in a de-carbonized future. We are thrilled to be recognized as leaders helping move the industry forward!

View the press release from the US Department of Energy.

View the DOE case study on the award-winning Ridgeline project.

View a list of all of the 2021 Housing Innovation Award winners.

View Secretary Granholm’s remarks from the awards ceremony.

The post Deltec Project Wins Grand Award in US Department of Energy Housing Innovation Awards appeared first on Deltec Homes.

Our President, Steve Linton, our Marketing Director, Scott Cocking, and our Green Building and Sustainability Manager, Leigha Dickens, will be virtually attending the EEBA (Energy and Environmental Building Alliance) conference this week to accept the award, speak about our embodied carbon, marketing, and resiliency, and learn from lots of other high performance builders on the innovative things they are doing to tackle healthy, high performance, and climate-conscious homes.

A case study of the Ridgeline F will be features on the Department of Energy’s Tour of Zero website, check back here for the link when it becomes available. In the mean time, you can see our own recent blog on this project here, and see a list of all the 2021 Housing Award Winners here. (Thrilled to see North Carolina so well represented among award recipients!)

A special thanks to Old School Rebuilders LLC, out of Wilmington, our excellent turnkey builder partner for this project.

The post Deltec Wins Second Department of Energy Housing Innovation Award appeared first on Deltec Homes.

In a recent blog, we detailed two high performance Ridgeline models from our Renew Collection.  But for those customers who love the awesome views, delightful uniqueness and high customization of our signature round homes, our 360° Collection has always been a highly sustainable option.  Read below for two examples of recently finished 360° Collection projects with interesting technical features.

Up on the Mountain

Tyler and Chelsea moved to Western North Carolina from California. Building on a secluded piece of land atop a mountain, where sounds of the idyllic valley below can be heard wafting up the ridge each morning, sustainability was hugely important to their goals. They wanted a home and office with a low embodied carbon, and low enough energy consumption to be able to go totally off-grid. Our track record of building high performance homes, and our values as a B Corp, drew them to Deltec. The power of our 360° Collection to capture a view like no other put them in a round home.

Their design used a 2-story 1200 square foot round model on a slab foundation, plus a 2-story wing for stairs, and a single-story wing for an attached garage. As part of a strategy for superior insulation levels in our mixed-humid climate, they chose our “Deltec Energy Wall,” an upgraded perimeter wall option. This open-stud wall system, assembled in our factory, uses 2×6 stud framing (compared to the industry standard in North Carolina, which is still just 2×4) for greater strength and thicker cavity insulation values. It adds to that an exterior layer of continuous foam insulation, a useful strategy for wrapping the entire house in an extra blanket of insulation and reducing what energy nerds call “thermal bridging”: that is, the tendency for heat to escape more quickly through areas of lower insulation value (such as the wood studs). The structural headers of the Deltec Energy Wall are insulated in our factory with recycled scrap foam material, and our craftsmen apply a gasket at the perimeter of the plywood sheathing to seal it to the wall, increasing the home’s total air-tightness. The home captures views using windows from Marvin Essential collection, also installed in our factory.

Energy systems were a critical aspect of their design process, since running power to this remote site proved to be a challenge. Rather than be daunted, this challenge spurred Tyler to accelerate his eventual plan for the site, which was to install a solar electric array, battery energy storage, and a backup wood stove and propane generator, all to allow him to take his home off-grid if he wanted. Yet he also wanted to limit propane use and take advantage of the variety of very high efficiency all-electric appliances that are common in this region for high performance heating and cooling, such as two ducted mini split heat pumps, a heat pump water heater, and an induction range. He also needed to provide power for his Tesla electric vehicle charger.

People often associated “mini splits” with the iconic, ductless “white box on the wall” that blows heated or cooled air directly into the room, eliminating air ductwork. And indeed, removing or reducing the amount of ductwork in a home can make a difference for heating and cooling energy costs, as ducts tend to leak some amount of air away, and constrictions in the duct runs can force the need for larger blower fans and greater capacity equipment than what might otherwise be needed. But mini splits have a couple of other distinct technological advantages over the “conventional” ducted heat pumps that commonly provide heating and cooling to homes in the southeastern US, advantages that make them highly relevant to low energy homes.

