Just as my back starts to recover from Saturday's work at a Habitat home in Durham, I'm delighted to read in the N&O an article about how charity built homes are getting greener. The N&O article says that 80% of these low income homes built by charities like Habitat for Humanity are now equipped with energy saving features. See the full article here.
The home I was working on, is being built by Durham Habitat and sponsored by the Eno River Unitarian Universalist Fellowship (ERUUF). ERUUF member and green builder Tom O'Dwyer persuaded the Habitat team to build in a number of additional cost effective energy saving features and then encouraged several fellow members to cough up the extra $1200 - a paltry sum really for what was done. Tom's improvements to the design include increasing the overhangs, increased insulation to R60, radiant barrier roof deck and increased caulking of all joints. He also sealed all of the edges of cabinetry wood components to minimize any off gassing.
And the really great news is that the Habitat team like the improvements so much that they're aiming to include them in future builds.
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