Building a Livable Future
Current economic times call for a creative twist to upgrading as many Vail Valley homeowners choose to keep their residences and build equity by renovating them instead of starting over.
In the following pages, interior designers, builders, gardening professionals, landscapers and other experts share their expertise, while suppliers showcase the latest products in an effort to go “green” in this high altitude environment.
Green Building is the practice of creating energy efficient structures. There are many things that can be done in order to accomplish this feat — by builders and by homeowners, in new buildings and in old.
Here are four easy ways to increase the green in your building and a few local companies that can help you along the way.
Use Renewable and Recyclable Materials
These often go hand in hand. Renewable materials are not necessarily “used” or “old” products but rather products that have been responsibly manufactured, may contain post-consumer matter and, most importantly, have the potential to be reused to the same effect in the future because of their increased durability. Reclaimed materials such as milled beetle-killed lodgepole pines fit into this category, and can add a unique look to home finishings while giving their owners a sense of Colorado pride.
Arrigoni Woods supplies Valley homes with fine wood products for flooring, ceilings, exposed beams, and paneling. “All of our products are from managed forests,” explains Balz Arrigoni. “We do not clear cut or otherwise disrupt the forests in any way. Trees to be harvested are selected because of their age and ability to compete against new growth.”
Clients of Arrigoni Woods are also encouraged to embrace the natural, variable colors of the wood they purchase. “Wood is much more attractive without harsh stains and dyes. Without all of the chemicals, it truly is a green building product and will last for many, many years.”
Passive Solar Orientation
Always keep the sun in mind as it can provide two things we all highly value – warmth and light. A home with its longest dimensions facing south and north is able to capture more sunlight throughout the day than would a building facing primarily east and west. And the more windows that face south, the more warmth and light the home is able to receive. During long summer days, increased sunlight exposure reduces the duration lights must be on and during shorter winter days the home collects valuable amounts of thermal heat.
Architectural firms like K.H. Webb Architects play a large role in giving customers direction on how to best site their building. “We like to look at a building site and think about how the house can be laid out,” says principal architect Kyle Webb. “Because of the beautiful open spaces of our area, it usually is not very difficult to orient a home to achieve maximum solar gain.”
“It really isn’t much more expensive to build ‘green,’” notes Webb. “Buying more materials locally, using recyclable materials, low VOC (volatile organic compounds) paints and stains, and having superior insulation in walls and ceilings will go a long way toward making a building green.”
Use Energy Efficiently
The largest consumer of energy in an alpine home is typically heating. And there are many ways to heat a home. One design that has been around for a while but has only recently been gaining in popularity is radiant in-floor heating, which utilizes a series of tubes (usually a high-grade thermoplastic) to distribute hot water, and therefore heat, from underneath a home’s floor. Because radiant in-floor systems can deliver heat at a lower fluid temperature than would a hot water baseboard system, the boiler doesn’t work as hard and less natural gas or propane will need to be used.
Sandy Treat of Summit Habitats, an Edwards-based custom home building company specializing in contemporary mountain modern homesteads, prefers using radiant in-floor heating because of the obvious benefits to the homeowner. “You want to pass along the lowest possible operating costs to the owner of the building. Radiant in-floor heating is a great way to accomplish that,” says Treat.
Summit Habitats is currently working on a housing development in Edwards called The Pointe. Treat explains that, “by creating homes that utilize passive solar orientation, native landscaping, quality insulation, old growth forest timbers, and efficient heating systems, we are creating a green development that will be a great asset to the Edwards community.”
Make Your Own Energy
Modern renewable energy systems are efficient, reliable, and incredibly easy to install. And with the variety of tax rebates and incentives available in Colorado today, they have also never been less expensive. Most Valley homes have enough room on a south-facing roof to take advantage of the sun’s powerful rays. A small photovoltaic (PV) system can provide 25 to 50 percent of a single-family home’s electricity consumption while a solar thermal system can heat the home’s water.
Wind and hydroelectric turbines become practical for larger, private homesites and can generate enough electricity to completely power the home from year to year.
Renewable energy systems, especially solar, are easy to integrate into the façade or roof of a home with little or no visual impact — a long-standing impediment to their widespread use. “The technology is at a point today where it can literally be built into a structure,” notes Kyle Webb of K.H. Webb Architects. “From an architect’s standpoint, this is a very good thing.”
Contact Information
Arrigoni Woods:
www.arrigoniwoods.com
970-479-1800
K.H. Webb Architects:
www.khwebb.com
970-477-2990
Summit Habitats:
www.summithabitats.com
970-926-1743
