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Case Study: MacLeod/Morand Residence

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A homeowner who also happens to be an architect, contractor and Certified Green Building Professional tackles his family’s bungalow, transforming the cramped and dated floor plan into a spacious, energy efficient and modern home.

“Everything is very comfortable. That’s a big part of the day-to-day experience of green.” —Ian MacLeod

Project Stats

Location:	Albany, CA
GreenPoint Rated score:	231
Year built:	1927
Original size:	1,100 square feet
New size:	2,010 square feet
Project scope:	Replace 75% of existing structure Upgrade all systems Add second story with 2 bedrooms, 1 bath
Architect/Builder:	MacLeod Design & Construction
GreenPoint Rater:	Russell Bayba

Revamping an Older Tract House


	Before construction, front of home.

“We knew we had to do something,” said Ian MacLeod of the home he shares with his wife, Beatrice Morand, and their two children. The Mediterranean-style bungalow was “a fairly typical early tract house,” according to MacLeod, with two bedrooms, one bath and cramped social spaces that made for a tight squeeze when entertaining more than six people.

The couple considered moving but “we liked the location, we liked the lot and the light,” said MacLeod, an architect and contractor who has been a Certified Green Building Professional since 2003.

Instead of relocating, they decided to remodel. “We started with the idea of adding a second story,” he said. They also decided to widen the home by building a new entryway off to the side. The original front door opened directly into the living room, an awkward layout that contributed to the interior’s hemmed-in feeling.

As an architect and builder, MacLeod was familiar with green building strategies, but remodeling his family’s home gave him an opportunity to improve an older, not-so-green house from top to bottom. Ultimately, MacLeod and Morand decided to rebuild most of the home’s structure and to replace all of its systems, equipment and finishes—from heating, lighting and water heating to appliances, cabinets and floors—with energy-efficient and green options.

In the process, MacLeod transformed the home’s look and feel both inside and out. What was once a plain and rather dated bungalow is now a spacious modern house glowing with daylight and gleaming with contemporary finishes like recycled glass counters and bamboo floors and cabinetry.

GreenPoint Rated Adds Value

GPR Certificate

When MacLeod decided to have his home GreenPoint Rated, construction was mostly completed. In hindsight, MacLeod believes it makes sense to start the rating process sooner.

“You can benefit from the rater’s advice as you go along,” he said. The GreenPoint Rater he used, Russell Bayba, “has a lot of experience in energy systems and energy efficiency,” MacLeod said.

If he could do the project over again, MacLeod would “do the blower door test earlier in the project,” he said. This test, which is performed on all homes participating in GreenPoint Rated Existing Home, gives an indication of how much air is leaking into the home around windows, doors and other penetrations in the building’s shell. Although MacLeod is a stickler for careful air sealing, he still found that the blower door test “was really valuable,” he said. “I could feel where air was coming in. Some was coming through the electrical outlets.”

MacLeod would also pay more attention to the quality of the ductwork installation. A duct leakage test conducted as part of the GreenPoint Rating process revealed that the duct sealing “wasn’t as good as I hoped. I thought the guy I hired was doing a pretty good job but he could have been better,” MacLeod said.

Doing additional duct sealing is harder now that “everything is buttoned up,” he said. His advice to other remodelers: “Test what you’re doing and find out for sure.”

Energy Use and Greenhouse Gas Emissions

Water Heating

A new solar hot water system meets more than 80% of the household’s hot water needs. Taking a hot shower with sun-heated water is high on MacLeod’s list of worthwhile green improvements. “A simple, satisfying thing like solar hot water is just great,” he said.

A conventional electric water heater supplements the solar system. Although electricity is less efficient than natural gas for heating water, MacLeod felt it was a good choice because he also installed a photovoltaic system that generates electricity. Usually the electric water heater isn’t even on. “We only plug it in after two or three very cloudy days in a row,” he said.

Electricity Generation and Energy Efficiency

PV and hot water heating system

A 2.6-kilowatt photovoltaic system was sized to meet nearly 100% of the household’s projected electricity use. MacLeod reports that in its first year after installation, it produced more electricity than the household consumed. The family uses natural gas only for the furnace and clothes dryer.

The PV system isn’t particularly large for a family of four, but it’s big enough, in part because MacLeod admits to being a bit of a fanatic when it comes to reducing electricity consumption. New light switches and GFCI outlets often have small lights that glow constantly, drawing tiny amounts of electricity. MacLeod selected new switches without glow lights and GFCI plugs that only light up if the circuit trips. To further cut “phantom loads” that constantly consume tiny amounts of electricity, the family’s entertainment devices and computers are plugged into plug strips that can be switched off at night.

