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Indoor Environmental Quality
Ahhh....I definitely have a sense of satisfaction from moving on to the next, big, penultimate section. Indoor Environmental Quality encompasses the healthy home piece that was, and continues to be, our number one priority. While it does not address everything (some...
“What do you get for LEED for Homes?”
In my effort to track down which of our home's materials can be classified as "local," I have been speaking on the phone to many, many of the subcontractors that helped build our house. I tell them we are going for LEED certification, and they have generally been...
MR 3 – Waste Management
This third and final component of the Materials & Resources section attempts to ensure that homes generate less waste than the industry norm. Reducing construction waste is just like trying to reduce waste as we live in our home. It has two components: planning...
MR 2 – Environmentally Preferable Products (local)
This, the third piece of the credit that tackles material choices, awards points for choosing products that have been extracted, harvested, recovered or manufactured locally. What is local? For LEED purposes, it means within 500 miles of the project site -- and...
MR 2.2 – Environmentally Preferable Products (low emissions)
Continuing with the same credit from my previous post, LEED for Homes awards points for selecting materials with low emissions. You know that new home or office smell? It's not good for you! Many people report head aches or respiratory illnesses after moving into...
MR 2.2 – Environmentally Preferable Products
This credit by itself could put an interior designer to work for a while. It incorporates the showier, meatier essence of green homes. We spent a majority of our time on these decisions, and most questions I get from friends revolve around materials choices....
MR 2.1 – FSC-Certified Tropical Wood
This LEED for Homes credit is a prerequisite, requiring that if any tropical wood is used, it must be FSC-Certified. Wood is considered tropical, in the LEED for Homes definition, if it is grown in a country that lies between the Tropics of Cancer and Capricorn. ...
MR 1.2 to 1.5 – Material-Efficient Framing
I am grouping the next 4 sub-sections into one post because they are all about the same thing: efficient framing; each one does not warrant a separate discussion. For 1.2 Detailed Framing Documents, we need to have detailed framing plans or scopes of work and...
MR 1.1 – Framing Order Waste Factor Limit
The credit is a prerequisite, and requires that we limit the overall estimated waste factor to 10% or less. Waste factor is defined as the percentage of framing material ordered in excess of the estimated material needed for construction. I have had to re-read this...
Materials & Resources
The choice of building materials entered almost every discussion during the design and construction of our home. From LEED for Homes standpoint, material choices can have a huge impact on the environment due to the extraction, processing, and transportation they...
EA 11 – Refrigerant Management
This credit, the final one in the Energy & Atmosphere section, is required for both the prescriptive and performance pathways, so we can begin accumulating more points again. The purpose of this credit is to both ensure proper air conditioning performance as...
EA 10 – Renewable Energy
This credit, only for the prescriptive pathway (it is modeled in the performance pathway), awards up to ten points for generating electricity on-site through renewable energy sources. It is important to note that passive solar designs must be modeled and can take...
Photo credit: Paul Crosby