If you’re attending this week’s American Institute of Architects National Convention in Washington, D.C., make sure to check out the seminar Passive House Design: Town and Country, at 3:30pm on Friday, May 18.  The 90-minute Continuing Education session is hosted by experienced Passive House designers Jeremy Shannon and Dennis Wedlick, the architect behind the Hudson Passive Project that recently received a SIPA Building Excellence Award.

Wedlick and Shannon will discuss how the Passive House standards can be applied to new and retrofit projects in both urban and rural areas.  Widely popular in Europe, the Passive House specifications form one of the most rigorous energy-efficiency standards available, reducing heating and cooling costs by 90 percent over a code-built home.

Download the AIA Convention program for more info.

Builder magazine is now accepting entries for its 2012 Builder’s Challenge competition.  This year, Builder is seeking small, innovative projects that will revolutionize housing design and production.  Entries must meet the following criteria: 1,000 sq. ft. or less, 2 bedrooms, and 1 ½ baths.   Single-family and attached homes will be considered, but entries are due by June 1, 2012.

More info at Builder magazine

May 1, 2012 – McGraw-Hill Construction today released its latest SmartMarket Report: New and Remodeled Green Homes: Transforming the Residential Market.  Produced by McGraw-Hill Construction in conjunction with the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) and Waste Management, the report provides key insights into product and market opportunities in the single-family home building and remodeling industries.

McGraw-Hill estimates that the green homes made up 17 percent of the residential construction market in 2011, equating to $17 billion.  This number is expected to rise between 29 and 38 percent by 2016, making the green home market potentially an $87 to 114 billion opportunity, based on the five-year forecast for overall residential construction.

Builders and remodelers participating in green construction offered insight into the factors driving growth in the green home building and remodeling markets.  Two-thirds of builder and remodeler respondents stated that customers request green homes or remodeling projects in order to lower their energy use or save money, more than twice any other factor.  Other key factors included higher quality and the drop in incremental cost for building green versus conventional construction.

“In the current residential market, there is an enormous need to differentiate your homes for consumers,” says Harvey Bernstein, Vice President of Industry Insights and Alliances at McGraw-Hill Construction. “When builders are able to offer homes that not only are green, but also offer the combination of higher quality and better value, they have a major competitive edge over those building traditional homes.”

For more information, see a full press release from the NAHB or order the SmartMarket Report.

In the Rocky Mountains of eastern British Columbia, the small town of Elkford is home to a new innovative and energy-efficient community center.  The 18,000 sq. ft. building will house a multipurpose function room, a children’s play area and a tourist information center.   But what really makes the new Elkford Community Center special is its unique energy-efficient construction using the SIPs from Insulspan, an ICF foundation, and cross laminated timber (CLT) panels.

The community center is the one of the first commercial projects in North America to use CLT panels, a structural wood product consisting of sawn lumber stacked and right angles and glued together into a solid panel.  CLT transforms smaller diameter timbers into a structural product that rivals the strength of steel and concrete, but with a smaller environmental footprint.

The Elkford Community Center uses a combination of CLT panels and glulam beams, clad with SIPs for the walls and roof.  Like SIPs, CLT panels are fabricated off site for fast installation.

See photos and videos of the building’s construction at the Alfred Horie Construction website.

New legislation introduced by Senators Jeff Merkley (D-OR) and Dick Lugar (R-IN) would provide customers of rural electric cooperatives with low-interest financing for home energy-efficient retrofits.  The Rural Energy Savings Program Act (RESPA) authorizes the existing USDA Rural Electric Service to make loans to rural electric cooperatives, which would then offer loans to their customers for energy-efficient improvements to existing homes.

Participating homeowners could repay the loans over a period of up to 10 years directly through their electric bills.  Energy-efficient improvements would be based on an energy audit and guidelines to be developed by the USDA.

Visit the RESNET website for more information.

On March 21, 2012, Representatives David McKinley (R-W.Va.) and Peter Welch (D-Vt.) introduced the Home Owner Managing Energy Savings (HOMES) Act (H.R. 4230) in the U.S. House of Representatives.  The bill would offer homeowners sizable tax rebates for improving the energy efficiency of their existing homes through comprehensive energy-efficient retrofits that include better windows, additional insulation, duct sealing, equipment upgrades, and more.

Rebates would be awarded based on the overall improvement in energy efficiency as determined by an energy audit.  Incentives start at $2,000 for a 20 percent reduction in energy use and range up to $8,000 for a 50 percent reduction, but cannot exceed 50 percent of the project cost.

The bill also requires that qualifying improvements be made by a licensed and insured contractor that is accredited by the Residential Energy Services Network (RESNET), the Building Performance Institute (BPI), or another approved program.

Energy efficiency advocates argue that the bill would reduce carbon emissions, save money for homeowners, and boost the nation’s struggling construction and manufacturing sectors.

Read more at The Alliance to Save Energy