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Cabin Creek Timber Frames
Green Structures We Build:
Green Buildings and Energy Conservation Buildings use 37%
of the total energy consumed each year in the US. Most old ones
and many new ones are quite inefficient.
Green building
means quality building. More specifically, it means achieving
durability, efficiency, and sustainability. A building does not
become green by using local wood, VOC free paint, or an Energy
Star refrigerator. These are unequivocally good, but there is
much more to being green. A large part, perhaps the greater
part, of being green is achieving efficiency in conservation of
energy, or maintaining a low cost of heating, cooling, and
powering a building over a period of years. This is mainly
accomplished by using very efficient insulation: structural
insulated panels, or SIPS. |
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For a decade now, our company, Cabin Creek Timber Frames,
has been building green residences and commercial buildings.
Recently, rating systems have become popular, such as the LEED
and HERS (home energy rating system) which projects the
efficiency (the cost of powering, heating and cooling) of a
building based on the plans alone. There is no provision in HERS
for rating buildings built before 2005 when the system came into
use, even though some very efficient buildings were already
being built.
Residence: Recently, when one of our
houses (SIPS/timber frame), built before the HERS requirements
were in place, was compared with the imaginary all electric
reference house using the HERS system, our actual house was
projected to use 86% of the energy of the reference house. When
our actual costs of heating, cooling, and powering were compared
with the ideal reference house, ours required 59% of the
projected reference house energy use.
Commercial
building: Our office (SIPS/timber frame) and beamery (metal
building) complex, 9256 square feet, was recently evaluated by a
professional engineer who compared a reference electric
office/manufacturing complex with ours, looking particularly at
the efficient use of power. With our use of waste wood (carbon
neutral) in our detached furnace to heat the entire complex with
radiant floor heating, our costs were 43% of the predicted
electric building group, producing a savings of $9000 per year.
Timber
frame buildings with SIPS panels are inherently efficient. They
commonly cost one half as much to heat and cool as equally
R-rated fiberglass/stud wall structures. The use of SIPS is far
from rocket science, but most general contractors are reluctant
to employ them.
From a purely practical standpoint, it
makes good financial sense to spend the extra money initially to
build a more efficient building in light of the decreased costs
of operating and the rising cost of fuel. Also, there are
federal, state and municipal tax deductions available, some
substantial.
CABIN CREEK TIMBER FRAMES
828-369-5899
6624 Georgia Road Franklin, NC 28734
www.cabincreektimberframes.com
jbell@cabincreektimberframes.com
Sips.org
Suretight.com
Hers or Home Energy Rating System
www.energy.ca.gov/HERS/index.html
www.healthybuilthomes.org
Energy Star www.energystar.gov
LEED
www.usgbc.org
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