News
| Green, Greener, Greenest August 11, 2009 By Pete Gleszer Ever since I heard that a windmill-powered, open-air building designed by Mac Walcott had been green-lighted, I'd been looking forward to visiting the site at Equality and Bancroft in Fairhope. By good luck I knew the project manager, Jeremy Friedman. I had first met him in connection with his construction of two "Green" houses - not just "Greenish," but certified solid "Green" by the National Association of Home Builders. This certification has existed for only about a year and Jeremy's company, Kaloosa Builders, is the only one I know of on the Eastern Shore that builds to certification standards.
Prompted by my expression of interest in the project, Jeremy invited me to the site where construction was just starting. When I arrived, Project Manager Friedman was standing by his Range Rover, plans spread out on its hood, ready to describe to me Mac Walcott's vision for the project. It's clear that he is excited about this small building for reasons far beyond the pedestrian purpose for which it is being built. "It's going to be LEED-certified," he announces as the opening of his tutorial. Momentarily put off by my lack of appropriate excitement, he adds, "LEED is "Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design.'" I smile and nod in acknowledgement. "And that means?" Looking up from the plans, he launches. "To get certified, the building has to save energy - not just in utility bills, but in the materials used in the construction. The materials have to be green in their fabrication as well as durable and long-lasting - needing frequent repairs or replacement is not part of being Green." He points to the nearby concrete slab being patched and leveled, "You think you're looking at a typical slab repair job, right?" In response to my nod, he continued. "It isn't. Thirty-five percent of the cement has been replaced by fly-ash - a waste product of scrubbers used to control emissions from coal-fired plants." He went on to explain that in addition to using waste, they're avoiding a good bit of the vast amount of energy needed to produce the cement used in concrete. Right now this material is hard to come by - Reynolds Ready Mix made a special batch of high fly-ash content concrete just for this job - but with demand it could become standard. But the concrete is just a tiny Green beginning. If you've been following the project in news articles, you know that there will be a windmill installed on the lot to provide electrical power. Jeremy noted that it will be similar to the one at LuLu's as both are made by Sky Stream and come from the same Baldwin County-based supplier. Having visited Lulu's when there wasn't enough of a breeze to blow a napkin off our table, much less drive the massive blades of a windmill, I asked about wind availability at the Fairhope site. With the west wind ruffling his hair, Jeremy observed that the location was slightly elevated and had good exposure in all directions. "I've noticed that most of the time I'm on site, there's a pretty good breeze and we expect to be able to power the lights in the building most of the time." A future project, Jeremy suggested, would be the addition of solar panels and some form of energy storage. He went on to explain that although the objective was eventually to become self sufficient - "net zero" - initially the building will require electrical power from the grid. Before leaving things electrical, Jeremy described an electric car-charging station that is planned street-side. This will be a first in the Mobile area and may stimulate demand for these zero-emission vehicles. While the windmill is highly visible, there are other features of the project that are barely noticeable but provide serious Green impact at very little cost. As an example Jeremy explained that there were to be two systems recovering and storing water from the gabled roof. Water from one side will go to a cistern (small recycled silos) providing irrigation for an "edibles" garden. The water stored from the opposite pitch will be used for operating the toilets - a major use of fresh water in conventional buildings. Independent of the roof is yet another water recovery system. This uses gray water (used, but with no health-related contaminants) from the sinks. This water will irrigate an ornamental garden adjacent to the building. Reusing this water lowers demand for treated water and reduces the amount of water entering the sanitary sewers. When they assessed heating and cooling needs, the open-air motif allowed the use of a small system. Small, but with a high-efficiency heat pump coupled to a ground-water loop to provide the heat-exchange medium. Well-water has a near constant temperature winter and summer, so cooling or heating takes place with a reduction in compressor operation time. Exciting stuff. Exciting too that a project that is so different from what standard building codes require was approved. A great deal of the credit goes to Mac and Gina Walcott for both vision and persistence. Credit too goes to the Fairhope City staff who when faced with something way out-of-the box, found ways to say "Yes." This open-air market project is in part a test-bed for techniques and technologies that are expected to reduce costs and environmental impact. It's a great start - one that will lead to a better, Greener future for all of us. |
 |
I toured one of his Green-Certified homes at 7203 Penbridge Avenue in the Meadows of Point Clear and learned a lot about low-environmental-impact building. I also learned that going Green gives up nothing in style and elegance. I suggest seeing this home before it sells. It's a forecast of the future in American home building.
