Homes that use no energy help create savings elsewhere

Sep 30 - The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review

Putting together the equation that adds up to zero in home-energy use has its pluses and minuses.

An efficient home will provide savings in energy bills for many years, but its construction will cost more and its effectiveness will demand discipline in use.

But the concept of net-zero is "becoming the benchmark" that is driving energy-efficient housing plans in this area and the rest of the nation, says Michael Merck, owner of Western Pennsylvania Energy Solutions. That company has built one such home in East Liberty, is working on another next door and is involved in other projects.

The term net-zero can get varying definitions, but it generally refers to a home that puts as much electricity back into the power grid as it uses. For a not entirely electric home, that return is pro-rated to include gas used.

The frequently used Home Energy Rating System sets standards in numbers. For instance, the requirements of law commonly called "code" are rated 100, federal Energy Star is 81 and net-zero, naturally, is 0.

Besides the East Liberty jobs, net-zero also has been reached at a home in Riverside Mews on the South Side and a house established as a test site in Ohio Township.

Net-zero can involve other numbers that are even higher. Brad Oberg is a co-founder and member of the executive team of a group known as IBACOS (Integrated Building and Construction Solutions) headquartered in the Strip District. He says getting to net-zero is a "value-added decision" that is best made in the construction of new homes.

Taking a home to net-zero can involve many building techniques. Some of the most common are many forms of wall and ceiling insulation, well-sealed ductwork, energy-efficient windows, solar-energy systems that generate electricity, and geothermal-heating systems that use heat from the ground.

Oberg estimates it could add $50,000 to an already-energy-efficient $200,000 project.

Ernie Sota, owner of Sota Construction, says the Riverside Mews home his company built sold for $489,000. It probably would have sold for $429,000 otherwise, say he and Diana Lynn from One80 Real Estate in Ross.

It would be more difficult to make an existing home net-zero because duct work, generally, is inefficient and walls are not insulated well enough, nor are they capable of being made that way.

"You can't insulate a Hummer," Sota jokes, comparing an old home to an energy-inefficient vehicle.

Yet, Merck was able to perform such a job on a home in East Liberty. It was an abandoned house he stripped to the shell, adding insulation, better duct work and a solar-thermal system to provide electricity into the grid and hot water into the radiator system.

It was marketed at $299,000 and currently is under agreement..

Merck, however, says it is only "capable of being net-zero." Such success can be reached only when the homeowners are disciplined in their energy use.

"If you have all these lights on and computers running and the TV on, you are going to using more power that you are putting back," he says.

Behavior is "really the No. 1 variable," he says.

Chris Cinker, general manager of S&A Homes, says its expense can make net-zero a less-than-effective marketing tool. Yet, it is the "leading edge of energy efficiency," and stirs interest in such homes, adds the executive of the Centre County firm involved in the building of the test home in Ohio Township and the homes in East Liberty.

"The goal is to find the balance between cost (of the home) and efficiency," he says.

The concept of net-zero also is setting the standard for the federal Department of Energy, says department spokeswoman Lindsey Geisler.

"While some buildings and individual homes achieve 'net-zero' by various definitions, the solutions we are working to develop and deploy are at a broader level -- highly efficient homes and buildings coupled with a diverse clean energy supply for the grid," she says..

The interest in net-zero also is pushing development in other forms of energy efficiency. Sota, for instance, says all of the homes in Riverside Mews at capable of being made net-zero. They have been built with a concentration on the "thermal envelope," meaning walls have been thoroughly insulated and the homes have been made to exchange hot and cold air with geothermal systems.

Such systems are at the heart of the Ohio Township home, IBACOS's Oberg says. The home is being used for studies on heating and cooling in a three-year process of what he calls "simulated occupancy."

He, too, says the best way to go about a net-zero project is to start from the ground-up. Construction contributes 68 percent of the efficiency of a home, he says, with "renewables" such as solar panels and heat systems adding the other 32 percent.

Merck agrees the task of making an existing home net-zero is a difficult one. It demands a completely unoccupied building that can be taken to the shell. That work in East Liberty is making that statement, he says.

"When someone is living in a space like that, you can see what is being done," he says. "You hope then they will pick the low-lying fruit."

David Serbin and Nate Cunningham from East Liberty Development are doing that sort of "picking" in work in their community. Serbin, chief financial officer of the development group, says the focus on energy efficiency in a renewal project on Euclid Avenue has resulted in homes that are at 65 percent better than required by law, the baseline referred to as "code."

Cinker from S&A Homes, which has worked on that group of homes, says such interest in efficiency has steered the company toward its goals. He says it makes homes that are rated at 50 to 60 on the Home Energy Rating System scale.

That interest has been so strong the company has made the standards of the efficient house it once called its E-Home as standard. Cinker says the firm probably will introduce an even-more efficient package next year.

"The cost of net-zero is high," he says, "so, we look to build a house with relatively accessible equipment that operates in an efficient way."

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