Located on Strafer Street, Greenarama 2011 will run through Sunday and open again June 24-26. On Thursday, local Realtors will get a sneak peek inside the homes during a private preview.
Show homes boast energy efficient appliances and operating systems, green designs and the latest products used in sustainable home building. Home prices range from just above $400,000 to more than $500,000. As of Thursday, five homes had been sold.
An eighth, unfinished exhibit home will be open for tours during which attendees can learn about products used during construction and the interior workings of a green home.
Columbia Tusculum was tapped for Greenarama because of its close location to downtown and because many builders involved in the show have built green homes in the neighborhood.
"What's unique about this is, it's an environment where you have six competitive builders that are coming together, sharing information and new technologies to promote the green building movement," said Andrew Riffe, president of Greenarama.
His Hyde Park-based firm Andrew James Builders has built seven green homes elsewhere in Columbia Tusculum.
"All of the builders are very passionate about green building and educating the public," he said.
Other builders include: Mt. Lookout-based Black Diamond Construction Co.; Anderson Township-based Carroll Customer Builders Inc.; Anderson Township-based Mann Daly Homes, LLC; and Columbia Tusculum-based Pinnacle Custom Building Group, Inc.
Each home is pursuing Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design certification from the U.S. Green Building Council. The program rates and verifies green features inside a home as well as green practices used during construction.
From geothermal heating and cooling units, to decks made of recycled composite materials and high performance insulation that can save up to 50 percent on energy bills, the products and systems featured in each of the show homes are designed to increase energy efficiency and reduce the amount of waste produced during the home's construction.
In the 2,500 square foot show home built by Pinnacle, the builder included hardwood floors made by Georgia-based Shaw Flooring, which uses 50 percent less newly harvested wood than conventional wood flooring. The flooring includes an inner-core that uses wood fiber by-products that typically are burned or put into landfills in other manufacturing processes.
The builder also included a home electricity management system, called The Energy Detective, which collects real time data on the energy being used in the home which can be reviewed and controlled remotely with a smart phone.
"If you're in Florida, you can look at your phone and realize that you left some lights on," said Brad Olinger, a principal at Pinnacle. "You see exactly how much electricity you're using per hour and what it's costing you."
Priced at $439,000, the home has already been sold. It's the sixth home that Pinnacle has built that is poised to land LEED certification, Olinger said.
"The best part about the LEED program is that it includes (energy efficient) practices that we've been using for awhile and verifies their benefits for the homeowner by using a third party," he said.
Another key component of Greenarama is to raise awareness about the city of Cincinnati's 15-year property tax abatement for newly built LEED certified homes valued up to $546,000.
In addition to saving on utility bills and maintenance thanks to the energy efficient upgrades for each home, buyers of the Greenarama homes will save in excess of $100,000 over the lifetime of the tax abatement, said James Van Curen of Andrew James Builders.
"It's a great deal," he said. "Plus, the tax abatement is transferable to any new buyer if you sell the home within that 15 year-window."
All told, organizers expect up to 5,000 attendees over the course of the two weekends. Tickets for Greenarama are $10 each, with proceeds going to the Cincinnati Scholarship Foundation.
