The enemy of a home's energy efficiency is air infiltration.
To fight that enemy, the Proud Green Home at Serenbe is designed to perform at a very high level.
Architect Chris Laumer-Giddens of LG Squared and Luis Imery of the Imery Group, builder of the Proud Green Home, teamed up to ensure the home located in metro Atlanta’s sustainable Serenbe community will meet tough EarthCraft and Energy Star standards.
One weapon in their arsenal is Enertite NM open-cell spray polyurethane foam (ocSPF) from BASF Corporation. The spray foam is part of the home's thermal envelope, along with ZIP system wall and roof sheathing products from Huber Engineered Woods and other components.
Applied by local Atlanta contractor Vis Viva Energy Services, the high-performance insulation material also provides air leakage control, helping to meet building tightness code requirements with less material.
"Air sealing is such a big component of the home's energy performance," Imery said. "We have taken a holistic design approach so we're thinking about how all the systems interact with each other to deliver the highest performance possible."
Built with energy- and resource-saving advanced framing techniques, the home is expected to have insulation values of R-25 and R-21 in exterior walls and roofline, respectively.
In addition, with the ocSPF installed directly to the roof deck, it provides a conditioned space within the home for the HVAC system, including the ductwork, to work more efficiently.
The design specified by Imery Group and architectural firm LG Squared is expected to result in an energy rating that is 55 percent better than a similar-sized home built to Georgia’s minimum energy code requirements. With the addition of rooftop photovoltaic solar panels, the Proud Green Home will achieve net-zero, or near net-zero, efficiency—meaning that over the course of a year, it will produce roughly as as much energy as it consumes.
Sustainability characteristics of the SPF material include renewable polyol content and water blowing agent. The BASF Enertite NM technology is a no-mix resin open-cell SPF that has undergone extensive review under the Eco-Efficiency Analysis, proving it has one of the lowest cost and environmental impact life cycles compared to all other insulation choices.
In using the BASF Enertite ocSPF material, homeowners and builders can feel that they are helping the planet while they are helping save money as well.
Read more about the Proud Green Home at Serenbe.
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