Living ‘Green’ in First Palisades LEED Home

To untrained eyes, the four-bedroom, 3,000-sq.-ft. house on upper Hartzell Street is little different from any other two-story home in the Alphabet streets neighborhood. But a closer inspection reveals a host of features that have earned it designation as the first green Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) home in Pacific Palisades.   Sold in December to a Pacific Palisades family, the home was built by John Lee, owner of Pacific Avenue Angel Partners and one of the pioneers in a 2006 nationwide program developed by the U.S. Green Building Council that provides standards for environmentally sustainable construction of single-family dwellings.   ’The Green Building Council asked for builders to participate in LEED,’ said Lee, who lives in Santa Monica and has a built a ‘green’ house for his family.   The Palisadian-Post reported on the start of the construction process (‘Converting Garbage to ‘Green’ on Hartzell,’ April 11, 2007), when the existing one-story house was demolished, literally, board by board. The windows and doors were given to Lee’s artist friend, who used the salvage materials in a display that was hung in a Beverly Hills gallery. The wood and the rest of the building materials were donated to a community recycling depot in Sunland.   The concrete was saved (along with salvaged rocks and gravel) in a big hole that was dug next to the foundation of the new house for the purpose of trapping rainwater from the roof, keeping it in the yard and percolating it back into the soil. As Lee explains, ‘The porous material acts like a big plastic milk carton that allows the water to seep into the surrounding land,’ instead of running down the street and ending up in the ocean.   To be certified as a LEED house, builders must score enough points on a checklist that includes not only new construction, but items such as diversion of 75 percent of construction waste from disposal (one point) and 10 percent of materials reuse (also one point).   The maximum number of points that can be scored is 69. Lee is hoping that the Hartzell house will be certified as Gold, by scoring from 39 to 51 points. The highest designation is Platinum (52 to 69 points).   ’From a builder’s perspective Gold is a real challenge,’ Lee said. ‘Platinum, in my opinion, is cost-prohibitive, in order to sell the house and make a reasonable profit.’   Stepping into the house, one of the first features a person notices is the walnut hardwood floors’except, as Lee points out, they’re actually bamboo, which means another point towards the LEED designation. ‘The layers of bamboo are stacked vertically, which gives it a rustic hewn-look,’ he said, ‘and bamboo grows like a weed.’ The wood (comparable in price to hardwood florring) can be dyed to look like walnut or oak, helping to ease pressure on hardwood forests. Another, but more costly ‘green’ alternative for builders is to reuse wood flooring from demolished houses, Lee said.   The Lynch family’Rick and Carmen and their two children, Chloe and Zack’have only been in the house for two weeks, but Carmen is already appreciating several important features. The low-flow flush toilet, for example, has a button with two different flush options: one for liquid waste and a second for a fuller tank. There are also low-flow showerheads (made by Delta) that use jet-engine technology. Even though the flow is 1.6 gallons per minute (the average is 3 gallons per minute), the force of the water coming out feels much greater.   Carmen was originally attracted to the house because it had been built to minimize the chance of mold. She had developed health problems in two previous homes that were filled with mold and, at one point, doctors feared she might have lung cancer until tests at the Mayo Clinic proved negative. Still, during this time, she lost a dog and two cats to the unhealthy living situation, which prompted the search for an environmentally healthy home.    ‘I wanted to be in a place where the paint is good and the floors are done without formaldehyde,’ said Carmen, a Palisades Elementary parent. ‘When I heard that they sandblasted the frame wood to ensure there was no mold, it felt like the right place.’   In addition to ensuring an eco-friendly home, LEED buildings strive to use less energy. According to government studies, buildings in the United States account for 72 percent of electricity consumption, 39 percent of energy use, 38 percent of carbon dioxide emissions and 14 percent of water consumption.   The Hartzell house has two tankless water heaters that provide hot water only on demand, as opposed to most homes where the conventional water heater is like ‘a 75-gallon tea kettle cooking on on your stove top at all times,’ Lee said. A tankless water heater comes on only when you start to use hot water, and immediately shuts off when you are done. The water runs through pipes over heat to warm it before being sent to the appropriate faucets.   ’I love never running out of hot water if you have a lot of people staying over,’ Carmen said.   The house also has high-energy-efficiency appliances, including a stacked washer and dryer. ‘The front loader uses less water and energy than a top loader,’ Lee said.   He installed all-gas fireplaces, knowing that the largest source of carbon emission in the typical house is a wood-burning fireplace, and noting: ‘Natural gas is a clean-burning fuel.’   One fireplace is located between the bathtub and the master bedroom. ‘I thought I wouldn’t use it, but I use it all the time,’ said Carmen, who simply turns on a switch to start a fire.   The interior is painted with Dunn-Edwards’ Eco-Shield, a No-VOC (volatile organic compounds) paint that is more expensive but doesn’t emit chemical fumes or odors. The exterior of the house is painted with recycled paint (cheaper than regular exterior paint) from the Amazon Environmental Company.   The lighting in the house also strives to conserve energy. The bathrooms have motion detector lights so that when somebody goes in the bathroom, a light goes on, and turns off shortly after the person leaves. The upstairs bedrooms have solar tubes that, like skylights, bring natural light into interior rooms, but are less expensive and easier to install.   Not surprisingly, the house has solar panels. ‘On a sunny day, the panels generate about 3 kilowatts of energy, which is enough power to run a household without using electricity from the power grid,’ Lee said. ‘The electrical meter spins in reverse and the solar power generated from this house is bought back by the DWP.’   The exterior siding of the house is a cement/fiberglass and wood byproduct, which means it is termite-proof and non-combustible. ‘You can put a cigarette lighter to it and it won’t combust,’ Lee said. ‘There’s also a video surveillance system.’   A great deal of thought was given to the roof. Darker shingles produce a hotter attic than lighter ones, so the roof contains the lightest color blend possible. Since shingles are one of the few materials that are not recyclable, Lee used ones that have a 50-year lifespan.   To view a video of Lee discussing the features of the home, go to www.realtvfilms.com and then hit ‘other events’ icon and go to Palisades Green House. To contact Lee, call (310) 450-9170. For more information about the LEED program, visit www.usgbc.org/leed.