Why Buy High Performance?
There are many factors that affect the purchase of a new home. Due to rising energy costs and severe weather pattern increases, Land Planners & Associates, Inc. decided to look at new building technologies that could off-set these ever changing factors. The result is a stronger, more sustainable, and efficient living structure designed to withstand wind speeds of 160mph and use up to 50% less energy than a home built to today’s minimum building standards. The 160 Series home is our high performance solution.
Are Minimum Building Standards Good Enough For You?
A high performance home can be defined as one that has systems that have been designed / engineered to assure a home is healthy, comfortable, energy efficient, durable and environmentally responsible. Building a home to minimum building standards will not reach all of these goals. If a consumer purchased a high end vehicle, they would expect that it would keep them safe in the event of an accident, comfortable on long trips, reliable (low maintenance and repair costs) and consume gas efficiently as to keep operating costs down. This same concept can be applied to your home as well. In the event of a hurricane one should expect that their home is going to keep their family and all their life long possessions safe. One should also expect that their home will provide comfort (high indoor air quality), with low maintenance (sustainable materials), and operate efficiently as to lower your operating costs. The following is an explanation of all the systems that we have included in our homes to make our high performance home the right choice for you.
General Construction Features That Create High Performance Results
Concrete Walls - Structural
The 6” thick Cast in Place (CIP) concrete walls have many advantages including durability, strength, low waste, air tight and good thermal mass properties. Concrete is the world’s most widely used building material and serves as the foundation for nearly all skyscrapers, bridges, overpasses and dams. Our exterior concrete wall system is achieved by pumping 3000psi concrete into reusable, aluminum forms that are placed over the outer edge of the monolithic slab. Steel reinforced footers are tied into the steel rebar in the wall, which is tied into the wire mat that runs around the perimeter of the house. When the forms are removed, you’re left with a continuous, solid, seamless, and air tight wall. Testing by the University of Florida shows that this wall system can withstand wind-borne debris at 200 miles per hour.
Concrete Walls - Energy Efficiency
Conventional concrete block wall systems fall short of the many benefits that solid concrete walls provide, including good thermal mass properties and effective air tightness. Both of these properties increase the efficiency of a home. Thermal Mass is a property that enables building materials to absorb, store, and later release significant amounts of heat. The denser a material is, the better the thermal properties will be. The 3000psi concrete exterior wall system used to construct our homes is consistently very dense and will absorb energy slowly and hold it for much longer periods of time than do less massive materials. This delays and reduces heat transfer, allowing heat to be absorbed during the hot days and cool by natural ventilation during the night. When outdoor temperatures are at there peak during the day, the inside of your home will remain cool because the heat has not penetrated the massive wall. In order to further the efficiency of the wall system, an insulation membrane (performance R-value of 14) with a radiant barrier on each side is installed on the interior of the wall and all joints are taped to minimize warm air infiltration.
Air impermeability is important for keeping warm, humid air from penetrating your building envelope. Any type of air leak in your building envelope will bring in air and moisture, both of which you do not entering your building envelope uncontrolled. With conventional fiberglass or blown insulation, as air movement increases, insulation performance decreases and the same correlation is true with moisture. Concrete become air tight at 3” in thickness so all the 6” concrete exterior walls of our homes are air tight.
Engineered Roof Trusses
The engineered roof trusses are designed to withstand 160mph winds and are connected to the wall system by a hurricane strap that is anchored in the concrete wall. In most Florida homes the attic area has very little storage space and is considered mostly wasted space. By using engineered roof trusses we are able to add unfinished, semi-conditioned storage areas above the living area at a very low cost.
Open-Cell Spray Foam Insulation / Sealed Attic Space Structural Benefits
During hurricane conditions, if a roof deck fails it could mean a total loss due to water damage, even if only a part of the water proofing roof underlayment fails. When open-cell spray foam insulation (ccSPF) is applied to the underside of the roof sheathing there are many added structural benefits including creating a sealed attic, and increasing the strength of the roof system. In typical vented attics wind can enter the attic area and create uplift on the roof deck often causing the roof to lift off. By creating a sealed attic we can prevent this unwanted internal pressurization of the roof during high wind storms. The sealed attic also blocks wind-blown rain from entering the home through the soffit which was a major cause of damage in the 2004 hurricane season (FEMA Summary Report on Building Performance for 2004 Hurricane Season) There are many other advantages to the sealed attic that will be described in the Energy Efficient Section.
Sealed, Semi Conditioned Attic Space – Energy Efficiency
Adding open cell spray foam insulation to the attic is one of the most significant changes in the design of our homes. This product allows us to create a sealed attic, which has many advantages over the traditional method of venting an attic.
With a typical vented attic, outside air flows through the soffit and ridge vents to cool the radiant heat build up in the attic space. In a vented attic, the typical way to insulate is to blow insulation on the ceiling of the living area. The disadvantages of this method are that air movement and moisture, both of which are introduced to your attic through venting, decrease the performance of blown or fibrous insulation significantly. Also over time this fibrous material has a tendency to compress causing R-values to decrease over time, creating maintenance. Another disadvantage of this traditional method of construction is your air conditioning ductwork is subjected to high temperatures and any leaking vents are wasted energy.
