Green Homes—Creating a Project Plan

Before you plunge into a green home or remodeling project, take a minute to consider why upfront planning can be so important.

“我们需要记住，我们所有建筑项目的更大目标是支持可持续的生活，”美国室内设计师协会和ALEED- 获得的专业人士，总部位于北卡罗来纳州阿什维尔。

“We need to create living andworking spaces这使现有的平方英尺最大化，使我们能够与自然保持联系，使用我们已经拥有更好的东西，很容易回收并采用绿色消费者习惯，” Schomer说。“然后，我们将达到减少全球影响并保护我们的星球和居住在这里的每个人的真正最终目标。”

找到绿色专家
Don’t make a purchase until you know your plan. “Most things go wrong at the beginning, even though it may not feel like it. It’s the invisible decisions that equal missed opportunities and costly mistakes,” says Kathleen O’Brien, president of the green building consulting firm O’Brien and Co., Inc., in Seattle.这Northwest Green Home Primer奥布莱恩（O’Brien）与凯瑟琳·史密斯（Kathleen Smith）合着的一本书，是对该地区建造，改建或购买绿色的全面看法，其中包括工作表，案例研究和插图，创造了一个周到的现实世界指南，以获得绿色结果。

为了使您的计划达到最佳起点，请组建一支绿色团队。奥布赖恩说，绿色团队应该有“一个主要雇用”：负责这项工作的人。她说：“确保这个人有资格并对绿色项目感兴趣是绝对关键的。”

To find that person, look for professionals participating in a green home building program. Check with local programs developed by industry groups, such as master builders associations, environmental nonprofits, and municipal utilities.

奥布莱恩说：“找到不仅是名字的成员，而且在本地计划中获得房屋认证的人们。”“这些小组中的大多数都有网站列出他们的会员，有时甚至可以查看经过认证的房屋。”在东北，查看Northeast Sustainable Energy Association;in the Southeast, check out theSouthface Energy Institute;在西北，查看Pacific Northwest EcoBuilding Guild。

您还可以访问国家组织的网站以获得团队联系。这U.S. Green Building Council在其网站上提供一个部分，以查找LEED认可的专业人员的成员。要成为LEED AP，成员必须通过严格的考试，以证明对绿色建筑实践和原则有透彻的理解。

组装您的团队
After you chose your key leader, together you can build your team. As you sort through contacts, ask these questions:.

1.他们拥有哪种类型的绿色培训和/或认证？对于许多关联，您应该能够通过联系其办公室或检查其网站来确认认证。

2.什么类型and how many green homes/remodels have they successfully completed? Ask them for a list of green references and be sure to check out the list.

3. How would they approach the project? Coordination among everyone on the team—owner, architect, designer, builder, trade, manufacturers—is vital to the success of a high-performance green project.

4. What is a green building from their perspective? Look for some of the following responses, to name just a few, along with specific project goals:

• Energy efficiency和保护，高性能建筑
• 室内环境质量
• 资源和材料efficiency and conservation
• 乘员健康
• Water efficiencyand conservation
• 设计创新

创建计划和时间表
采取业务方法进入您的绿色建筑或改建项目，这意味着创建书面计划和时间表。

• Analyze what you already have—either in your home, if it is a remodel, or in the site, if it is a new build. For a remodeling project, for example, schedule a home performance audit with tests that will determine base energy-efficiency levels.
• Review and clarify what you want out of the project. Set some achievable and measurable goals and determine how and when the success of those goals will be checked. For example, if energy conservation is a goal for a remodeling project, perhaps a blower-door test could be one way to determine success.
• Discuss potential challenges. Review various strategies that will meet your goals for your area of the country. Sustainability is about place. What may work well in one region may not be as effective a choice in your area. Check out national resources like the Department of Energy and EPA for wind and solar maps, for instance.
• Decide on the number of key meetings with the team as well how much you want to be involved. Decide if you will be involved daily, weekly or monthly.
• 评论设计概念。确保您的目标反映在计划中。
• 决定您的预算。对计划进行成本效益分析和投资计算回报率。许多变量有助于底线。
• 确定时间表，这取决于房屋或改建项目的大小。.根据Stelmack的说法，一旦签署了合同，并且所有团队成员就位，典型的时间范围可能包括在六到10周内进行示意图设计，并开发设计设计在8到12周内，并在10到14周内准备施工文件。

Working Through the Plan
当您考虑，创建和遵守绿色计划时，请记住以下其他事情：

• 绿色计划不必花费更多。奥布莱恩说：“您可以按预算建立预算，您不会让它控制您。”她建议实施在现场使用免费服务的策略，例如阳光，雨水，气流和地球恒温；提供多种好处，例如提供的绿色屋顶insulation, stormwater cleansing, heat island tempering and aesthetics; and that use strategies that reduce consumption such as efficient framing, drought-tolerant landscaping and insulation packages.
• A green plan can be successful even if the work is not started from scratch. “Prioritize and phase your improvements, whether it’s a remodel or new,” says O’Brien. “With our new home, we incorporated a garage design that had a skylight so that when we created a granny flat, we didn’t have to open the roof. We just upgraded our hydronic system and added a preheat solar collector.”
• 成为一个积极的团队合作者。积极主动，决定性，耐心和理解。在团队成员之间灌输公开沟通。
• 继续检查计划，并验证工作是否正在追踪并实现您的目标。
• Have fun. Building or remodeling your home can be a fulfilling and inspirational process, says green expert Annette Stelmack.

成功完成绿色计划后，学习如何操作新的绿色房屋或改建。绿色计划的成功可能会受到您的习惯和生活方式的极大影响。添加大电源用户，不编程可编程的恒温器或未能提供对房屋系统的常规维护将不允许该项目发挥其潜力。