Getting LEED-H Certification
I am interested in buying a multi-family that will probably need a substantial renovation. I hope to not have to replace the heating system, ex-the boiler, some flooring, and whatever plumbing or electrical that I can. I am interested in LEED-H certification and wonder if anyone has had any experience with this? How does it…
I am interested in buying a multi-family that will probably need a substantial renovation. I hope to not have to replace the heating system, ex-the boiler, some flooring, and whatever plumbing or electrical that I can. I am interested in LEED-H certification and wonder if anyone has had any experience with this? How does it work? I imagine it may cost more, but how much more per sq ft given the scope of work described? Also would like to know if there are City/State/Federal tax credits or financing available for a LEED-H project. Thanks….
pig three,
You have a point. My bad. I’m trying to save up for LEDs but it could be a while… just built a house!
pig three,
If you’re out there, I’m trying to reach you.
solarnyc@nycsolar.org
-SteamMan
erindowling,
was really loving and agreeing with your post right up to the cfl remark. Boo. One of the biggest “green” misconceptions going. clfs need to be outted like Al Gore was with his false, incomplete and manipulated statistics.
My husband and I built a LEED silver home last year, managing the process ourselves without a LEED architect, but with the help of Conservation Services Group (the LEED rater). We had the experience of a few antique renovations under our belt as well. I must tell you that the process is do-able, however:
1. Retrofitting an existing structure will make LEED difficult. Much of the point structure surrounds issues of the building envelope (exterior structure, quality of insulation, tightness of dwelling). Old buildings were not built with this in mind, and if you’re hoping to hold onto anything original on exterior walls and roof, it will be tricky to pass the “puffer test.”
2. It’s not LEED that gives you the payback. Many of the items (such as efficient plumbing/hot water, good insulation, safe wiring, clean heat) are things that will pay for themselves in a few years. The government gives you large tax credits only for large expenditures such as solar and geothermal. Smaller items such as windows cap out at $1500 which is, as we know, a drop in the bucket with these sorts of projects.
3. Look into Energy Star. This low-hanging fruit will give you various rebates for such things as gas hot water heaters, appliances, and even (god forbid) furnaces. It does not involve a sophisticated series of submissions and checks and will give you the end result you want.
You can still build green, using salvage materials and having a very cool dwelling for a lot less trouble. Good luck and I’ll keep my CFL burning in the window for you.
Denton –
Re your brownstone:
It really depends on the situation.
It seemed like the post had to do with a multi-family (which could still be very narrow but not necessarily).
Back to your brownstone:
Are your sidewalls adiabatic (in other words: are they exposed to the exterior or are they common to your neighbor?)
If they are common walls, you really don’t need to insulate – you can’t lose heat to your neighbor if you are both heating (70 degree air next 70 degree air = no heat/coolth loss). If its an independent wall (small space) you’d need to insulate the gap at the perimeter but this is a detailed conversation we don’t need to get into here.
The concept of Passive House actually works really well with multifamily, because you tend to increase the interior volume of the building in proportion to the exterior (heat loss) surface area.
In the first NYC brownstone Passive Houses, the difficult bit has been meeting the air tightness criteria (incredibly stringent – difficult for a porous retrofit), but at least there are now examples for the rest of us…
As an aside, my office is doing a new building Passive House in NYC (which is also going for LEED). For us, LEED is a cumbersome and costly pat on the back. Essentially, we’re spending a ton of hours and cost documenting what we wanted to do anyway…
I wish I could tell you the tax credits would overcome the renovation costs but based on the description of your renovation here I don’t think you will want to go down the LEED-H road. I am building in Brooklyn right now LEED-H and the major cost (as someone else mentioned) is the LEED-H consultant who serves as your connection to USGBC. You can’t really do it without the consultant and the cheapest quote I got was for $15,000.00 and that was a great deal.
I would focus on Energy-star appliances, good windows, improved insulation, etc and save as much as you can on energy costs. That is probably the best use of money at the end of the day.
Good luck.
young_arch, you would get at least a $1500 federal credit for the windows…
Correct me if I’m wrong, but isn’t the problem with passiv house in Brooklyn the width of the houses? My house is 16′, add a foot of insulation on each side and I’m approaching bowling alley territory.
If you can renovate and get a Passive House certification your heating/ cooling bills should be very small, as young archi noted there are other benefits as well. We are currently designing a 1,000 sqft signle family home in Washington DC and the target for annual heating and cooling costs is about $400. It can basically be heated with a hair dryer.
Dr. Feist is speaking next Tuesday at Cooper Union, he is an expert on the certification, and I beleive created the software that is used for planning a Passive House (if not hte desing method itself).