Plantation Homes -Energy Efficient Residential Community, tour with Chad Giese

Our class went to visit a "green home" builder, Plantation Homes.  They are visiting a green community on the north side of Fort Worth, and all their home communities in the DFW area are "Ecosmart" homes that uses LEED for Homes certification.  I have discussed LEED in other posts, but to get more information on LEED for Homes click here:  http://www.usgbc.org/leed/rating-systems/homes

Chad Giese gave us a tour of a model home and took us to a home construction site to show us some of the features that make these homes "Ecosmart."  They have extra inspections throughout the build process (outside of the standard inspections) that ensure the home is eco-friendly.  In fact, they put so much effort into the process that they can guarantee an energy rating, and electricity costs for heating and cooling the home (it doesn't count if you leave you TV on 24/7!).

They Follow Energy Star 3.0 guidelines (2012), which take things into account such as maximum square footage per bedroom -the first bedroom allows up to 1000 sq ft, and each additional bedroom can add an additional 600 sq ft.

The home installs a radiant barrier, uses concrete siding rather than wood, vinyl windows that do not conduct heat and cold like aluminum windows, Low-E glass and argon filled double pane windows, among many other energy-saving strategies to meed the stringent LEED for Homes guidelines.

Here is a link to Plantation Home's Ecosmart webpage:  http://www.plantationhomes.com/dallas-ft-worth/ecosmart

This chart explains that the average HERS index score for their homes is 67, giving them LEED for Homes certification.  In the year 2000 the average HERS score was around 100 for a typical new home.

Here are some pics from the Model Home: