Another Energy Star Completed Home

Wanting to celebrate Christmas at their home in N.H. was the deadline for our recent clients. Abode began this Energy Star Version 2.5 home in July and by November gave these excited homeowners the guarantee they'd be hosting that first Christmas in N.H. with their children, grandchildren and canine companions.

Building many years ago and knowing building standards and choices have changed greatly, our clients took a year and a half to research home builders that offered the energy efficiencies, quality, turnkey timeline and the critical budget for the house they hand in mind to build.

Informal meetings ensued with our project manager Gerald Fransen and Principal Bob Wildes to hone the goals and wish list items they wanted in this 2 floor, full basement home. References of recent clients allowed them to ask impartial questions to those experiences of building an Abode home from inception to completion.
Once built, a comprehensive energy performance review was done by Horizon Residential Energy Services. By comparing this house to a computer model of the exact same house if it were built to current NEC (national energy code) standards gives a HERS (home energy rating systems) score. On a scale of 0-100, zero being a highly efficient home and 100 being built to the energy code minimum an index score of 80 or less is necessary to achieve the Energy Star label.
This home scored a HERS index of 56 making this home 44% more efficient than a standard code built home!
From the ICF basement where the "Man Cave" is bright, dry and comfortably housed to the 2nd floor sewing room/office, each area will enjoy similar interior comfort due to the combination of products used.
Panelized construction, Pella Energy star windows and doors, spray foam and fiberglass insulation, coupled with Energy Star lighting and appliances and high efficiency boiler all add up to lower fuel and utility costs. Combined with the value engineering Abode incorporates into any project, gives peace of mind and the confidence that good decision making prior to construction and ongoing suggestions/support benefit the client and their home for many years to come.

Water, water everywhere-Managing excess on your property

Corralling snow melt or the abundance of rain, before hitting the busy roadway led to the creation of a bio retention swale here at Abode. The objective is to funnel storm water runoff from our paved parking area where there is no curb into a depression or “swale” rather than running directly into the drainage system beside Tenney Mtn. Hwy.

To encourage infiltration onsite, a calculation was done by a civil engineer to account for the number of square feet of impervious area (ie: paved parking area, amount of roofing, sidewalks etc.) to determine the amount of pervious surface needed to offset this in the form of a storage system.

Bio-retention systems are shallow depressions made with a layer of sand beneath topsoil to hold captured water and slowly release the excess. This prevents more water from entering the Baker River unfettered, and puts less stress on the drainage ditch.

A “weir” made of stone rip rap acts as an escape valve for overflow when the swale completely fills, spilling over into the wetland vegetation below. Planted with grasses and other native species that don’t mind being water logged for short periods of time and enjoy longer dry spells reduces erosion, supports a habitat and food source for insects, birds and other wildlife.

A similar type of depression known as a rain garden is a means to carry, as well as treat storm water. Excess water is diverted by the small dry river bed made of small rocks around the house into the rain garden. Plants with deep fibrous roots like this Tamarind tree and wild grasses thrive and provide cleaning and filtration benefits. This hydrated collection area is an attractive area for plants and animals, and keeps water on our property allowing it to slowly seep back down into the aquifer.

An aquifer is essentially an underground body of water that lies well below the surface permeated in porous rock, much like a beach. When you dig a hole in the sand, the wet sand at the bottom of this shallow hole or “well” represents an aquifer. The level the water rises to in the hole would be your water table.

Planning and creating a system to manage excess water runoff gives a twofold benefit. By minimizing destructive erosion to your property and limiting the spillover effect to surrounding land it places less burden on the public drainage system. Slowing down excess reduces the barrage introduced to the nearby river and allows us to contain as much water as possible to our property and ultimately filtered back into the aquifir. Paired with beautiful plantings your quality of life gets a boost along with your property values.

PSU intern C. Cook & Project Mgr. G. Fransen honored

A recent PSU Environmental Planning intern, Chris Cook and ABODE's Project Manager Gerald Fransen were recently honored in the University's "Simply Amazing" viewbook, which is used to promote Plymouth State University in the United States as well as abroad.

Working with Gerald, Chris was able to correlate office work involved on projects with field experience during the course of building Abode was doing at multiple locations. Witnessing many phases of construction from preplanning to handing the keys over to the owner gave him real world experience for the energy efficient green building we are known for.

During those winter months as they carpooled to jobsites, valuable one on one time was available to discuss different aspects of these homes and the systems that would be going into them. A trouper, Chris was prepared to do everything from sweeping up at a jobsite to doing estimating and takeoffs and with good humor. Interacting with subcontractors and having opportunities to problem solve were an invaluable source of experience for him and a welcome chance for Abode to mentor a budding professional.

John McKeith Photography courtesy of Plymouth State University

Abode rainbows

Great rainbows from one of our multiple recent storms.

Between 2008 and 2010, twenty seven states passed legislation enabling Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) programs. Local governments were then allowed to raise funds for homeowners and businesses to use for renewable or energy efficient systems. The owner would then repay the lending agency eventually through property tax. Shortly after being set up it was put on hold by the Federal Housing Finance Authority (FHFA) which considered PACE programs loans instead of tax assessments and would not support mortgages for these properties. Recently, the PACE Protection Act of 2011, has been introduced, and has been quickly gathering bipartisan support. Its main goal will be to get PACE programs back up and running and more homeowners and businesses using alternative energy sources.
PACE has great potential here in Plymouth, which has been part of the Beacon Communities program. Last year Plymouth as well as Nashua and Berlin, started a combined effort to reduce energy usage by modifying buildings to be more energy efficient.

Check out http://www.betterbuildingsnh.com/ and http://pacenow.org/blog/wp-content/uploads/HR-2599-PACE-Protection-Act-of-2011.pdf

Indoor Air Quality

There have been a number of visitors to Abode recently who have been concerned with indoor air quality. Anyone who struggles with allergies knows that clean air can be hard to find, especially this past spring. Indoor air pollution is composed of particulate matter, for example, dust, pollen, molds, and bacteria, as well as gaseous pollutants, which are given off, among others, by stoves, paints, varnishes, and cleaning products. According to the EPA, poor indoor air quality is among the top five environmental health risks. But take a deep breath, there are many methods to get cleaner air.
As we learn more about indoor air quality’s contribution to health problems, using low volatile organic compound (VOC) paints and carpeting, as well as having an air filtration system in our homes becomes an evident necessity. Efficiency of removing particles from the air is measured by the minimum efficiency reporting value (MERV), with a scale from 1 to 20. Medium efficiency filters from MERV 5-13 are reasonably efficient at removing a range of airborne particles. Heat Recovery Ventilation (HRV) is also beneficial up north here, where like it or not, it is cold at least 8 months out of the year. HRV systems allow the heat from the exiting air to transfer to the incoming air, increasing your home’s heating/cooling efficiency. For more information about indoor air quality check out http://www.epa.gov/iaq/ia-intro.html.

Abode's Current Energy Star report

Check out this exciting news:



ABODE Builders of New England,
Thank you for your continued partnership with ENERGY STAR. By building ENERGY STAR qualified homes, your company is doing its part to help protect the environment while offering consumers new homes that are more comfortable and save money on utility bills.
Our records indicate that your company built a total of:
4 ENERGY STAR Qualified Homes in 2010*

• This is equivalent to:
  Eliminating the emissions from 1.96 vehicles
  Saving 11,856 lbs of coal
  Planting 3.24 acres of trees
  Saving homeowners $1,788 on their utility bills
  We thank you for the important contribution that your organization has made to energy-efficient construction and environmental protection.* Your ENERGY STAR Qualified Homes are reported quarterly to EPA by your Home Energy Rating Provider.

Holderness School AP Class visit

Holderness School Environmental Science AP Class visits ABODE

The 19 Holderness School students in Reggie Pettitt's Advanced Environmental Science classes recently visited Abode to learn more about green design -build concepts. Project Manager and Certified Green Professional Gerald Fransen spoke with the students and fielded questions about sustainable building technologies & products that produce Abode homes making them 40% more efficient than traditional code built homes.



The first 8 students arrived early for this field trip that featured a 3-d model cutaway showing features such as:

• Ice and water shield, 30 yr. architectural shingles made with 30- 40% post consumer waste that is recycled.


• Various open and closed cell spray foam insulation for walls.


• ICF's (insulated concrete forms) with an R-24 rating.

The following day 12 more students were introduced to the product benefits, material choices and principals Abode uses when building to Energy Star or Leed standards. Points touched upon were:

• Higher insulation values reduce a/c and heating usage during the course of a year which can equal a 30-70% reduced fuel consumption.


• Energy Star 3.0 requirements and compliance becoming more stringent as of July 1, 2011.


• Passive solar orientation.


• Blower door testing which tests the amount of air leakage and air changes needed per hour for fresh air.
HERS rating's & how it will eventually be tied to a home being sold, helping the consumer evaluate that homes utility costs. "A home that just meets code has a HERS Index of 100. For every point above or below 100, the home is that many % less or more efficient than the same home built to code."* For example, a HERS Index of 57 which is 43% more efficient than its code-built counterpart.

