Building a LEED Silver house in Houston for $165/sq ft
As I mentioned in my last post we have continued to work on the budget, and in the most recent revision (I won't say final any more, because it seems like a never ending process) we have gotten a few more very competitive bids that have taken our budget down further. At present we are near $538,500 for our 3,200 sq ft plan, or around $165 / sq ft!
Take a moment to think about that number. High volume production is below $100/sq ft, and there are some rare, LEED projects in this space - developments with many dozens of smaller units. As I learned from Michael Strong, the smaller the house, the easier it is to get LEED points, because small is by definition environmental. Then of course your high end custom home, where it is relatively easy to do LEED, is above $200 /sq ft.What we are doing is quite unusual - we are trying to build a custom, LEED house in the middle there. We are not in the market for a luxury, 4-5,000 sq ft home with marble, jacuzzi, wet bar and wine cellar, where a few $ extra for insulation, solar panels and other green technology is not an issue. But we want to save money on energy, and have a smaller carbon foot print. In this market segment it is very tough, at least at the moment, to get banks to see the value of LEED. I would argue that the value is clear - reducing energy costs by half, is today a selling point. Project a decade or two down the road, this is going to be significant.
But the other point I want to make, is that we are proving it can be done - and if we can do it, anyone can. Just think if every house going up in our middle-class neighborhoods reduced its energy costs by half! And of course, until LEED-type construction reaches the majority, not just the very well-to-do, it won't be able to make a significant impact on the environment. If we succeed, we will have demonstrated the ability to do LEED very affordably - and perhaps others will take heart.
Now if we could only get financed... though I am currently optimistic. We have found a good bank, who are engaged in green building and are taking a creative, individual approach to us, and I hope that we will have a plan in place that will get us started early in 2011.
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by Oliver Bogler
