EXPERIMENTAL HOMES NEARLY READY FOR ENERGY
TESTS; THE LEXINGTON DUPLEXES COULD FORECAST THE
FUTURE OF CONSTRUCTION.
taken from the Housing Zone Daily News
The only thing obviously unusual about the
four alternative houses contractor Buddy Hughes has built is the whiskery wires
that stick out of their walls.
The wires are fiber optic cables that monitor energy use in the homes and send
the information to the Washington, D.C., offices of the National Association for
Home Builders Research Center.
Each of the houses, built side by side, is made of different materials, and the
information received by the center ultimately will be used to determine the
energy-efficiency and cost of such alternative building materials.
The project off B.R. Hunt Road is part of PATH, or Partnership for Advancing
Technology in Housing, a public-private enterprise led by the U.S. Department of
Housing and Urban Development. There has been only one other PATH projected
completed in North Carolina.
The concept is simple. Wood rots and makes a tasty repast for termites, and
fiberglass loses its energy-efficiency. But the outlandish ''houses of the
future'' with ''space-age materials'' featured in a host of old 1950s
documentaries have always seemed like science fiction. So some builders have
started experimenting with non-traditional material to build traditional-looking
homes.
''There's nothing about these homes that makes them look different from
conventional, stick-built places,'' Hughes said. ''We've found that if you
change things too much, there's a lot of resistance.''
The four ranch-style duplexes look identical, with their brick and vinyl siding
and two-bedroom, one-bath floor plans.
One that's already completed is a traditional stick-built home, which will serve
as a control for the energy comparisons.
One is made of insulated concrete form, which has two, thick pieces of plastic
foam between which concrete is poured. Another is built of ThermaSteel, large
but light steel frames sandwiching plastic foam. The third is constructed of
aerated autoclaved concrete, which resembles concrete cinder blocks but is made
up of coal byproducts. It's lighter and more energy efficient than concrete.
''Homes built like these are twice as efficient, more resistant to natural
disasters but still affordable, and they'll remain as efficient in 100 years as
they are now,'' said Hughes, who intends to use them as rental properties.
Dan Priest, a research analyst with the research center in Washington, calls
Hughes ''an enlightened builder,'' noting that many are often slow to embrace
new materials because it slows work down a bit.
''We're really grateful to Buddy for giving us these side-by-side tests,''
Priest said. ''They allow us to compare energy efficiency for the different home
types, compile the results and send information we gain to the building
industry.'' Contact Justin Cord Hayes at 883-4422, Ext. 238 or jhayes@news-record.com
Copyright 2001 News & Record (Greensboro,
NC)
News & Record (Greensboro, NC)
August 19, 2001, Sunday, HIGH POINT/RANDOLPH EDITION
BYLINE: BY JUSTIN CORD HAYES; Staff Writer
DATELINE: LEXINGTON
Copyright©
2001 LEXIS-NEXIS, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights Reserved.