Times Union of Albany, NY
Section: Business
Page: E1
Publication Date: Thursday, March 10, 2005

Builder sees green with energy savers

Community of efficient homes in works

By KEVIN HARLIN
Business writer

WILTON - Maybe it isn't easy being green. But a Ballston Spa developer doesn't think it's that difficult either.

Frank Laskey, president of Capital Construction, has plans for what might be the first "green" community in the Capital Region - a cluster of 22 highly energy-efficient homes off Louden Road in Wilton to be called Louden Ridge.

The model home, which was completed in September, is under contract for about $1 million to a young Capital Region family. It's the first in the region - and only the second in New York state - to be certified as having a healthy atmosphere inside by the American Lung Association through its Health House program.

The house and its energy-efficient systems are also being evaluated by the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority and the National Association of Home Builders.

"When you say `green,' many people think freeze-dried, '60s hippie-types," Laskey said during a tour of the three-bedroom model home. "They think funky, earthen-berms and sod roofs."

His model house isn't that.

And he promises that the 21 others he expects to start building on the surrounding 95 acres this spring won't be either. He said they would be listed at prices ranging from $550,000 to more than $1 million.

The show house is a modern, custom structure that borrows architectural cues from some of the barns and farmhouses in town, such as the gables and a cupola.

Laskey said the engineers estimate the 3,600-square-foot home could cost $1,490 a year to light, heat and cool - about half what he estimated it would cost with a traditionally built and equipped home.

Those savings don't come cheap.

The energy-saving upgrades - different building materials and methods, and systems such as a computer control center that maintains the climate inside - add 5 percent to 10 percent to the final cost of the house.

But other features are free. The house is situated to take advantage of natural light and passive solar heating, for instance.

Such "green" homes have been built throughout the region in ones or twos - typically at the request of a homeowner.

But Rita Sickels, executive officer of the Capital Region Builders and Remodelers Association Inc., said builders typically aren't advertising them. And customers aren't routinely demanding them.

But Laskey said he thinks niche demand will grow as home buyers become more ecologically conscious and as building codes adapt to require some of the improvements.

Laskey's model house is chockablock with efficient appliances, window coverings that keep heat in or out, and behind-the-scenes systems that quietly circulate fresh, clean air through out.

In keeping with its American Lung Association clean-air rating, the one noticeable thing this new house does not have is that new-house smell.

Laskey uses paint and carpeting that do not vent gases that create the odor familiar to new-car or new-house buyers. And the home's computer-controlled system constantly vents the air in the home, pulling fresh air in, and blowing the stale air out.

"We used to be proud of that smell," Laskey said. "Turns out we were just breathing in all those toxins."

Advocates of such homes say the techniques aren't that radical or new.

"It's not really rocket science," said Bob Moffitt, American Lung Association spokesman for the Health House Program. "We know how to do it. It's just that the building codes in most areas don't call for it yet."

Re-used by permission of the Times Union of Albany, N.Y. - www.timesunion.com