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There are also other green options available. Homeowners can consider a home resource monitor to track energy savings, an automatic kitchen composter to process food scraps, moveable walls to create flexible living spaces, a solar water heater, a rainwater collection system and geothermal heating and cooling.
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LEED rates buildings on a number of factors that reflect a home’s sustainability. The first LivingHomes was the first home to receive a LEED’s highest designation of Platinum.
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Construction costs vary. Glenn says customers should expect to see cost savings if they compare prices with stick-built homes of comparable design and quality. The company Web site notes that its homes range from $180 to $250 per square foot not including design costs, which are 10 to 15 percent of the budget, or permit fees, engineering, transport, installation or foundation.
Green Convergence
One cutting-edge modular home company is merging traditional design with state-of-the-art green elements. New World Home was co-founded in 2007 by Tyler Schmetterer and Mark Jupiter and is based in New York City with an office in Atlanta.
COO Schmetterer says there are two primary differences between the company’s New Old Green Modular™ (NOGM™) home and an ordinary modular home. “First, a NOGM™ is based on a historically inspired traditional design that evokes the spirit of the past while respectfully integrating all of the modern conveniences and amenities afforded by the 21st century,” he says. “Second, a NOGM™ home utilizes a whole-systems approach to design, incorporating the most stringent green standards, products and practices in the industry. As a result, a New Old Green Modular™ home approaches USGBC LEED for Home Platinum certification directly out of the factory.”
Schmetterer says NOGM™ homes are specifically designed on a regional basis and incorporate climate-specific energy requirements that exceed local energy code requirements. In addition, the design fits in naturally with its surrounding landscape and community. “It is a home that pays homage to the local architectural vernacular instead of contradicting or ignoring history as is so often the case with new construction, modular or otherwise,” he says.
| | | | | |  | | | | | Here are some basics and some surprising facts about modular homes.
• Both a modular home and a manufactured mobile home are built in factories but each is built to different standards. A modular home is built to the local and state building codes, the same as any stick-built home. A manufactured mobile home is built to the Federal Manufactured Home Construction and Safety Standards administered by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
• Modular homes can meet any price point, from entry level and multifamily housing up to million-dollar mansions.
• Modular homes are financed using conventional mortgage products. They are viewed the same as site-built homes in zoning laws as well as in construction codes.
• The modules that make up a home need to be constructed to withstand the rigors of transport over the highway.
• A modular home has few, if any, design limitations. The average modular home contains three or more modules but many homes contain five to 10 modules. Modular homes can be built and configured to meet nearly any shape and size.
• Besides manufactured and modular homes, other home types take advantage of eco-friendly factory conditions. They include panelized homes in which whole walls with windows, doors and outside siding, for example, are transported to a site to assemble, and pre-cut homes, such as kit and log homes, in which building materials are factory-cut to design specifications and then transported to a site and assembled.
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Among the fundamental green aspects the homes incorporate are being USGBC LEED for Home certifiable in Silver, Gold or Platinum, optimal-value engineering to reduce lumber usage by 15 to 20 percent, 90-plus percent of lumber sourced from sustainably harvested forests and third-party verified, an advanced metering system that monitors resource consumption on a real-time basis and integrated water collection systems for irrigation.
Schmetterer says one company objective is to develop housing solutions with a 0 percent upfront premium for green products and features. “Customers are then able to fully realize the many cost and maintenance advantages of owning a NOGM-Certified™ home, starting with a minimum 50 percent energy consumption savings starting from day one. Any premium associated with our homes is directly correlated to design-related options and not the many green features.”
The company is producing its third and fourth NOGM™ homes in Atlanta and in the finishing stages of its first USGBC LEED for Home Platinum-certified house in New York state. It has two showcase homes in Sullivan County, N.Y., and will unveil a showcase subdivision in East Cobb County, Ga., and two additional showcase homes by Thanksgiving 2008.
Another innovative modular manufacturer, Boston-based Ecohealth Homes, a division of Chatham Hill Residential Design and Build, LLC , focuses on producing environmentally friendly and healthy homes with a historic New England aesthetic.
Ecohealth Homes’ creator Michelle Roberts worked with the nonprofit National Center for Healthy Housing (NCHH) to specify materials and products for the homes. Specifications address occupant safety, such as single-lever faucets, double-hung windows for upper floors and built-in escape ladders—things many green building programs ignore, says Roberts. Each home will be inspected throughout the modular manufacturing process by a third-party to ensure all specifications are met. “Building homes that are both sustainable and healthy requires a new way of thinking,” Roberts says. “Through the use of forward-looking design and construction methods and materials that are resource-efficient, Ecohealth Homes will provide families with the most environmentally friendly, healthy and comfortable homes possible, for now and for generations to come.” The first home is planned for spring 2009.
To see the construction of a modular home, Bob Vila followed a modular mountain retreat in the Berkshires of Massachusetts down the assembly line from framing, through wiring and plumbing, all the way to the installation of flooring and priming for paint in Season 14 of Home Again. Each episode follows the construction of this modular home. View the episodes here.
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Text by Maureen Blaney Flietner
© 2008 BobVila.com
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