I was at an open house yesterday for a new home in the Greenlake area. It was built with sustainability in mind with awesome energy-saving features like:

• Rainwater Harvesting System Plumbed to Laundry and Toilets
• Infiltration Raingarden Handles All Stormwater OnSite
• In-Floor Radiant Heat with 4 Zones and Programmable Thermostats
• High Efficiency Gas Boiler Fuels both Space Heating and Domestic Hot Water
• Pre-Plumbed for Solar Water Heater

Some of it like the high-efficiency boiler seems like a requirement for new construction. It’s not significantly more expensive and you would see it made up in the savings on gas in a very short time. They’ve had these types of units in Europe for decades and they work really well. You never run out of hot water and you don’t need to keep 50 G of water hot at all times. Simple.

It’s a bit out of my price range, but I was definitely taking notes for future building projects and house endeavors.

It’s called Orchard and you can see it at fivedotorchard.com

This entry was posted on Sunday, June 15th, 2008 at 8:28 am and is filed under construction, environmental. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.