Energy efficiency paying off in reduced utility bills

Energy efficiency paying off in reduced utility bills

Apr 28 - McClatchy-Tribune Regional News - Peter Bacque Richmond Times-Dispatch, Va.

They don't call them "greenbacks" for nothing.

Hugh Joyce thinks environmental concerns for energy efficiency and dollars-and-cents business calculations are starting to add up to economic opportunity.

Joyce is renovating two small houses in high-visibility Henrico County locations to showcase just how homeowners can be environmentally friendly -- and save significant amounts of money on their utility costs.

"This is stuff you can do today that makes financial sense," said Joyce, president and owner of James River Air Conditioning Co. Inc., a home utility company in Richmond. "I don't care if you are Republican, Democrat or independent. It doesn't make any difference."

Using a solar electrical generator, a heat pump and extra tight insulation, as well as a number of other high-tech and resource-sipping devices such as energy-recovery ventilators, Joyce is aiming at a monthly energy cost approaching zero: $5-$40.

"It will make almost as much solar energy as it consumes over a year," he said. "It's a practical green project."

The houses are at 9214 Hungary Spring Road and 8201 Hungary Road, both on high-traffic corners.

"In the future people will worry less about how their house looks and more about how it performs," said Andrew P. McCoy, a building construction professor at Virginia Tech.

For green buildings, "the sky's the limit," McCoy said. "It's just exploding right now -- engineering solutions, products and materials. We know the market's there."

Residential and commercial buildings eat 40 percent of the energy consumed in the United States, said Jen Stutsman with the U.S. Department of Energy.

She said retrofitting buildings using existing energy-efficiency techniques and devices can reduce a home's energy use by as much as 40 percent, while residential and commercial retrofits could cut energy bills nationally by $40 billion -- about $130 for every American -- annually.

Joyce bought the little bungalow on a 1-acre lot at 9214 Hungary Spring for about $85,000, and he is putting $110,000-$130,000 into it in energy-efficient systems and renovations.

"I'm a capitalist guy who likes to build things," Joyce said. "I can stand next to an environmental guy and agree on this project, totally agree."

The 1,000-square-foot home should be completed June 10, he said, open for demonstration of his systems -- and for sale for $270,000.

"If people like this, we're going to replicate it," Joyce said.

His goal for the home is to have it qualify for a LEED gold or platinum rating from the U.S. Green Business Council. LEED -- Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design -- is an internationally recognized green building certification system.

"As soon as we get this one done," Joyce said of the house at Hungary Spring and Staples Mill Road, "we're going after that other one" on Hungary Road.

LEED-certified buildings are designed to lower operating costs, reduce landfill waste, conserve energy and water, and qualify for government incentives.

Richard Cross, owner and managing director of Hollyport Ventures LLC, is rehabilitating and enlarging a 850-square-foot home at 4600 Augusta Ave. in Richmond to LEED platinum standards.

The Cape Cod-style building, built in 1938, "was very ungreen," Cross said. "We've made it into a 2010 very green house."

It's net energy and water consumption will be about $200 a month less than comparable, but conventional, homes, Cross said.

Cross plans to sell the home in a sealed-bid auction with a reserve price of $439,900.

America's next breakthrough product needs to be energy, Joyce said. In his quest for a home self-sufficient in energy, he is coming full circle.

"My eighth-grade project at Liberty Middle School in Hanover County was a solar panel," he said, sketching out a schematic diagram from memory.

And, he said, "I did get an A."

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Contact Peter Bacque at (804) 649-6813 or pbacque@timesdispatch.com.