Habitat for Humanity Buffalo’s new build house at 20 Guilford Street was built to a LEED’s Gold performance level and is currently waiting for confirmation of that designation. It is the first single family LEED registered project in Western New York and was built by Habitat volunteers who committed themselves to the strenuous task of the rating system.

LEED stands for the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design Green Building Rating System. It is designed to encourage, develop, and expand sustainable green building practices through a national and international standard of criteria.

LEED provides a benchmark for the design, construction, and operation of high performance sustainable buildings, ranging from small residential homes to large commercial buildings and multi-building campuses. Its home rating system measures the overall performance of a house using eight categories. The system works by requiring prerequisites for each category and awarding points for improved performance. The level of performance is designated by four levels: Certified, Silver, Gold, and Platinum, according to the number of points earned.

The house at 20 Guilford, along with two other Habitat houses on the street, are built on lots previously developed in the mid-1800s. As the homes were removed, the lots became available for new housing. The house is a four-bedroom building of 1,350 square feet. A small house consumes less materials and energy over its life cycle.

The framing lumber for construction of the house came from the U.S. or Canada and none from the tropics. With detailed construction framing drawings, cut lists, and lumber orders, the overall waste factor is held to 2.7 percent. All materials shipped less than 500 miles to the site received additional points for saving fuel, highway roads, and travel time. The house was built to Energy Star specifications with qualified appliances, insulation, windows and doors, and heating systems.

An operations and training manual was developed for discussion with the new homeowner along with a one-hour walk through to further describe the whole building system and answer questions that arise. The intent is to maintain the performance of the house by educating the occupants about the operations and maintenance of the home’s LEED features and equipment.

Don Marx, Habitat Project Coordinator, explains, “Generally these green homes are healthier, more comfortable, energy efficient, durable, and have a smaller environmental footprint than conventional houses.”

In addition, the following considerations were made in the siting and the building specifications:

• Guilford Street is an existing residential paved street with sidewalks, sanitary, water, and gas underground lines. There is electrical, telephone, and TV cable service available from overhead pole lines.
• The house has available to it 191 bus rides per weekday that are all less than one half mile away.
• To improve water efficiency, all toilets installed are 1.28 gallon/flush and all lavatory faucets are labeled “water sense” (less than 1.5 gallons/minute).
• Additional Energy Star qualifications include the walls and ceilings being well insulated and caulked to reduce heating costs and air infiltration. All windows and doors, bathroom fans and refrigerators are Energy Star rated. Many compact fluorescent lamps are used for lighting. An 82% efficient tankless hot water heater with a power vented exhaust and a 93% efficient forced hot air furnace along with properly sized heating duct system are installed.
• To insure indoor environmental quality, the house has no fireplace and no unvented combustion appliances.
• Outdoor air ventilation is provided through the use of bathroom fans with an additional one in the basement to insure air quality in the house. The full bathroom fan operates on a timer, the half bath is on a motion sensor, and the basement fan operates continuously.
• A kitchen exhaust range hood is installed and vented to the outside.
• Upon installation, all ducts and vents were sealed during construction to insure indoor contamination control during construction.
• Walk off mats are provided on the floor inside at each entry point of the house for contamination control. This will keep floors and carpets clean and reduce wear.
• A radon protection system is being provided.
• All construction waste was separated into various bins for recycling: wood, cardboard, plastic, and metal.