Drive for green homes hits area

The drive for energy efficiency is hitting home in Omaha, Lincoln and around the Midlands.

Spurred by a desire to go green and save money on their utility bills, owners of existing homes and people building new houses are upgrading their homes' energy efficiency. Insulation is in, along with Energy Star appliances and higher-rated furnaces.

Now two major federally funded initiatives are giving local efforts a boost.

Wednesday, a partnership led by the University of Nebraska-Lincoln researchers announced that it would team with Hearthstone Homes and other Omaha and Lincoln home builders to engineer practical but high-impact energy upgrades. The research initiative could be worth $2.5 million per year over the next 4½ years.

By early 2011, the Cities of Omaha and Lincoln plan to start rolling out a $10 million program to retrofit 3,200 homes in the two cities with new insulation, furnaces, appliances or even shade trees.

In Omaha, the program will start by targeting a zone between 16th and 36th Streets, from Leavenworth to Lake Streets.

Also in Omaha, a Green Neighborhood Council is operating. The Environment Omaha initiative, led by the City of Omaha and Omaha By Design, is looking at proposing building regulations to drop the energy use on new and existing homes.

In Iowa, a model of green building in Corning is aiming to show how even affordable housing can be energy-efficient.

Home builders independently are becoming certified green builders and aligning with the Energy Star program. Real estate agents are becoming certified green professionals.

The upgrades come with a price, although government programs often help to cover the costs. But real estate agents and home builders say consumers are becoming more willing to pay up to save money on the back end.

“The initial cost does hurt,” said Kendra Terlson, who built a new home in Papillion's Savannah Shores subdivision with a geothermal heating and cooling system, energy-efficient windows and a corn-based carpet.

“It's so worth it as far as health and the paybacks in the long run — just better for the environment in general.”

According to a 2010 survey from the National Association of Home Builders, energy-efficient items rank high on home buyers' want list. The top 10 features builders planned to include in homes included an insulated front door, “low-E” windows, a programmable thermostat and energy-efficient appliances and lighting.

In a 2009 survey of buyers co-sponsored by the builders' association, 91 percent of respondents said they preferred an energy-efficient home with lower utility bills over a cheaper home without such features.

The partnership announced Wednesday is meant to bring more energy-efficient ideas to market.

“The results will benefit people nationwide,” said Prem Paul, UNL's vice chancellor for research and economic development.

The “Building Energy Efficient Homes for America” initiative will involve UNL's College of Engineering, Omaha's Durham School of Architectural Engineering and Construction and University of Florida researchers.

In addition to Hearthstone, participants also include nonprofit builder Holy Name Housing, Rezac Construction of Lincoln, Excite! Builders of Greenwood, Neb., and more than 10 other partners in Nebraska, Florida and Dallas. Holy Name, Rezac and Excite! all are recognized as certified green builders through the Nebraska Energy Office and Nebraska State Home Builders Association.

Jonathan Shi, a professor of architectural engineering and construction for UNL, said the team will explore ways to improve heating and cooling efficiency and an existing home's insulation. Other studies will look at ways to install lower-cost renewable energy systems and create a market for retrofitting existing homes with the new systems.

Shi said solar panels might be an area where the researcher-homebuilder collaboration could make a difference.

He said, for example, that a single homeowner would spend up to $10,000 to install a 1-kilowatt solar panel, but Hearthstone operates on a large enough scale that it could install a 4-kilowatt panel on a home for $12,000. That size panel would cover half the energy needed to run a home.

The project is aiming to offer changes that would cut energy use by 20 to 30 percent.

“There's a lot of technology out there that can save energy,” Shi said, “but they've not been fully deployed on actual homes.”

Hearthstone, which builds homes with an Energy Star qualified rating, already has been working with the university. The company's energy-efficiency shift involves thicker exterior walls that allow for more insulation, tighter ductwork and higher-efficiency heating and cooling systems and windows.


The company is looking into incorporating solar technology into the new homes it builds, said Scott Kinkaid, Hearthstone vice president of innovation. He said the company's goal is to have $20 monthly gas and electric costs for a home.

Kinkaid said customers are paying attention to energy efficiency more than ever, and company officials are excited about working with the researchers.

“All the great ideas on a computer don't mean anything if people aren't going to purchase them,” Kinkaid said.

According to the Energy Department, the new research projects are meant to support a project announced this year that is aimed at retrofitting existing homes with more efficient systems. The Cities of Omaha and Lincoln, considered partners in the research effort, in April received $10 million to start the retrofit program.

Kristi Wamstad-Evans, Omaha's sustainability coordinator, said the three-year project could start enrolling participants in January, perform energy audits on homes in February and start upgrading by spring.

How the funding will work for an individual is still to be determined. But Wamstad-Evans said it could involve grants, product rebates or loans.

A variety of rebates from federal and state governments and area utilities has people thinking about energy upgrades, said Nadia Anderson, an assistant professor of architecture at Iowa State's College of Design. Energy-efficient systems, she said, also have become more affordable in recent years.

In Corning, Iowa State is collaborating on a project to build a $120,000 green home. One of the goals is to show how basic improvements, such as orienting the house to take advantage of the sun or installing a good building envelope, can make a big difference, Anderson said.

Todd Menard, owner of Omaha's Menard Construction, which is building Energy Star certified homes, said customers increasingly are asking for energy upgrades with lower utility costs in mind.
“That's a huge monthly payment,” he said. “If we can continually whittle away at that, that's going to give you more money in your pocket.”

Sharon Blackburn, whose home in Omaha's Loveland neighborhood will be on the Oct. 2 Green Homes Tour, said Omaha had little talk about green homes just two years ago, but the conversation now has picked up.

She and her husband built a home that took green design to the extreme: geothermal heat and air, soybean-based blown-in insulation, all fluorescent or LED lights, low-flow faucets and showers and a long list of other features. The home attained the rare LEED Gold certification for its environmental rating.

“Everybody can retrofit in some way,” she said. “There's a lot of ideas in the house that can be used.”

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