The Green Revolution

Keep It Small
Ali Awad, an architect with Awad and Koontz Architects Builders in Minneapolis, has been designing green remodels for smaller city homes since 1997. “New homes are so big,” Awad says. “There is so much material that goes into new houses.” He and his partner, Jim Koontz, are particularly concerned about not squandering resources when they tackle a green remodel, and that often means remodeling without adding more space.

Awad recently completed a green remodel of a St. Paul rambler. His goals were to bring more sunlight into the home and open up the slightly more than 1,000-square-foot rambler to make it feel larger. “Day lighting a home is a huge green strategy,” Awad says. Day lighting “lets the sun into the home so that in the daytime you don’t have to turn on the lights.” He added three south-facing windows to the home and replaced all the old windows with energy-efficient windows with low-emission coatings.

The low-emission coating helps reflect solar heat back into the home, which helps cut energy usage in winter without increasing the need for cooling in summer. In the winter, Awad explains the sun is so much lower in the sky that it shines more directly into the house, but in the summer the sun is higher. “In winter, you want the solar gain,” he says. Placement of permanent eaves can help deflect summer sunlight by acting like an awning, thus reducing the need for additional cooling.

Other strategies Awad and Koontz used in this home include reusing the hardwood floors; using pre-finished cabinets and trim to reduce out gassing of VOCs; using a composite wood trim, which is made up of wood by-product and is more durable, on the exterior to seal the new windows; and installing cedar shake panels, which contain less actual wood than cedar shakes.

Recycle, Reuse
Tills helped design the first certified green remodel in the Twin Cities. As a member of the Madison Builders Association, he was able to certify the Arden Hills remodel as green through Wisconsin’s Green Built Home program. The project, completed in early 2006, included a full kitchen remodel and a renovation of the hallway and entryway. Tills’ focus was fivefold: reduce waste and recycle what waste resulted, use durable products, reduce the home’s energy draw, ensure indoor air quality, and source local products produced in an environmentally friendly manner.

Product durability is a big part of waste reduction. The more durable a product is, the longer its life span, and the more likely it is to be recycled and reused by the current homeowner, another homeowner, or a recycling company, says Tills. Waste, however, is a fact of life and of building, so Tills looks for a dumpster company that recycles 70 percent or more of the waste a project generates. He also uses craigslist.com and freemarket.com to give away salvaged, reusable materials.

A House of Dreams’ remodel in Shoreview included replacing all of the kitchen appliances with Energy Star appliances and a new energy-efficient heating system. Tills estimates that the homeowners are saving thirty to fifty dollars per month on their heating and air-conditioning costs compared to what they were paying prior to the remodel; but every remodel is different.

With new construction, installing energy-efficient appliances and heating and cooling systems is almost standard, so it’s easy to calculate the savings and payback period. But with remodels, the combination of energy-saving strategies differs with each home, based on its needs. “The payback comes quicker on bigger projects,” Tills says. “But in general, a homeowner can expect a payback period of three to six years. A new furnace alone might be eight to ten years, but add in other energy-reduction strategies, and payback is quicker.”

Anschel put a second story on a green remodel in which he removed the home’s old furnace and installed a high-efficiency furnace and heat pump. He also insulated with foam spray and put on a metal roof, which is very durable and can be recycled. He calculates the payback period on this home to be seven years. “We doubled the square footage, and the home is consuming less energy now than it did as a one-and-a-half-story home,” he says.

Whether a green remodel costs more than a conventional remodel is up for debate. Some remodelers say the cost of a green remodel is up to 6 percent higher, but Anschel doesn’t buy it. “You can’t just look at a green remodel and say it will cost 2 to 5 percent more than a conventional remodel,” he says. “[But] if remodeling is done well with decent materials, then the cost of remodeling green is the same, or possibly less, than a conventional remodel.”

Tills says the interest in green remodeling has soared from basically nothing a decade ago to up to 60 percent of the people he talks to today.

At this rate, “green remodeling will grow at an unbelievable rate over the next five to ten years.”