|
IEH Featured Home - Southwestern Sunset |
|
Featured Home Design:
Southwestern Sunset
Globe, Arizona
- 4 Bedrooms
- 3.5 Baths
- Solar Photovoltaic System
- On Demand Hot Water
- Air Exchange System
- Outdoor Kitchen
- Roof-deck
This southwestern home will feature a Spanish / Mediterranean aesthetic that blends perfectly in the Arizona landscape. An outdoor kitchen and roof-deck create indoor/outdoor living space that takes advantage of the site's views, landscape, and climate. Inside, the layout of the home accommodates a large family and the client requested a matrix of connected rooms that facilitate circulation throughout the home.
The home accomplishes many energy efficient and green goals by incorporating low to no VOC materials, a semi-permeable driveway, rain water reuse, water conserving fixtures and rapidly renewable materials.
|
| MyGreenHomeBlog.com |
|
IEH is proud to support a brand new green home blog! It focuses on all the details of green homes, without the complex jargon. There are articles on everything from improving your home's air quality to living with radiant floors!
|
|
Little Task - Big Benefits: CFLs |
|
 A good way to go green is by starting small. Sure, recycling cans and bottles is a pretty standard practice and throwing away used batteries is no longer a habit of yours, but what about taking it a step further?
Did you know that replacing incandescent bulbs (typical household light bulbs) in your home with compact fluorescent bulbs (aka CFLs) is a small task with big benefits?
According to Energy Star, if every home in America replaced only one bulb we could:
- Light more than 3 million homes for an entire year with the energy saved;
- Save $600 million in annual energy costs; and
- Reduce green house gases equaling the emissions of 800,000 cars.
Replacing the incandescent bulbs in your home with CFLs can make a big difference too. According to Energy Star, CFLs use up to 75% less energy and last 10 times longer than incandescent bulbs, saving about $30 per bulb over its life time. They come in all sorts of shapes and sizes so you don't have to worry about fitting your existing fixtures. And if that's not enough, CFLs produce 75% less heat, something you can be thankful for during the summer months.
Manufacturers even label CFL packaging for those who are use to reading wattage, for example, the package might read 75 Watt Replacement. CFLs can also provide either warm or cool light since not all tasks require the same quality of light. Last but not least, CFLs have come down significantly in price. I just bought a 10 pack of 60 watt equivalent CFLs for $3.49 after rebates!
One concern about CFLs is that they contain a small amount of mercury, which leads to certain disposal requirements. However, according to Wendy Reed, head of Energy Star's CFL program, the amount of mercury in a fluorescent light is actually less than the amount emitted into the environment from an incandescent bulb (see an NPR story about this here). This is true since CFLs use less of the electricity from coal-based power plants, which emit mercury in energy production. Because of the mercury however, proper disposal is required. Energy Star has a great fact sheet on all things CFL and resources for disposal.
So, next time you take out the ladder to switch that burnt-out bulb remember, replacing your old incandescent bulb with a CFL means 13 times you don't have climb back up there.
Estimate your energy savings using Energy Star's light bulb calculator. |
| Healthy House Institute's 14 Point Plan |
The Healthy House Institute has released a list of do's and don'ts for healthy home design and construction. Their 14 point plan highlights a range of aspects to consider, from where you build to what materials you use.
You can find a wealth of information on their website. Read more here! |
| Geographic Expansion of IEH |
 Independence Energy Homes (IEH) is growing, with client interest coming from across the nation and now internationally!
The list continues to grow with the firm's clients for design and consulting now located in the states of Massachusetts, Maine, Vermont, Connecticut, New Hampshire, New York, New Jersey, North Carolina, Florida, Arizona, Texas, Georgia, Oklahoma, Indiana, Idaho, and California.
International locations include Panama, Dominica, Mexico, and now Nigeria!
As interest in healthy, energy efficient homes races to the forefront of popular culture, it's likely that IEH will continue to expand its reach across more of the globe.
Our goal for 2008 is to add clients in 10 more states and 5 more international countries. You can help make this happen by spreading the word about IEH. Thanks for supporting the IEH Team! |
| Inhabitat Feature Article |
In preparation for the recent 2007 Solar Decathlon, the green design blog, Inhabitat.com just completed a feature story on the 2005 Cornell Solar Decathlon design, originally created large part by the founders of IEH. The design received 2nd place in the 2005 Decathlon competition with many progressive technologies and aesthetically pleasing features.
|
| Our CEO Speaks |
|
Renewable Energy Summit
Independence Energy Homes CEO, David Wax, was chosen to speak at The New England Council Congressional Summit at Suffolk Universities Law School. Congressman, John Olver, chose Wax to be on the Green Construction panel and speak as an expert to Members of Congress about his field of work.
Sixteen New England Congressmen discussed alternative energy and previewed upcoming energy legislation. More about the Renewable Energy Summit.
Cyberposium
Independence Energy Homes CEO, David Wax, will also be speaking at the Cyberposium at Harvard Business School on November 10th. The event is a well-known conference encouraging the exchange of ideas between current and future business leaders of the technology sector. Wax will speak on the debate over clean technology.
| |