One such advantage is an improved refrigerant technology that allows some models to deliver warm air even when outside temperatures are very cold without relying on a backup source of heat, a critical function in this mountainous climate zone that does still see cold weather extremes. The other advantage is an ability to vary the heating or cooling output based on conditions. This is rather like the advantage a car with a CVT transmission might have over a (hypothetical) single speed car: the system has nearly infinite”gears” available to it and can constantly choose the correct “gear” to run in to deliver the most comfort at the lowest energy use. This is an important feature of an electric heating system in a home with an off-grid solar array, as historically, even highly efficient electric heat from heat pumps still draw a lot of electricity at once, and can drain solar batteries very quickly. By contrast, the use of multi-stage or infinite stage heating systems like mini splits can allow the lowest possible electrical draw for the given weather conditions. While a sizeable battery bank is still required, it becomes more feasible to provide some heating energy from these highly efficient electric heat pumps, with a wood stove as an ultimate backup.

Meanwhile, the indoor components of mini splits actually come in a variety of “flavors,” from the iconic wall mounted unit, to floor mounted units, to ceiling cassettes, and…yes, even ducted air handlers. The latter offers the ability to serve multiple smaller rooms with one air (still small) handler, reducing system costs (vs putting one white box on the wall in every single room), while still delivering the low temperature and variable speed advantages that mini splits offer. Based on the size and lay out of the rooms in Tyler and Chelsea’s plan, one ducted mini split per level made the most sense.

I mentioned in my previous blog about the benefits of heat pump water heaters for all-electric homes, but they can be challenging to locate in some floorplans in a place where they get enough airflow to operate, and where their noise and cold air doesn’t bother the homeowner. In Tyler and Chelsea’s case, the mechanical room, while tucked under the stairs, was still a bit smaller than recommended for a heat pump water heater, so we attached air ducts for it to pull in it’s warm air and dump it’s cold air to outside. Although this reduces the efficiency somewhat, it’s still much better than a standard electric resistance water heater, so it was a worthwhile tradeoff to stay all-electric.

Since they were building here in our home region, they used our in-house builder, Deltec Building Company, to act as general contractor for the project. The home is Energy Star Certified, receiving a final HERS score of -17. It uses a 10KW solar array with 5 KiloValt HAB Batteries and a 13KW Generac backup generator. The off grid solar array and equipment was designed and installed by local solar contractor, SolFarm.

Deep in the Snow

Shan was an acoustical engineer with a background as a hobby conservationist. He and his wife Linda were also looking for an energy efficient home that could capture some unique views on their property in southern Alaska.

Alaska can be a very challenging place to build. Building materials can be expensive and time consuming to get to the jobsite, as they often have to be shipped in by boat. The buildable time frame is short. The amount of available sunny hours to feed a solar electric system, if that happens to be your goal (as it was for these clients) are not generous, and the temperature extremes are harsh. Energy rates are also nearly double what they are in much of the continental US, so every measure to build a more efficient home is even more valuable.

To meet the design challenges of the harsh local climate, Shan and Linda chose our upgraded “Double Stud Wall” option with their floor plan, which used a 900 square foot base round model with two wings. Our Double Stud Wall option uses two layers of 2×4 studs, in order to create a nearly 10″ thick wall to pack full of insulation. To take full advantage of this highly insulative wall, highly insulative windows should be used as well, which meant upgrading from the more common double-pane windows to higher performing triple-pane windows on the north, east, and west sides of this home. Thick insulation values in the roof, and a conditioned crawlspace built with insulated concrete forms, cap off the super insulation strategy for this cold climate.

Like Tyler and Chelsea, Shan and Linda were interested in having an on-site solar array with battery storage, in their case to provide backup power in situations where winter storms cut off the grid. And they also wanted to limit their system’s reliance on propane or other fossil fuels when doing so. Due to the cold climate and limited sun, the energy-using systems in the home had to be chosen very carefully indeed.

