Page 30 - Green Builder Sept-Oct 2020 Issue
P. 30
DOE Annual Building Science Roundup A BETTER WAY
THE HIGH LIFE
Building a home against a mountainside required
precision and teamwork among builders. But when
done, it was precisely what the owner’s
pocketbook ordered.
ERCHED HIGH ON A mountain- “The extremely complicated foundation
side in southwestern Colorado, plan required consistent and precise
the Glacier Club Modern Home interaction with the surveyor, blasting
o ered commanding views and subcontractor, excavator, concrete
P incredible challenges for the subcontractor and engineers,” Mantell-
home builder. Mantell-Hecathorn Builders Hecathorn says. “The site topography
of Durango, Colorado, was up to the chal- and space constraints required extensive
lenge, delivering a home that was architec- additional effort to simply achieve
turally stunning and surpassed the builder’s construction, and provided significant
own goals for high performance by winning challenges to successful attainment of the
a Housing Innovation Award from the U.S. DOE ZERH standards.”
Department of Energy (DOE) Zero Energy By all accounts, Mantell-Hecathorn
Ready Home (ZERH) program. Builders was successful in meeting the
“This was by far the most challenging challenge, implementing the innovative
site and house design in Mantell-Hecathorn design by renowned regional architect Jon
Builders’ years of building custom Pomeroy in a three-level, ,-square-foot
homes,” says Hunter Mantell-Hecathorn, home that achieved a Home Energy Rating
a principal in the custom home building System (HERS) score of . A typical code- a long-time ENERGY STAR builder in a
company started by his parents Greg and built home would score an to on the state that has no licensing requirement
Tara in . “If ever there was a home that HERS score and a net zero home would score for general contractors, in counties that
required constant innovation, this was the a . When the .¢-kW solar photovoltaic don’t inspect for energy efficiency, and
home.” system is included on this house, the HERS in jurisdictions that until recently hadn’t
Located on a half-acre parcel at , feet score drops to ¢, and projected annual updated their energy code since the ¢
elevation, with a -degree rock slope, the energy costs are more than cut in half. That edition. La Plata County, where Durango
site required blasting to nestle and anchor means an annual bill of about $, per is located, recently adopted the ¢ IECC
the foundation into the rocky mountainside. year, or less than $ per month, which is far and the City of Durango just adopted the
The builder also had to contend with lower than most homeowners could expect ¢ IECC code this year, thanks in part to
heavy snowfalls that could accumulate to pay for heating and cooling a home one- education by the Mantell-Hecathorns.
on and around the house and a fractured third the size. Mantell-Hecathorn Builders committed to
rock substrate that allowed subsurface Even without the PV, the annual energy building all of its homes to the DOE ZERH
moisture to percolate upward through the costs are expected to be $¢,, a projected specification in ¢ when the program
rock ssures to the site’s surface, especially savings of $, over a home just built to started. It has certied homes so far. They
during spring thaw and heavy summer the local energy code, which is the ¢ are the only builder in southwest Colorado
rains. These issues added to the complexity International Energy Conservation Code to make this percent commitment. The
of site excavation; the builder installed an (IECC). DOE ZERH program gives builders a road
all-encompassing system of map to build homes that are more energy
French drains under and around the COST CUTTERS efficient, comfortable and durable than
home, as well as surface drains, radon Building to this level of energy e¦ciency current code requires, and a third-party
trenches and pipes under the lower level. is nothing new for Mantell-Hecathorn, verication process helps convey condence
28 GREEN BUILDER September/October 2020 www.greenbuildermedia.com
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