Seven Green Trends for 2010

The first weeks of the year always drive building pros to predict which green products and technologies will emerge and which existing trends will gain greater acceptance, and 2010 has been no exception.

Green building experts point to the drop in price of photovoltaics, a widespread introduction of super-efficient water heaters and windows, finalized WaterSense specifications and, of course, the struggling economy as major developments leading to this year’s biggest trends.

Here are seven hot topics that will impact the way green pros do business.

 1. WATER CONSERVATION
One of the most talked-about concerns for the upcoming decade is water conservation, especially for builders and homeowners in hot and dry southwestern states. Though the drought has officially ended, the memory of water shortages—and the continued population shift South-ward—has driven many Americans to acknowledge the benefits of being frugal.

With the EPA’s release of the final WaterSense single-family guidelines on Dec. 31, the issue is sure to gain even more attention this year. The first national water-efficiency specification for new homes is designed to reduce water use by about 20% compared to a conventional new home with standard low-flow plumbing products. This means that toilets must use 1.28 gpf or less and faucet flow rates must be 1.5 gpm or less to qualify for the voluntary program.

“It will be interesting to see how that plays out,” says Preston Koerner, LEED AP and founder of green building Web site Jetson Green, which covers sustainable products, trends, and residential projects.

California’s recently enacted green building code, set to take effect Jan. 1, 2011, includes strict requirements for water use, including faucets that use 1.5 gpm or less, WaterSense-certified toilets, and weather- or moisture-sensing irrigation controllers.

Of all the water-conserving products that he’s come across, Koerner says he is intrigued most by the water savings possible with the easy-to-install Brondell Simple Flush, which quickly turns a standard toilet into a dual-flush unit, saving 30% to 50% on water use, and with Rainwater Hog modular storage tanks for roof runoff.

For homeowners looking to upgrade their faucets and fixtures, saving water does not have to mean sacrificing quality; meeting WaterSense standards requires manufacturers to meet performance metrics as well as flow rates. Plus, water-conscious consumers now have dozens of fixture styles to choose from, because most major manufacturers--including American Standard, Delta, and Kohler--now offer only 1.5-gpm products, lower than the 2.2-gpm required by law.

“There will be interest in swapping out older products for [low-flow] showerheads and faucets,” predicts Alex Wilson, founder and executive editor of Building Green LLC, publisher of Environmental Building News and the GreenSpec directory. Wilson is impressed by Delta’s H2Okinetic products, which use larger water droplets that retain heat better and create a warmer, more luxurious spray. “And the performance from a user standpoint is virtually the same; with today’s good faucet aerators, you can’t tell the difference.”

 2. GREEN REMODELING
Perhaps the second most significant trend is a continuing focus on retrofitting existing homes with energy-efficient improvements and water-conserving upgrades.

Helping fuel this movement is attention from the government, which has enacted several pieces of legislation to boost funding and motivation for home-energy retrofits. Many local agencies are getting on board as well, including developing special financing programs to help ease the burden of higher-dollar items such as solar and geothermal.

With a renewed emphasis on green home improvement, third-party certification will catch on this year with more remodelers because both the National Green Building Standard and LEED for Homes now have criteria for remodeled houses, says Michelle Desiderio, director of the NAHB Research Center’s Green Building Program.

She notes that the most sought-after green products won’t necessarily be exciting or unique; many products that earn points in green certification programs are conventional or improvements on existing products.

 “They’re not necessarily very sexy new products, but just products that can help a home perform better,” she says.

 3. SOLAR PRODUCTS
Demand for solar products will continue to be hot because photovoltaics dropped in price last year as production caught up to demand. Especially noteworthy are new low-profile systems that don’t detract from a home’s curb appeal.

For example, Koerner points to offerings such as Dow’s new Powerhouse photovoltaic shingles that can be integrated into rooftops with standard asphalt shingle materials and the barrel-style Solé Power Tile from SRS Energy, which installs alongside U.S. Tile’s traditional clay tile roofing.

Meanwhile, state, local, and federal tax incentives and utility company rebates will also continue to keep solar products in the limelight, Koerner says. For example, a bill proposed in Congress in early February aims to install solar photovoltaic systems on millions of roofs across the country over the next decade. The measure would offer rebates on top of existing incentives to cover up to half the cost of new solar arrays and solar water-heating systems, according to the legislation.

