USGBC award

Belfast, Maine–October 7, 2011–The GO Home, built by architecture and construction firm G•O Logic LLC, received the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) 2011 LEED for Homes Project of the Year Award, presented at the 2011 Greenbuild International Conference & Expo in Toronto yesterday. According to Nate Kredich, VP of Residential Market Development for USGBC, the award recognizes dedicated leaders for their important contribution to the residential green building community.

The GO Home is rated LEED platinum (USGBC’s highest designation), and is Maine’s first Passive-House-Certified home, a 1500-square-foot elegant and functional model of the German Passive House Standard. The Passive House standard requires 86% improvement on a home’s space heating loads compared to the typically constructed home, which translates into significant financial and environmental savings. Annual heating costs for The GO Home will amount to approximately $300.

The GO Home is rated LEED platinum (USGBC’s highest designation), and is Maine’s first Passive-House-Certified home, a 1500-square-foot elegant and functional model of the German Passive House Standard. The Passive House standard requires 86% improvement on a home’s space heating loads compared to the typically constructed home, which translates into significant financial and environmental savings. Annual heating costs for The GO Home will amount to approximately $300.

“Our aim is to revolutionize home construction standards in North America,” said Matthew O’Malia, Principal of G•O Logic LLC. “The USGBC Project of the Year Award affirms the level of energy performance we’re pursuing, and that is demonstrated by The GO Home: the next generation of housing that maximizes comfort, energy efficiency and cost while providing all of the amenities of a standard home.”

The GO Home combines a broad range of winning features that set the bar for affordable green building, including: a heat-recovery ventilation system rated at 95% efficiency that provides consistent fresh air to the interior; an open floor plan with large, German-built triple-glazed windows; and affordable construction costs of $160 per square foot. For more information, visit: http://www.gologichomes.com.

The TerraHaus was recently featured on the Green Building Adviser in a well written article by Richard Defendorf. The article describes the strict energy requirements of the Passive House standard, as well as the design and the construction necessities to achieve certification. In addition to describing the Passive House energy efficiency requirements, Mr. Defendorf also articulated the other design features of the building:
1. Careful attention to acoustical separation to provide privacy in bedrooms and bathrooms
2. Open design for the kitchen, dining area, and living area
3. Generous mudroom space with “cubbies” for outdoor gear
4. Use of white paint and large windows to increase the feeling of spaciousness
5. Separated shower and toilet facilities for efficient privacy
6. Individual thermostats in each bedroom
7. Good connection to outdoor spaces

To read more: http://www.greenbuildingadvisor.com/blogs/dept/green-building-news/unity-college-s-terrahaus-debut

Bruce Irving, who knows the building business from renovations to new construction, wrote an amusing and insightful article about the pros and cons of German windows, and their use in American buildings. The exceptional craftsmanship and passive house level of energy performance are well know about German windows. Bruce has done a very good job of describing why German windows are amazing, and also what appropriate applications for them might be in this country… If I may quote the article: “They come across the water at a cost, of course– at least double that of typical high-quality American units—and are therefore not for everyone or every house. Just as one wouldn’t want to put Ferrari wheels on a Dodge Dart, and expect the old girl to act like a racer, the windows should match the performance level of the building they’re going into.” An Amusing and accurate comment.

To read the rest of the article please visit page 40 on the following link:

http://perspectivenewengland.com/magazines/perspective-new-england-summer-2011-issue

GO Logic is an architecture, design and construction firm building Passive Houses designed for cold climates. As a design-build firm, the efficiency of project delivery from concept to completion is improved over standard project delivery systems. The result of these efficiencies is a shorter planning and construction period, and a finished product with improved long-term energy performance. These improvements in process and product result in both first-cost and lifecycle savings for the home buyer, saving money on construction and the long-term operating costs for the home.

To demonstrate the investment value in a GO Logic home, we have compared the construction cost and lifetime energy savings of a Passive House vs. a standard built home in today’s dollars. The calculation compares the typical lifetime (30 year) costs of each construction method, taking into account inflation and operating costs.

A Passive House uses only 10% of the energy for space heating of a standard built, code-compliant home. Given The Northeast’s cold climate, this level of energy performance has a significant impact on the life-time energy costs of the home. In standard built construction, the cost of space heating is typically 75% of the total energy used by a home, with the remaining energy balance divided roughly evenly between the domestic hot-water and plug loads. Reducing the space heating demand therefore has the greatest impact on reducing a home’s total energy consumption and related energy costs. In terms of the actual cost savings of space heating on an annual basis, comparing a 1,500 square feet standard built home with a Passive House, the savings for space heating is estimated to be $1,400 per year.

Reducing the space heating demand of new construction in a cold climate has a significant environmental benefit, and if properly designed, a critical first-cost and life-cycle cost savings as well. Because a Passive House’s energy demand for space heating has been reduced by 90%, the resulting heat required to keep the build at 70 degrees is very low (2000 watt peak demand), which allows a Passive House’s traditional heating system to be drastically simplified to a small amount of electric baseboard controlled by a thermostat in each room. The cost to install this simplified heating system is about $500, replacing the standard heating system consisting of a boiler, radiant slab, pumps, fuel tanks, chimney and manifolds, saving around $15,000. The significant financial savings resulting from minimizing the heating systems is reinvested in the building shell improvements, including: walls at R49, foundation at R70, roof at R80 and triple glazed R8 windows and doors. The cost of these improvements is about $30,000. When the cost of the heating systems is subtracted from the building shell improvements, the first cost increase for building a passive house about $15,000, or 7% of the total construction cost. The combination of these improvements, in conjunction with heat recovery ventilation, results in a home with energy costs for space heating at less than $300 per year, with energy costs savings over 30 years of $170,000 (including inflation) which is about 70% of the original cost of construction. Furthermore, on account of the minimized heat load, a 2.8 KW solar electric system and a separate evacuated-tube solar thermal system mounted on the roof will cover the building’s space heating and hot water needs, resulting in a grid tied near zero energy building on an annual basis.