First, the heating demand needed to be reduced as much as possible. In addition to the super insulation strategy described above, air-tight construction was extremely important. In addition, the lay out of the home used passive solar design strategies to harvest and hold on to the sun’s heat, by minimizing window glass areas on the north, west, and east, but increasing it on the south, where the sun (when available) would shine in throughout the day. A special low-e coating on these south facing windows designed to let in as much of this heat as possible, combined with a dark, dense tile floor in the sun space to absorb the heat, makes the most of this available warmth, storing it in the building materials, making the interior temperatures more stable. Of course, a mechanical heating system is still needed, and surprisingly, an electric mini split heat pump still made sense, even in this cold climate, paired with a backup wood stove, and backup electric baseboard heat. Their heating system design used a combination of a ducted mini split for the back half of the plan, a ductless mini split for the living area, and a ductless for the main bedroom suite. And since water heating is the next biggest energy expenditure in a home after heating, the nearly unsurpassed efficiency of a heat pump water heater was still the winner, this time located inside their conditioned crawlspace.

The home was tested for compliance with Alaska’s Building Energy Efficiency Standard (BEES) system, received 6 stars, and a final blower door test of 1.19ACH50. After a winter of living in the home, the homeowner estimates that they consume around 4000 kilowatt hours a year, and generate around 7000 with their 7.6KW solar array (the difference is stored in the backup batteries).

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Amid a year of record wildfires, a global pandemic, political turmoil, and new social reckonings, the imperative for sustainability never ends. In fact, it’s more important than ever.

Highlights:

Manufacturing: We maintained our commitment to sustainable manufacturing, using 100% renewable site electricity in our facility and diverting an average of 80% of our waste from the landfill.  As we did in 2018 and 2019, we also offset the carbon associated with shipping our homes to our customers through Appalachian Offsets, a local program which funds renewable and clean energy projects for schools and non profits in our region. In fact, the solar array for Isaac Dickson Elementary School was supported by our offsets and should be coming online soon, check back here for details!

Green Building:  We did a new case study of an off-grid 360° Collection model recently completed by our in-house building company.  Another recent Ridgeline project earned Zero Energy Ready Home certification from the US Department of Energy.  With the contribution of these two net-positive homes, our average HERS Index dropped from a 45 in 2019 to a 43.

Supply Chain: We expanded our pre-installed siding offerings for our 360° Collection with a Cradle to Cradle Certified(R) vertical polyash product from Boral America, which contains a minimum 70% pre-consumer recycled content.

Community: We formed a Justice, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (JEDI) task force to directly assess our company culture, hiring practices, and supply chain. Our Meals on Wheels volunteers adapted to contactless meal delivery.

Click here to peruse the whole report.

Sustainability is part science, part management, and part telling our story to customers, so that we can earn their support to keep doing it. The story of sustainability gained deeper stakes for me in 2020 with the birth of my son. The connections between how we build homes, the natural world, and the greater resilience of our community, have never felt more apparent, or more important.

-Leigha Dickens, Green Building & Sustainability Manager

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We were one of the first companies in NC to use 100% renewable electricity through our on-site solar array and purchased wind power to power our manufacturing facility.  That was 13 years ago.

But we are always looking at how to improve and leverage current opportunities to expand our sustainability leadership while better serving our customers.

With the recent announcements by auto manufacturers to their commitment to electric vehicles as well as our desire to better serve our customers—many of whom drive EV vehicles, we leapt on the chance to apply for the second round of rebates offered by the NC Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) Division of Air Quality for level 2 EV charging stations. These rebates were made available as part of the VW Mitigation Settlement Program set up to resolve allegations that Volkswagen violated the Clean Air Act (“CAA”) by the sale of approximately 590,000 model year 2009 to 2016 diesel motor vehicles equipped with “defeat devices.”

After reviewing our application, The DEQ awarded us a grant to install EV charging stations. We are one of 60 projects in NC, with 3 of them being in Asheville. We are the only private company awarded the grant in Asheville among only 29 awarded to private companies in the entire state. The DEQ will rebate us $3000 of the total cost of our each of our EV stations, with Deltec Homes funding the remaining amount.

We have just installed 4 EV charging stations as of May, 2021, in our parking lot that will be available to anyone visiting us with an EV vehicle. Our customers driving EV vehicles can take advantage of it during their visit to our headquarters without any costs (with reasonable limitations), and our employees or the public can also use it with minimal costs. We hope that this will also serve as an incentive for more of our employees to switch to an EV, giving them the opportunity to charge their cars while working.

We are excited to not only be recognized through this grant, but as another way we lead by example with sustainability.

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