What is a green, high performance house and why build it with SIPS?

“Green, high performance, healthy house, SIP house”, we hear these terms all the time, but what do they mean? What should the consumer receive if they build or purchase a green, high performance home? Would the environment be the only reason to consider building a green, high performance home? What makes a home Green and High Performance? I’m sure we all want to be responsible to the environment, conserve energy and other natural resources, but how much additional is all of this going to cost me? Can I afford it?

If you are going to build or purchase a new home, there are many reasons to look beyond the initial price tag, and only build or purchase a green, high performance home constructed with structural insulated panels (SIP). In fact, you may find out that you cannot afford to build any other way.

When you build a green, high performance home, you are not only helping the environment, but you are helping every occupant that will live in that home. There are many benefits to building a green home that reach way beyond lowering the carbon footprint and saving money on monthly electric bills. What about the health and safety of your loved ones?

Green built, high-performance homes are healthy homes. They are constructed with sustainable materials that contain no or very low VOC’s (volatile organic compounds). Green building materials and construction methods help in reducing allergens and triggers for asthma and other chemical sensitivity health issues. Many traditionally constructed homes contain building materials with harmful levels of chemicals that continually off gas into the living environment. This off gassing has been linked to asthma, allergies, cancer, liver and many other health related problems. Proper ventilation of a home to remove any indoor contaminations is an important step in making sure that healthy indoor air quality is maintained.

Green building goes beyond energy efficiency and low carbon footprints to provide the user with a healthy living environment for the safety of all occupants. Green, high-performance structures are energy efficient, utilize sustainable materials, have better ventilation and moisture control than a traditionally constructed home. High performance features for increasing air quality like ultraviolet germicidal irradiation, HEPA and ULPA filters and other systems can be added to the return air to remove particles, allergens and even mold spores suspended in the interior living environment. These contaminants are known for depleting the occupant’s immune system daily, making them more susceptible to viruses and other diseases. Even ceiling fans are being equipped with UV air disinfection technology to help eliminate air borne pathogens and increase the quality of air inside built environments.

The most important benefit to building a green high-performance home is the health and safety of your family. There are many other benefits, but health and safety of our loved ones must rank right up there at the top of the list!

Structural Insulated Panels (SIPs) are one of the most efficient construction systems for producing energy efficient healthy green homes and light commercial structures. Homes constructed with SIPs can eliminate unhealthy wall cavities and attic spaces which are nothing more than living areas for insects, rodents, mold growth and other unhealthy contaminations.

Using magnesia SIP interior walls as well can eliminate almost all wall cavities, and create a very tight, quiet and well insulated home. Think of how much easier it would be to control rodents and insects if there were no attic space or wall cavities providing them with safe harbor inside the home.

The InnovaPanel® is a magnesia cement structural insulated panel that has many benefits over common building materials. The benefits of magnesia cement alone include added fire resistance, does not mold, not affected by termites and according to research, is one of the only carbon negative building materials available. Having this type performance and building material is an added benefit to the performance of any home, but like everything else comes at a cost. Interior magnesia SIP walls will add about $3 a square foot to the price of the average home when compared to uninsulated frame and drywall interior partitions found in most homes. 

SIPS with magnesia cement skins are the next generation of SIPs and have many benefits over traditional wood-based SIPs, while providing all the benefits of being one of the most energy efficient building systems available to builders. 

Buildings constructed with SIP structures have air tight “building envelopes” which eliminate unhealthy air and moisture infiltration into the living environment. Leaky homes are unhealthy homes as water vapor, dust, mold and other outdoor containments can migrate into wall cavities and other areas of leaks in the envelope, all of which can and will affect indoor air quality over time.

An airtight structure gives the designer complete control over the volume and quality of fresh air entering and bad air leaving the living area. The designer has many choices at their disposal to enhance interior air quality inside a tight building envelope. In addition to advanced filtration systems, humidity control should be incorporated into the ventilation system, most importantly in humid environments. Humidistats should be used in place of a thermostat in order to control the humidity levels inside the home below 50%. Excess humidity inside a structure can create unhealthy conditions and increase insect activity. In hot weather, occupants inside a home with a well-balanced system will be more comfortable at higher temperatures when humidity and air volume are controlled and evenly distributed throughout the home.

Humidity can also be created by living conditions such as taking showers, cooking, drying clothes and other daily activities, which makes having a proper ventilation system an important factor in maintaining healthy indoor air qualify. In fact, SIP envelopes are so tight and well insulated that proper heating and cooling can be achieved with smaller units with lower operating cost. Units should be down sized, and the mechanical design focus should be on healthy ventilation and filtration of the living areas.