 4. ZERO-ENERGY HOMES
Cutting-edge designers and builders will continue to push net-zero projects closer to the mainstream in 2010 as a way to set themselves apart from competitors, Koerner says. These types of homes, which produce as much energy as they consume, go above and beyond typical third-party green-certified dwellings.

Wilson agrees that it’s not too soon to be talking about the acceptance of zero-energy houses, citing the success of the Germany-based Passivhaus movement in Europe.

“There’s finally a lot of excitement about the Passive House movement, so I expect to see much great interest in that throughout the country,” he says. “It’s brand new here but if you look at where it’s been active in Europe for the last 10 years, one-quarter of new homes in Austria is being built to Passivhaus standards.”

The rigorous, ultra-efficient building technique will take a while to fully catch on, Wilson says, but he believes smart builders will start educating themselves this year. (Learn more at Passive House Institute.)

“When we hit our next price hike in energy, which is likely to happen when the economy recovers, everywhere you turn there are going to be articles about people in different communities building Passive houses,” he says. “At that point people are going to take notice and then we’ll see more widespread acceptance of the technology.”

One of the companies making this trend available to average homeowners, Vancouver-based Fab-homes recently introduced a collection of pre-designed houses inspired by Passive House principles for the North American market. The homes are designed to consume up to 90% less energy for heating, cooling, and building operation than a standard house and up to 50% less that a LEED-Platinum home.

“The idea is to make Passive House design more accessible and affordable and present a selection of different shapes offering flexible, ready-to-go design solutions,” says Alexander Maurer, director of Fab-homes.

 5. ENERGY MONITORING
Web-based monitoring programs that show real-time energy use are expected to go a long way toward helping change homeowners’ behavior and drive energy conservation, according to many green building pros. Several companies are betting on the trend, with product introductions including the Google PowerMeter, Microsoft hohm, and Wattvision systems.

“With smart meters and grids, we’ll see that energy monitoring stuff is going to explode,” Koerner says. “It will be huge in the next year.”

GE, for example, will release a Home Energy Manager touchscreen device alongside the upcoming launch of its Smart Grid-enabled appliances. The availability of home-wired monitoring systems such as these also is growing, and manufacturers are reporting that the devices truly are impacting homeowner behavior.

Some production builders have already caught on to the trend. Pulte's Villa Trieste community of solar-powered homes in northwest Las Vegas features advanced meters that track energy use in real time, allowing the utility company to adjust energy output to the home during peak hours when the grid becomes strained.

 6. SUPER-EFFICIENT WINDOWS
The time has come for super-high-performance windows to catch on with American homeowners, Wilson predicts, especially in colder regions.

Introduced last year, Serious Windows’ ThermaProof windows, for instance, use a combination of low-E glass coatings, suspended low-E films, and xenon gas fill to achieve a unit insulating value up to R-13 (instead of the standard U-value rating, the company utilizes R-value, which measures resistance to heat loss). “That’s extraordinary performance,” Wilson says, although he notes that the windows are 20% to 30% more expensive than double-glazed low-E units.

The green building expert believes more American manufacturers soon will offer competing products, eventually lowering prices. Another high-performance option, triple-glazing, already is offered by some companies, including Marvin and Weather Shield.
 
“Triple-glazed windows will be taken seriously and as that happens other [leading] manufacturers are going to get involved,” he says.

The DOE recently announced plans to create a volume-purchase program for R-5 and low-E storm windows, which would make them more price-accessible to smaller builders.

In addition, Wilson predicts that pros will begin specing different glazings for different orientations of a home, further improving energy performance.

 7. HEAT PUMP WATER HEATERS
In 2009, several manufacturers began aggressively marketing heat pump water heaters, and for that reason Wilson thinks the super-efficient units will gain wider acceptance. “I believe this will be the year that they will finally be taken seriously,” he says.

Available for more than 20 years, heat pump water heaters use electricity to move heat instead of generating heat directly; therefore, they are two to three times more energy efficient than conventional water heaters, but their higher cost keeps many buyers away.

Nevertheless, Wilson says, interest in heat-pump water heaters is growing, driven in part by new Energy Star standards for water heaters that electric storage models cannot meet and more stringent DOE standards for water heaters that are on the horizon.
 
Several new products were introduced last year, including models from GE and Rheem.

Jennifer Goodman is Senior Editor Online for EcoHome.