What Makes This House Sustainable ??
The Concept Behind a High Efficiency Solar Home

Sustainable Homes for Energy Conscious People

Silverwood and our builder team have  created a community of high efficiency, high tech homes that meet the demanding standards set by today’s buyers.    Bingham Ridge is located in Northern Chatham County off of Lamont Norwood Road. We have homes under construction for sale and custom option packages available for vacant lots. Three and four bedroom designs are available. Some lots are suitable for basements. Contact Betty Cross for details relating to your new home in Bingham Ridge.

Conservation First !! 

Careful attention is paid during the framing phase of these homes. Joints are made tight, seams are sealed, cracks are caulked, sill gaskets are installed, corners are taped, and areas that will not be accessible at a later time are made air-tight. High efficiency window and door units are used . Air ducts are sealed with mastic to the conditioned spaces. Third party inspection services are used to determine that the insulation techniques used in each residence are as good as can be. When a home is finished a blower door test is performed to determine that the structure is truly tight, and a duct pressure test is performed to guarantee that conditioned air  only goes where it is supposed to go.  

Insulation technique is a huge part of making an efficient structure. These homes use either 2x6 exterior wall construction with a minimum of R-19 fiberglass batt insulation, or spray foam insulation installed in a 2x4 wall. By the time the interior walls are installed, you can be assured that conditioned air will stay where you want it, inside your home !! Attention to detail is the secret to success when it comes to energy conservation construction techniques.

Design That Makes It Work  

These homes are either solar tempered or fully passive solar. A solar tempered home has less than 10% of its South facing wall in glass, but more than 7%. A fully passive solar home has at least 10% of its South facing wall in glass and will have a solar mass characteristic as well. There is more to it than that, though. The amount of glass that doesn’t face South needs to be controlled, and Low-E glass needs to be used in some locations.  

How to design the home becomes the tricky part. You can’t control where South is, and you can rarely control where you want your front door.  Brightly lit open spaces are concentrated along the Southern surfaces of the residence. Different types of spaces are often separated with ceiling height changes and floor finish options instead of walls.  Bedrooms and utility areas are moved to the North. There is no place on the South side for a garage! Every home placement presents a design puzzle that needs to be solved.  Some of the puzzle parts are furniture placement, traffic flow, quiet areas, dining areas, the kitchen, the entertainment and video center, fireplace location, and a study space. The driving factor in our design philosophy is to create homes that are super efficient while not asking our homeowners to compromise their  lifestyles. A house has to operate as a home for its occupants firstly, and then be made into an energy conservation machine. The homes in Bingham Ridge start with attention to floor plans and finishes that work for homeowners, and efficiency techniques are applied thereafter. Sculpted ceilings, gourmet kitchens, and private study places are some of the things we start with. We finish up with photovoltaic electrical systems and solar hot water. We strive to make technology work for our homeowners in a completely seamless fashion. 

Choice in Material 

Quality materials that have a useable life exceeding the amount of time it takes nature to replace them go a long way towards making a building sustainable. Earth based materials, requiring minimal industrial processing are both attractive and easy on the atmosphere. Whenever a new building is made, a certain degree of processing and resource destruction takes place.  To make a home as sustainable as possible, it is important to consider material choices  seriously and try to create a finished product that will be lasting. Disposable and short life products are to be avoided. Part of being sustainable is giving the earth time to heal after you take something from it.  The building finishes in these homes focus on high quality lumber, stone, concrete, and ceramics.  Appliances won’t last forever, but good ones will last a real long time. Serviceable appliances and components are used wherever possible.

Special Equipment 

These homes use Solar Hot water systems. With an average amount of sunshine, the system will supply over 80% of most families hot water needs year round.  

A photovoltaic power system is incorporated into each of these plans.  If the sun is shining, electricity is being produced by an array of PV panels, usually on the roof. Most of the homes have a battery pack that gets charged up by the panels. Once the batteries are charged, power is sold back to the utility company through the NC Green Power Program. If the grid fails, the house is automatically switched to the PV system, and essential circuitry in the house never goes down.   

Sealed Crawl Space 

The crawl spaces under these designs are insulated and completely sealed from the exterior. The benefits of a sealed crawl space are many, ranging from lower heating and cooling bills to improved interior air quality.  A properly done sealed crawl space goes a long way towards preventing mold and allergens concentrating in the HVAC system. 

Cold Attics  

Our homes use spray foam insulation. Spaces in the attics vary in temperature only by a few degrees from the living space. Spray foam insulation is a technology that provides for a super sealed exterior wall system with the insulation envelope “rolling over” the rafter system.  Soffit and ridge vents are eliminated.

Is geothermal heating an option, and how does it work?

Do you have gray water systems available?

Is solar energy used for radiant floor heating?

Should use an 18 SEER or higher AC system?

MCF BUILDERS OF CHATHAM CO.

THE  VILLAGE WOODWORKS

Contractors in Bingham Ridge supervise each job personally.  The systems described above can only work if they are carefully and properly installed. Much of the work that creates a truly efficient home is "behind the walls". Our contractors see to it that critical details receive attention