Sweet Orange

Yesterday, I wrote about the prefab green home in Newport Beach that developer LivingHomes put up in about four hours. The first home of this type that LivingHomes installed is in Santa Monica and is the home of  Steve Glenn, the CEO of LivingHomes, (To see additional prefab green homes that LivingHomes has built, see the LivingHomes website.)

In addition to being the first home of this type that Living Homes built, the Santa Monica prefab is the first residential building in the U.S. to receive the LEED Platinum rating.* The Newport Beach home mentioned previously as well as homes in Laguna Beach, Huntington Beach and Costa Mesa are competing for this title in Orange County.

You can view the Santa Monica home in two ways: You can take a tour of the Santa Monica house every Friday from 1-2 pm and the 4th Saturday of each month. Tickets are free and can be reserved through eventbrite.com. Or you can take a virtual tour.

About four hours–that’s all it took to install a prefabricated “green” home onto its foundation in Newport Beach.  After the four modules that make up this sustainably designed home were put into place on the existing foundation, the next step was to bolt everything together. The homeowner, Greg Brown, predicted that he would have the interior completed in four weeks.

Brown and the developer, Living Homes, hope to verify the greenness of the newly installed prefab by applying for the LEED Platinum rating. LEED is the predominate sustainable development rating system, and Platinum is the highest LEED rating.

Some of the characteristics of this home that will help to achieve the Platinum designation are the use of the following:

• recycled material
• low-flow water fixtures
• solar panels
• ventilation system that improves indoor quality
• windows that seal in air
• low- or non-volatile organic compounds
• Energy Star appliances
• construction components that allow the building to be torn down in a way that allows for the easy reuse of  all the parts

The installed cost of this particular prefab green home (model LHKT 1.5), which is available nationwide, is $275 per square foot. This does not include the foundation or land costs.

Related post:

Going for the Green-and Platinum-in Orange County: The 319 Single-family Project in Huntington Beach

Going for the Green–and Platinum–in Orange County: The Environmental Nature Center in Newport Beach

The green building market is estimated to be worth $30-$40 billion annually by the year 2010. By 2010, approximately 10% of commercial construction starts are projected to be green. According to a 2006 McGraw-Hill Smart Market report, every business day, $464 million worth of construction registers with LEED.–Wikipedia

“The new 8,500-square-foot facility was designed to achieve the highest level of ‘green’ building certification by the U.S. Green Building Council - LEED Platinum Certification. …Guests learn how to implement sustainable features in their own homes and businesses.”–The Environmental Nature Center (ENC), Newport, CA

As the opening quote shows, green building has economic benefits as well as environmental benefits. Here is another statement showing the economic benefits:

LPA estimates that the facility’s sustainable elements will save ENC [The Environmental Nature Center] ~$20,000 per year.–Jetson Green

The predominant system that is used for rating the “greenness” of a development is LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design). Like all systems, it has its drawbacks and is evolving to address those drawbacks. Here is an overview:

LEED is a rating system developed by the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) to ensure that the design, construction, and maintenance requirements result in buildings with some level of sustainability. The current LEED system has four possible levels that a project can attain. These levels, from lowest to highest, are Certified, Silver, Gold, and Platinum. To determine which level a project will receive, points are given for each sustainable feature that fits into one of five categories: sustainable sites, water efficiency, energy and atmosphere, materials and resources, and indoor environmental quality

For example, some of the characteristics that contributed to the Nature Center receiving the highest LEED rating, Platinum, are as follows: The building was designed and constructed in a way that that allows for daily operations that uses less resources than is the current standard. These include the ability to use natural ventilation, less water, and a reduced amount of energy by including solar and wind energy components. In addition, during construction renewable and recycled materials were used, and the building was constructed in a way that reduces light pollution.

For a list of Orange County projects with various LEED ratings, go to the USGBC-Orange County site.