• The benefits of high efficiency boilers and heating systems couples with on demand hot water.


• Solar and Geothermal systems benefits & costs were given discussion time as well.

As these students are engaged in the ongoing LEED dormitory project at the Holderness School, we are encouraged by the catalysts and environment they are exposed to that will ultimately shape more efficient futures.

Our Mountain Model hits the big time in Times Square

What a little thrill to see a low resolution snapshot of our Mountain Model home that made its debut on the Times Square Reuters sign on 3 seperate days! A nice shout out to our friends at Pella who got the ball rolling by choosing us to highlight their energy star windows we use. I wonder if any urban dwellers had a tinge of wistfullness looking at it on the grey dreary days they had last week.

Our Project Managers quote centerpiece for Pella Postcard

Recently our Project Manager here at Abode, Gerald Fransen was showcased in a promotional feature by Pella Windows! This was used at the recent Pro Expo event and will also be used in the upcoming N.H. Home Builders annual directory.

We typically use various sizes of their Proline Architectural series of Low-E double paned Argon filled energy star rated windows and doors as seen in our Mountain model home on this card.

The interior is wood which can be prestained(water based) to match your woodwork or preprimed saving time. The foldaway crank handle lies flat not interferring with blinds and not scraping your knuckles.

The exterior is aluminum clad with a baked on finish (available in a spectrum of colors) is a great low maintenance feature that doesn't give that chalky finish over time.

With the amount of traffic here on Tenney Mountain highway (read-18 wheelers and lumber trucks down shifting) the noise could be conversation stopping, but not so once inside. These beautiful casement windows let you see the assorted vehicles, but you never need raise your voice over the outside din due to the thermal and accoustical properties these windows have.

The passive solar orientation of our model allows the brightness of sunshine into these rooms, but 86% of the u/v rays are blocked, thereby minimizing damage to our textiles.

So, keep a lookout for Gerald's tag line on the Pella postcards that we will be mailing out shortly!

Holderness School Senior Colloquium

Abode was pleased to host a visit by 4 Seniors of the Holderness School as part of their 10 day Immersion program, learning about our Green building philosophy and the LEED Platinum certification our model home possesses.

New construction to LEED standards currently happening at Holderness, will give students the opportunity to make educated suggestions towards that process.

Points of interest touched upon were Led & cfl lighting, use of no -VOC paint, specifically designated area's for recycling, the use of products with recycled content (from shingles to carpet) as well as appliances that conserve water (dual flush commodes, low flow shower heads)and mechanical systems with high efficiency (tankless hot water on demand and heat recovery ventilation).

Plymouth State University senior intern Chris Cook, was also on hand to discuss his experiences when working with PSU's Eco-House transformation.

See the progress

Check out the progress the Energy Star home has made that we posted when you could see the bare ground!

BetterBuildings Program

Abode welcomes Madeline McElaney to the Plymouth area as the new Plymouth Community Manager for the BetterBuildings Program, which is open to businesses and residents in Plymouth, Nashua & Berlin N.H.
Working with local municipalities, property owners, building auditors and contractors the program is designed to coordinate energy efficient retrofit projects, working with local financial institutions to help finance them.
What an opportunity to take advantage of!
Madeline's office is located at
85 Main St in Plymouth, N.H. 03264
Phone# 603 717-6531

Permeable pavers at work

The front entrance allready melting from solar action on the
permeable pavers.

Snowy Steps

Enjoy the beauty of the nor'easter yesterday? If you were one of the many who got an unexpected "snow" day keeping you home from work or enjoying snowforts w/ kids from school, it can be a seldom enjoyed pleasure.

Doesn't limited shoveling make you feel good after being sedentary behind a desk or enjoying an old movie on a snow day too?

After shoveling and then sweeping the walkways, I'm appreciating the foresight of the permeable pavers set during landscaping. I know a few sunny days even in winter, allows the snow or rain to seep through the voids leaving a solid surface that rarely gets icy to warrant sand for traction, unlike the solid concrete on the north side of my home that is like an ice rink until spring!
Permeable pavers allow water to drain into your plant root systems along with nutrients & minerals thereby reducing your need for an outside water supply via tapwater. It offers stability and reinforcement by controlling erosion from storm water runoff to boot!

Yet another eco friendly perk when foreplanning or when spring fever hits and you begin to plan what to do beneath a walkout deck needing a more viable option than the sparse grass, weeds or pea stone that gets spread everywhere. How nice to be able to enjoy a beverage in your chair and table outside on a stable surface & relax during the twilight of the day.

White snow isn't terribly conducive to imagining a green spring, but there are only 60 more days...