04/04/08 — WOODCOCK TOWNSHIP — Think “house of the future.”
A sci-fi vision of some otherworldly structure — odd panels jutting up and out and other “green,” minimalist-inspired design features — may be what springs to mind.
But Jeff and Sandy Lang’s new home overlooking Woodcock Creek is a happy marriage between traditional, historically-rich Victorian design elements and new-age building
materials that put the 4,645-square-foot home on the cutting edge of all things energy-efficient and environmentally-friendly.
Lang is a co-owner of Dad’s Products Co. Inc. His place is the first Energy Star-certified home built in northwestern Pennsylvania that’s qualified for tax credits for using at least 50 percent less energy on heating and cooling than a home that size built by traditional means, according to builder Mark Schlosser of Saegertown-based Schlosser Construction.
His estimate for what the three-story, 17-room home may cost to heat over the course of a year — only $1,249 — is roughly 40 percent of what a typical home that size may cost to keep warm.
And there’s no question that it keeps the heat.
Built using insulated concrete forms (ICFs) that create a seamless and solid monolithic structure, Schlosser said the home’s foot-thick walls make for zero-air infiltration. Add to that the home’s top-of-the-line boiler system — capable of heating a gallon of water in seconds — and the result is roughly 96 percent heating efficiency, he said.
The house, which features a radiant-floor heating system, “is built so air-tight that we built (an internal) mechanical ventilation system” to circulate and generate fresh air, Schlosser said.
A thermal imaging test of the structure showed that it leaks just a little over 1,600 cubic feet of air each minute, said Schlosser. A typical home tested under the same radar, he said, would be expected to leak roughly 7,000 cubic feet of air per minute.
‘There’s so much latent heat here,” Sandy said recently. “I’d bet you could go two days before you knew you lost power.”
Those who’d like to feel the same in their homes but who aren’t planning on building anew anytime soon can take heart, according to Schlosser.
Energy efficiency “isn’t just for new construction,” he said. “This is for existing houses also.”
Using the Pennsylvania Environmental Council’s uniform energy rating system, Schlosser said he’s able to provide detailed analyses that identify problem areas for a homeowner and allow him to make suggestions that could lower any home’s heating costs by around 40 percent while also significantly reducing carbon monoxide and other environmental hazards such as mold.
It was Sandy’s intolerance to mold, in fact, that the Langs said pushed their decision to build green.
“It’s amazing,” said Sandy, and “the technology is right here.”
Ryan Smith can be reached at 724-6370 or by e-mail at rsmith@meadvilletribune.com.
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