LEED Platinum home on a hill

No geothermal or windmills

By FRITZ MAYER

YOUNGSVILLE, NY— With the Obama administration considering whether it might be possible to turn the White House green, it’s not surprising that building certification from the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) program is increasingly being sought after.

Builders and architects across the country are rushing into the green building arena, and as part of that trend, a couple of entrepreneurs from New York City have installed a new home on East Hill Road in Youngsville that is only the second in the state to achieve the Platinum certification in the LEED rating system.

The first Platinum LEED home in the state was built as affordable housing and paid for by the city of Schenectady. The one in Youngsville was built by a company called New World Home and has the distinction of being not only the second Platinum home in the state, but it is also the first Platinum factory-built or modular home.

Tyler Schmetterer, one of the founders of the company, said he and his partner were eager to show that a home could achieve platinum status without adopting the technologies that have come to be so strongly tied to green buildings, such as geothermal heating or solar panels.

Schmetterer said, “You can build a home from the core that is so tight and efficient without the solar or geothermal technologies that you’ve already saved 50 percent of the energy costs.”

The Youngsville house achieved the status through use of various energy saving techniques. For instance, wooden studs, it turns out, have very poor insulating qualities, and they transfer heat from the inside of the house to the outside at a much greater rate than insulated walls. So if two-by-eight inch studs are used instead of two-by-four, the number of studs in the house can be reduced, thereby lessening the transfer of heat from inside to outside.

However, having proved the point and having already achieved the rating, the house will now be outfitted with solar panels to add even more efficiency. It ultimately will be put up for sale.

The house was certified by the U.S. Green Building Council, and the certificate will be formally presented to the designers on October 17 at an event at the house. Not all the details have been worked out yet, but the event will be open to the public. Go to www.newworldhome.com for more information.