Sustainable
See details on the sustainable elements of our homes (pdf).Blu Homes strives to be healthy for your family and for the environment. But what does green mean? First and foremost, green means significantly cutting both energy costs and home emissions over the life of your home, in a measurable way. It also means providing healthy indoor air quality, healthy products in the home, and a sunny, open environment for your family. Finally, green means reducing our ‘footprint’ on the planet through reducing waste in the building process, and cost-effective use of renewable materials, water saving fixtures, and ‘smart’ home energy monitoring systems.
Our homes focus on three areas to maximize our “green” impact:
- Healthy Living
- Energy Efficiency
- Renewable Resources
Healthy Living
You and your family deserve a healthy home that provides plenty of natural ventilation, lots of sunlight, toxin-free building materials to reduce allergens and other threats to indoor air quality, and products like chemical-free carpeting that children and adults can enjoy safely and you can feel good about!
All of our homes include:
- Cradle to Cradle products: as much as possible, we seek to provide products certified by the Cradle to Cradle (C2C) program in our homes. This certification is special in that EVERY CHEMICAL AND NATURAL INPUT into each product is analyzed by the chemists at C2C, and has to pass health standards in order to be allowed into the program. C2C products in our homes include carpets, stone floor coverings, bathroom and kitchen surfaces, wall coverings, window shades, insulation, and even work-at-home workstations. See http://www.c2ccertified.com/ for more information on this growing program.
- Indoor air quality measures: Our houses are designed to ventilate naturally, and we offer several high efficiency ventilation systems that “recover” lost heat in the home and therefore provide energy efficiency as well.
- High-performance insulation: Insulation is important not only for a home’s heating and cooling, but can play a role in fending off mold and assisting in good ventilation. We chose our insulation to optimize against all these factors
- Non-off-gassing materials: Many materials used in the home “off-gas”, meaning they emit often harmful vapors, suspected of causing symptoms like “sick building syndrome”. We avoid off gassing materials like VOC (Volatile Organic Compound) paints in our houses and allow our customers to choose from a variety of formaldehyde-free products for their cabinetry and other built-in home furnishings.
Using Less Energy
- Passive Solar: In the process of customizing your Blu Home, we model your home on the earth based on the sun, wind, and weather patterns specific to your particular region and building site. This allows you to benefit from the most energy-saving aspect of the home, which is “passive solar”, and to get transparent information early on about your energy savings. In addition, our homes use many low-tech features that provide protection from the sun in the summer months when you need to keep cool, and optimal orientation for enjoyment of sunlight in the winter months. Thoughtfully-placed window shades and green/screen walls all contribute to this better use of the sun during your home’s life.
- Efficient building enclosure: We strongly believe that a smart, cost-effective building enclosure is the most important way to get energy efficiency from your home. The lifetime energy costs of most homes are largely determined by the leakiness or tightness of the enclosure. We use high-performing insulation and high efficiency, low-E, gas-filled windows to help self-regulate the interior home climate. See more details on how our houses utilize an efficient building enclosure. (link to envelope page)
- Efficient lighting: We use cost-effective CFL (compact fluorescent lamp) lights in our houses which are 4-6 times more efficient than traditional incandescent lights. We are also considering LEDs, for which advanced technologies have helped generate a “warmer” feel than their predecessors, though their cost-effectiveness is still being evaluated.
Energy Star appliances: We use ENERGY STAR certified appliances in our homes. Appliances have two price tags: what you pay to take it home and what you pay for the energy and water it uses. ENERGY STAR qualified appliances incorporate advanced technologies that use 10–50% less energy and water than standard models. The money you save on your utility bills can more than make up for the cost of a more expensive but more efficient ENERGY STAR model. See the ENERGY STAR website for more info.- Efficient heating and cooling: High efficiency heating systems – both for space and water heating – are staples in our homes. We have evaluated the most cost efficient tankless water heaters and radiant floor systems, as well as smart heating options for “off-grid” homes like high efficiency heat pumps. The heating systems we install in our homes are chosen to save money by using less energy, as well as to maximize comfort through amenities like whole-floor radiant heat. For cooling, home positioning on the site to maximize healthy air flow, plus features in our homes such as green roofs, window shading, and energy efficient ceiling fans all help to passively cool the home. We also use high efficiency air conditioning systems for optimal comfort in hot climates
- Renewable energy features: We encourage the use of cost-effective renewable energy sources, such as solar thermal systems. We also recognize the growing efficiency and cost effectiveness of a broader set of renewables including solar photovoltaic panels, on site wind power and other renewables. We are excited to offer renewables as options and focus our research on the most cost-effective systems
- Energy monitoring system: having access to knowledge on your energy use should not be complicated or expensive. Our monitoring systems are simple, easy to use, and give you a good picture of your home’s energy use. If you have renewable energy features like solar photovoltaic panels, you may even be able to sell some energy back to the power grid!
Using Renewable Resources
- Reduce waste and use less: High tech and innovative offsite building processes allow for substantially reduced waste during construction!
- Durability and low-maintenance: The best way to reduce waste is to have durable, long-lasting homes. Homes in many other advanced countries and in the “old days” in the US were designed to last 100+ years. Blu Homes are designed to last a long time, too. Building our homes off site in a factory with controlled conditions and with higher quality materials produces higher quality construction and higher quality, long-lasting houses. Materials like steel roofing and cement siding with integrated color rarely require repainting and are relatively maintenance free. They are strong and reliable materials with long lives.
- Cradle to Cradle products: as mentioned above we seek to provide products certified by the Cradle to Cradle (C2C) program in our homes for their healthy approach. In addition to analyzing each product’s chemical makeup for the health of your family, the C2C program requires product manufacturers to design-in material reutilization such as recycling or composting, the use of renewable energy and energy efficiency, efficient use of water and maximum water quality associated with production, and to institute strategies for social responsibility. See the Cradle to Cradle website for more information on this growing program.
- Renewable materials: We use sustainably harvested materials such as FSC certified wood and bamboo. Where possible we also use previously used materials like wood harvested from old barns, etc. We also use some synthetic materials that are certified as infinitely renewable through the Cradle to Cradle program
- Recycled materials: Not only are our countertops and floor tiles are made using recycled paper, glass, and porcelain, but our carpets and decks are made from recycled composites as well.