Martin Holladay, writer for the Green Building Adviser, recently visited a small house we are building in Maine. He also visited other projects around the state and weighed in on energy efficient buildings in Maine.

The house on a knoll will be a near passive house level, 1000SF home. The simple roof form and detailing are a great fit for the wooded knoll that it sits on. The primary facade faces east, with large windows overlooking a horse pasture. On the south facade, a large group of three windows faces the entry pathway, providing views of approaching visitors as well as allowing for passive solar gain.

near passive house level home on a hill

http://www.greenbuildingadvisor.com/blogs/dept/musings/job-sites-maine-part-three#comment-31205

Read the article from Village Soup.
>waldo.villagesoup.com/p/356065″>

GO Logic Homes of Belfast Awarded Contract for Passive Solar Residence Hall at Unity College

http://waldo.villagesoup.com/p/354203

http://www.nesea.org/Scripts/googleMaps/detail.php?id=3230

Portland Press Herald’s Tux Turkel toured G·O Logic’s Belfast prototype house and the resulting front-page article is out:

‘Green’ to the Extreme: House May Cut Energy Costs by 90%’

The article reviews some of the fundamental differences between this ‘energy-frugal’ home and standard construction, from foundation to roof and beyond. The house is a model of energy-efficient design, contemporary architecture, high-performance building techniques and exacting standards (LEED and Passivhaus, to name two). Once built, it will be living proof that a self-sustaining home that cuts energy costs by 90% can be beautiful and affordable, too.

Read the full article here

View the article in PDF format

By Matthew O’Malia
Special to Roll Call
June 22, 2009, 5:43 p.m.

Read the Article at the Roll Call

I am a small-business owner and partner in G•O Logic LLC of Belfast, Maine, a design and building company building the next generation of sustainable, energy-efficient homes. So I understand first-hand the importance of investing in clean energy and the importance of Congress strengthening the Clean Energy and Security Act. If we invest in a clean energy economy now, we’ll create millions of jobs and set our country on a track to compete in a 21st century economy. Not only will my small business and thousands of others like mine be able to expand, but all of the local businesses we rely on for manufacturing, shipping, storage and many other tasks will benefit as well.

Buildings consume 40 percent of the energy produced in the United States, more energy than all of the cars on the roads today. And while automobile fuel efficiency is seriously debated as a path to save energy and money, building energy performance has not received as much scrutiny, even though we have the tools and technology to create super-efficient buildings today. A strong renewable electricity standard will mean these tools get used and these jobs created to make our buildings more efficient and begin to build the foundation of an American new energy economy.

G•O Logic has developed home designs that reduce energy consumption by 90 percent for space heating and 80 percent overall. These houses look and feel like custom-designed, conventional homes and are built for average construction costs. The energy efficiency comes from cost-effective design improvements — thicker walls with a lot more insulation, better passive-solar utilization, and an air-tight envelope coupled with a heat-recovery ventilation system. In simple terms, a 90 percent more energy-efficient home saves an enormous amount of money and energy — around $90,000 in heating costs, 22,000 gallons of heating oil, and 285 tons of CO2 over the term of a 30-year mortgage.

A stronger renewable energy standard in the energy bill would provide small businesses, like mine, with an important opportunity to provide quality, energy-efficient housing that people can afford to build and heat and cool. And this opportunity would not just benefit small businesses. It would also create an entirely new market for green jobs that are good-paying, skilled and valuable to the economy. And these are jobs that can never be shipped overseas.

In fact, study after study has shown that investing in clean energy creates jobs, and at a far faster rate than investments in dirty energy sources like oil and coal.

Researchers at the University of Massachusetts found that investments in clean energy produce two to three times as many jobs as investments in dirty energy. The Department of Energy and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory have issued similar findings.

Why settle for half as many jobs when we could have double or even triple?

And don’t forget that creating more energy-efficient homes and businesses will jump-start the local economies in a multitude of ways. Once homes and businesses stop wasting energy, it means more money in people’s pockets. The Department of Energy’s home weatherization program cuts energy costs by an average of 30 percent per home. Those savings will spur consumer spending — helping to create even more jobs.

A strong American Clean Energy and Security Act can open new doors to future green jobs, a green economy and energy security. G•O Logic, among other innovative small businesses, is ready to help lead the way, with the skills and vision necessary to implement this ambitious plan. But we need the help of elected officials. I urge Congress to act now to create a stronger energy bill that will provide the support needed for a strong green economy and a brighter future.

Matthew O’Malia is principal of G•O Logic LLC, a design and building company in Belfast, Maine.

Matthew O’Malia discusses the importance of the current energy policy being debated by the Senate, and how change is necessary to realize the benefits of a green economy and green future!

“Buildings consume 40 percent of the energy produced in the United States, more energy than all of the cars on the roads today. And while automobile fuel efficiency is seriously debated as a path to save energy and money, building energy performance has not received as much scrutiny, even though we have the tools and technology to create super-efficient buildings today. A strong renewable electricity standard will mean these tools get used and these jobs created to make our buildings more efficient and begin to build the foundation of an American new energy economy.”

Read the whole editorial here: http://www.rollcall.com/news/36132-1.html