SIPs structures offer continuous insulation and will maintain comfort level temperatures for longer periods of time than traditional stick frame or brick and mortar buildings. In comparison, an airtight SIP envelope will reduce overall heating and cooling cost by more than 50% due to the efficiency of the insulated system and the air tightness of the structure.

According to a report to California’s Sustainable Building Task Force, “the total financial benefits of green buildings are over 10 times the average initial investment required to design and construct a green building. Without considering any of the other benefits, energy savings alone over time can far exceed the additional cost associated with building a green high-performance home with SIPs.

This would seem reasonable considering that the average electrical bill in Florida for a single-family home is approximately $130 a month before taxes. A 1400 sf InnovaPanel® high performance certified green, single family SIP home averages $35 electrical cost a month before taxes. This is over $1200 a year savings with taxes, more than $15,000 in just 10 years, and more than $130,000 over 30 years with 5.5% compounded interest; funds you would have instead of paying it to the Utility Company. Are you still worried about the cost? Maybe the proper question is what is the cost of “NOT” building or purchasing a certified green, high performance SIP home? 

With a high performance deign, we can include solar panels, low voltage lighting, a high-performance heating and cooling system, on demand hot water, and the electrical bill can all but be eliminated.

Homes in the US tend to outlast most commercial buildings with the average single-family home being almost 40 years old. Many of these homes, even some of the newer ones have leaky structures, mold, insufficient ventilation systems and were constructed with high VOC building materials, creating unhealthy indoor living conditions. Home buyers are asking more questions today about the chemicals contained in the materials used in the construction of the homes they purchase. You must consider what the consumer trends may look like 5 or 10 years down the road, with consumers demanding full disclosure, laws could and are changing.  

Consumer labeling, and disclosure laws have the potential to change the value of residential real estate almost overnight, which could be financially devastating or a windfall, depending on which side of the coin your on. Many states like Alaska, Oregon, New York, Kansas, South Dakota and some cities in California and Texas already have some form of mandatory energy disclosure and or labeling disclosure program for residential sales and rentals. There is a huge push among consumer groups for ingredient disclosure in all products including building materials, with California and New York leading the way, enacting new laws focusing on chemicals in cleaning products right now.

Public awareness of VOC’s in many common building materials will eventually require disclosure labels for new and older homes, and these requirements could be just around the corner. Once these requirements become law, real estate appraisers will start taking the labeling disclosures into account and the amount of energy usage, toxic materials used to build the home and other possible disclosures will greatly affect the appraised values of these homes and could result in required remediation before the home could be sold. Older homes built with materials known to contain toxins will greatly devalue almost overnight. Even newer homes, built with traditional methods, homes using 30%, 50% and more energy every month than a certified green, high performance house may also find appraisal values 30%, 40% … lower than a certified green high-performance SIP home. There are many studies that already show that green certification labeling of homes has increased new home sales prices 6% – 10%.

There are millions of homes in America, and more built everyday that have leaky, damp, drafty and mold infected structures affecting our health and well-being. Einstein once said, "Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." We must change the way we build and the materials we use to build if we want different results.

So, what’s the value of building a high-performance, certified green SIP home? Your family’s health and welfare! Your safety! Your comfort! Your wallet!

Green high-performance building “PAYS You” it doesn’t “COST You” over time! Can you really afford to build any other way?

With an InnovaPanel® SIP home, you can live clean and healthy while reducing your carbon footprint and saving more of your hard-earned money.

* A certified green built home is a home certified by one of the recognized Green Building Programs such as US Green Building Council, Florida Green Building Coalition, Green Globes, LEED for Homes and others. Certification involves review and inspection verification of materials used and can only occur during the construction process. These certifications could prove invaluable in the future should a residential home labeling system be required for housing.

*InnovaPanel® is the next generation of SIP and is a patented magnesia cement insulated panel that is NOA approved by Miami Dade County for the high velocity hurricane wind zones. The InnovaPanel® has been tested for wind loads exceeding +200 mph and is approved for axial loading of more than 28,000 pounds on a single panel, making it one of the strongest lightweight insulated panels available to the building industry. InnovaPanel have unmatched disaster performance as Mother Nature has tested 38 of our homes with an EF-2 Tornado, two CAT 5 hurricanes and a CAT 4 hurricane, all with the same amazing results, no structural damage or water intrusion into any of the homes. The neighbors where not so lucky. Magnesia cement does not mold, has higher fire resistance, is not affected by termites and does not off gas any VOC’s) 

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