Green Home Building - by Miki Cook & Doug Garrett (Paperback)

About the Book

A comprehensive guide to building green on any budget.

Book Synopsis

A comprehensive guide to building green on any budget.

According to conventional wisdom, building a green home is an expensive endeavor. The standard approach treats green as an add-on, tacking "premium" products, finishes, and equipment onto a traditional home design. As a result, many green home projects end up over budget or fail to achieve their environmental and performance goals.

Green Home Building explodes the myth that green homes have to cost more. Using proven methods based on applied building science, the authors show how to:

• Lower base construction costs to provide funding for high performance upgrades
• Achieve a net-zero energy home, including "zero-ing" water, waste, carbon, and associated costs within fifteen years
• Live affordably into the future, despite anticipated rising costs for fuel, water, materials, taxes, and health care

This comprehensive guide to building green on any budget defines the strategies that maximize the return on green investments. Written for anyone who has ever been swayed by the argument that the price tag limits how green a home can be, Green Home Building is a must-read for builders, contractors, architects, designers, and homeowners.

Miki Cook is a green building and sustainability consultant who has dedicated her career to educating contractors and the public on the strategies, methods, and benefits of green homes.

Doug Garrett has trained thousands of homebuilders, architects, and sub-contractors to build energy-efficient homes using applied building science to improve comfort, durability, and healthfulness while meeting or exceeding the energy code.

From the Back Cover

A COMPREHENSIVE GUIDE TO BUILDING GREEN ON ANY BUDGET

"... an invaluable resource for those committed to a deep understanding of what it means to build a green home." --- Ann V. Edminster, M.Arch., LEED AP, author, Energy Free: Homes for a Small Planet

"This book should be required reading for every architect, builder, and homeowner..." ---Wayne Jeansonne, President, Solluna Builders LLC, custom home builder, Austin, Texas

Green Home Building explodes the myth that high-performance, environmentally friendly homes have to cost more, paving the way for green-home ownership on any budget. Using proven methods based on applied building science, the authors show how to:

• Lower base construction costs to provide funding for premium upgrades
• Cut maintenance and operating costs and achieve a net zero energy home
• Live affordably into the future, despite anticipated rising prices for fuel, water, materials, taxes and health care.

This comprehensive guide delivers a complete suite of strategies that minimize resource depletion while maximizing return on investment. Written for anyone who has ever been swayed by the argument that the price tag limits how green a home can be; Green Home Building is a must-read for builders, contractors, architects, designers and homeowners.

"[Green construction] is about going back to the common-sense strategies of sustainability...Doug Garrett and Miki Cook have written a very engaging book that covers all these principles and more." --- Eric Tang and Paula Rojas, homeowners, Austin, Texas

Miki Cook is a green building and sustainability consultant who has dedicated her career to educating contractors and the public on the strategies, methods and benefits of green homes.

Doug Garrett is a building science consultant who has trained thousands of homebuilders, architects and sub-contractors to build energy-efficient homes using applied building science to improve comfort, durability and healthfulness while meeting or exceeding the energy code.

About the Author

Miki Cook is a green building and sustainability consultant for the oldest green building program in the nation, Austin Energy Green Building (AEGB). She has spent her career in the residential construction industry, where for the last two decades she has focused on green building certification including acting as Green Rater for the U.S. Green Building Council's LEED for Homes and Energy Star programs and ICC-700, The National Green Building Standard. More recently, Miki has dedicated her career to educating contractors and the public on the strategies, methods and benefits of green homes, and helping them to achieve those goals.

Doug Garrett, CEM, founded Austin Energy's Residential and Multi-Family Energy Conservation programs. He has studied building science, indoor air quality, moisture management, and heating, ventilation and air conditioning throughout his career. In 1996, Doug established the first building science consulting business in Texas, and continues to provide building science-based forensic investigations, diagnostics and design consultations for clients and home builders across the nation. Doug has presented hundreds of seminars on applied building science, energy efficiency, moisture management, energy codes, air conditioning, indoor air quality and green building, and has served on numerous advisory councils and task forces for high performance industry standards, energy codes, alternative fuels, health concerns and housing affordability.