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The Olympics are a memory and few in D.C. are high jumping in the searing summer heat, but in the case of Bethesda Net Zero Energy House, an architect’s leap of faith may surely result in winning the Gold - or even Platinum: LEED Platinum.
“Jimmy Carter had solar panels on the White House,” Meditch Murphey Architects Principal Marcie Meditch recalled, an image which may have fueled her vision from time to time and compelled her to build a 4,000 s.f. net-zero energy “spec” house in Montgomery County’s comfortable, cohesive Bannockburn community. Mulling over the concept for a year or two, concerns about building a market-rate house that was green and had a net zero energy footprint - or used as much energy as it produced - and which would sell in a conservative market had precluded immediate action. “I couldn’t find a client,” Meditch said, recalling the “serendipitous meeting of a friend of a friend” at a conference whose mother had recently passed away. The mother’s mid-century wood frame slab-on-grade house in Bethesda had not aged well and needed to be sold, but the family didn’t want a “McMansion” built on the property in its place.
With siting a key requisite, Meditch recognized the potential and seized the moment for her energy efficient home that would make the best use of the sun, as well as of passive natural energy from water and cross ventilation.
Nature and NASA
“We believe that t
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Nature withstanding, yet conceding that “nobody lives in this area without air conditioning,” Binder, who was a NASA engineer and literal “rocket scientist” before transitioning to architecture, said a ground source heat pump was designated for the house: two wells planted 375-feet deep that store air at a constant ground temperature of about 50 degrees. In the summer, instead of trying to take the heat from the 78-degree air inside and push it into the 95-degree air outside (a huge expenditure of energy), it is taken from the house and mitigated in the ground. The same principle applies to winter air, where rather than creating heat from the 30-degree air outside, it is culled from its constant 50-degree base in the ground.
With an energy-efficient envelope warranting extreme insulation, Meditch Murphey Architects used a layer of insulation on the outside of the house’s framing to act as the first line of defense. Additional insulation was used between the studs, which Binder explained typically act like a “thermal bridge” for energy loss: energy getting into and out of the house. And with a structure that is essentially sealed the way this one is, an energy recovery ventilator (ERV) preconditions or removes the heat, cold and moisture from the air that’s leaving and puts it into the air that’s entering, according to the seasons, which saves on energy.
Light and Water
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Where lighting was concerned, a combination of LED lights, halogen and other incandescent types were used in the five-bedroom (one is part of an au pair suite), four-bath home, with halogen used in strategic locations such as bathrooms and the kitchen. “LED’s are still a little cool in their color rendering,” Binder said, noting a more balanced light is important “when you’re looking at your face or when you want to see what color your food really is.” He added that the firm doesn’t subscribe to the tenet of “energy efficiency at the expense of all else, including comfort.”
Wood and Glass
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To that end, bathroom features are a confluence of sustainability and aesthetics. Custom vanities were crafted by Ray Amos of Pennsylvania’s New Oxford Studios, whose philosophy mandates using reclaimed lumber. Flooring in much of the home is maple from a sustainably-managed forest, where documents show the trees were harvested without impinging on the ecosystem. In the basement, engineered flooring called Eco Timber, a composite that includes a plywood layer, means the highest quality wood is reserved only for the top where it is visible. In the kitchen, substrate for the cabinets is particle board which, instead of being made with traditional high-VOC binders, has a high recycled wood content that is low-VOC with no formaldehyde added to help promote the home’s indoor air quality.
When the home, not yet finished, sold quickly in the fall of 2009, new homeowner Ann Luskey got involved early enough in the process to choose her own tile for the kitchen and downstairs floors, according to Binder, selecting Ecocem (part cement; part cellulose fiber) which is entirely recycled. Countertops are Eco-Terr, which is cement and polished, recycled glass. “It looks like Terrazzo because of its really beautiful finish,” Binder explained, “but it doesn’t have to be shipped all the way from Italy.”
Earth and Trees
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Endorsed by the owner and angling for a LEED Platinum rating, the architects didn’t know until the spring if the grass would come in properly, a prerequisite for the USGBC (U.S. Green Building Council) LEED inspection which is pending this month. During construction, the architects made ample use of government subsidies for energy efficiency such as property and income tax credits and loan programs from the state, which meant that somewhere between 30 and 50 percent of the cost of the home that sold for $1.8 million was defrayed. “They are essential in making these things attractive to people from a financial point of view,” Binder said.
Photography by Anice Hoachlander