Open-cell spray foam insulation solves this problem of air movement by filling in all crevasses as the product expands, creating a seamless air barrier and restricting moisture transmission into your attic space. Five and a half inches of this product has an R-value of R-20.96 but due to reduced air flow, the performance of this product is similar to an R-60 with a foil barrier. This product does not settle or sag so there is no degradation over time and you will maintain your energy savings for the life of your home. Because the open cell insulation is applied the under side of the roof deck, the thermal envelope of your home is moved and now your duct work and HVAC system can be installed in a semi-conditioned space. This increases the efficiency of the system and allows us to reduce the tonnage of the HVAC system, reducing the amount of energy needed to cool your home.
Impact Resistant Windows
Impact resistant windows provide constant protection for your home and your family during high wind storms in addition to providing security against break-in, theft, and property damage. Windows are a key point of entry for wind-borne debris as they are normally the weakest component of your structure. During a high wind event, roof tiles from neighboring homes, roof sheathing, tree branches, or lawn furniture can become projectiles, being hurled at your home. If a breach in your building envelope occurs, this will cause pressure differences that could cause other components of your home to fail. The key to keeping a building intact during a wind event is to keep your building envelope tight so that water and wind can not enter. Impact windows are a great way to be sure that your homes envelope is secure.
High Wind Load Garage Doors
Garage doors have a large surface area and are usually the largest opening in the exterior envelope of your home. The failure of a garage door could cause a catastrophic failure to other components of your home. During a Category 5 hurricane forces up to 60 Lbs per SQFT can be exerted on your garage door. With a typical two car garage door, (16’ x 8’) that’s 7680 Lbs or 3.84 tons of force. Not only is it important to have a garage door engineered for high winds but it is imperative that the tracks for these doors are bolted into a strong wall system. The garage doors that are included in our 160 series homes are engineered to withstand the pressures from a 160 mph hurricane and are fastened into our 6” cast in place concrete walls to minimize failure to the garage door track system.
Energy Efficient Features That Help Lower Your Operating Costs
HVAC (Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning) / Indoor Air Quality
Indoor air quality is an important factor in creating a comfortable and healthy environment inside your home. The HVAC system or air conditioning system is one of the main components in achieving a high level of indoor air quality. Each of our homes has a professionally designed and sized system to get maximum performance and efficiency. In the 160 Series homes we have choose to use a 15 Seer unit as opposed to the minimum 13 Seer requirement due to operating cost reductions to you, for minimal upgrade cost. We have also added an Energy Recovery Ventilator (ERV) to the HVAC system because of the tight construction. An ERV brings in fresh outdoor air in a controlled system that removes pollutants and humidity and exhausts stale indoor air. The benefits of this system include improved air quality and added comfort through improved humidity control. We have also added a return register in each of the bedrooms to aid in eliminating the “hot room” effect that results from pressure differences from room to room.
Double Pane Low-e Coated Windows
A low-e covering is a very thin layer of clear metallic oxide that is applied to the window for preventing heat and UV rays from passing through the glass. This aids in keeping up to 40% less solar heat from entering your home. This coating also prevents fading on fabric window coverings or furniture. The windows are also double pane, adding additional benefits including a reduction in sound transmission, and reduced occurrences of condensation.
Insulated Impact Resistant Door Glass
Often entry doors are overlooked when it comes to hurricane protection. When hurricane Charley impacted the west coast of Florida there was substantial damage caused to homes where glass inserts in entry doors had failed and caused internal pressurization. The impact glass that we have included as a standard in our 160 Series entry doors will not let wind borne debris into the building envelope and also serves as great security feature against forced entry.
Gas Tankless Water Heater
Conventional tank water heaters waste energy by constantly heating water, even when you are not using it. The other wasteful characteristic of a tank water heater is as hot water is being used; cold water is being mixed with the hot water, lowering the overall temperature of the out going water. A tankless water heater on the other hand only heats water when hot water is needed and will never run out of hot water. Another advantage to tankless heaters is the 25 year useful life expectancy compared to conventional water heaters 10 year life expectancy.
Gas Appliances (Range, Dryer, and Outdoor Grill Stub Out)
The main advantages of having a gas range are the ability to cook during a power outage and more precise temperature adjustments. In the aftermath of a hurricane, power outages lasting weeks are not uncommon and being able to cook normally is very helpful. Also most professional chefs recommend cooking with gas because the heat is immediate and you are able to control the cooking temperature much more precisely.
Gas heat is instant, and a gas dryer heats the air at a higher temperature than an electric dryer. With gas, you can dry two loads of laundry in about the same time it takes an electric dryer to finish just one load and you will save approximately 6¢ per load.
An outdoor grill stub out near the back porch is also included in our 160 Series homes. This feature is great just for the fact that you don’t have to go fill up your propane tank. Another great benefit from cooking outdoors is the reduced heat in your air conditioned living area.
Summary
The structure of a home consists of many components and systems that are dependant on each other to maintain a tight building envelope. It is essential that the quality of materials and installations are of the highest quality when it comes to protecting your family and all your possessions. All it takes is one of the many components in your home to fail to cause a chain reaction of failures, therefore it is imperative to have back up systems in place to prevent a total loss of structure. Land Planners & Associates, Inc. is dedicated to providing a home with lasting protection from these elements and prevent a traumatic life changing event. Not only is material selection pertinent to the structural strength of a building but also in obtaining a high level of efficiency, performance and sustainability. With the growing concern of Global Warming and the increasing cost of fossil fuels, now is the time to start making a path toward reducing your dependence on expensive fuels that could be harming our planet.