MacLeod and Morand chose all-electric kitchen appliances to take full advantage of their PV system. “We tried to get very efficient appliances and to reduce loads as much as possible,” he said. “We got an induction cooktop, an electric oven, and an Energy Star refrigerator.”

He is a big fan of the energy-efficient induction technology for cooking. “I like it better than gas,” he said. “It’s super fast to heat things up and super responsive.”

Air Sealing, Heating & Ventilating

To seal air leaks that waste energy, MacLeod caulked extensively and used spray foam to fill gaps in the door framing and around windows and pipe penetrations. “It doesn’t take that long,” he said, and it “makes a big difference.”


	Recycled content cotton fiber insulation.

The vaulted ceiling cavities are insulated with blown-in recycled cellulose insulation and the wall cavities are filled with recycled cotton batts. “It’s really great for soundproofing,” MacLeod said of the cotton insulation, “and it’s so easy to put in.”

For the new structural framing, instead of the more conventional 2x4 studs centered on 16 inches, MacLeod used 2x6 studs centered on 24 inches. This framing technique is equally sound from a structural perspective and allows for thicker insulation to be installed.

He replaced the old furnace with a smaller high efficiency unit (95% AFUE). It has a variable speed blower that uses less power than single-speed blowers. Adding a second story gave him an opportunity to improve the home’s natural ventilation. He used the new stairwell to create a stack effect, with operable windows positioned at the top of the stairs to pull warm air up and out of the house. “The stack effect and the way we can vent air out of the top is a pleasant way of being in the house,” he said.

MacLeod is pleased with the home’s integration of passive design strategies, a tight building envelope and efficient mechanical systems.
“Everything is very comfortable. It’s not drafty in the winter. It retains heat, and even on cool days outside it’s pleasantly warm inside. And when it’s hot outside, it’s relatively cool inside. That’s a big part of the day-to-day experience of green.”

Lighting and Daylighting

The long axis of the house runs east-west, giving it good southern exposure. MacLeod added more windows on the south side to bring in sunlight in the winter, early spring and late fall for daylighting and passive solar heating. He also added a skylight and raised some windows to let in more light.


	Click photos for larger view.

One of the challenges of daylighting and passive solar design is allowing in enough sun without introducing too much heat. MacLeod had lived in the home for years before he started redesigning it, so he had a good idea of how sunlight would interact with spaces. To confirm that his ideas were on target, he took a scale model of the design to the heliodon at the Pacific Energy Center in San Francisco. A heliodon is a device that simulates how sunlight and shading will fall on a site or building at any time of day or year.

Using the heliodon “didn’t change the design but it confirmed what I figured was going to happen,” MacLeod said. “It’s funny, now I can be in the space and see sunlight in a certain pattern and flash back to using the heliodon.”

Indoor Air Quality

Integrated with the new furnace and ductwork is an energy recovery ventilation system, which brings fresh outdoor air into the home all year round without wasting energy.

“It’s a nice system to have for ventilation and keeping the whole house fresher,” especially in the winter when opening windows wastes heating energy, MacLeod said.

Healthier interior materials also help keep the air fresh. New cabinets throughout the house are constructed of plywood with no added urea formaldehyde, a carcinogenic wood adhesive used in conventional cabinetry.

The interior paints have low levels of volatile organic compounds (VOCs). For finishing woodwork, MacLeod chose linseed oil instead of a petrochemical-based product.

Resource Conservation

Although MacLeod wound up gutting nearly 75% of the original structure, he was adamant about not letting good materials go to waste.

“We took it apart piece by piece and stick by stick, and saved all the wood that was useful,” he said. He reused the floor joists, and saved all the wall framing, some of which was repurposed for nonstructural interior partition walls and for handrails. He even cleaned up the form boards that were used when pouring concrete for new sections of the foundation, and reused them as rafters.


	Click photos for larger view.

Some of the salvaged wood was “junky,” MacLeod admits, but much of it was “vertical grain Douglas fir. It was really high quality wood.”

In addition to salvaging the existing lumber, most of the new lumber he bought and some of the plywood was certified by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) to have come from sustainably harvested forests. For the roof framing and upstairs floor joists, he used engineered lumber, which makes more efficient use of trees than conventional lumber does.

Other green materials include recycled cotton and recycled cellulose insulation, bamboo cabinets and floors, and a recycled glass countertop in the bathroom.

Water Conservation

The home’s toilets are now high efficiency models that use less than 1.28 gallons per flush (federal law mandates no more than 1.6 gallons per flush). Showerheads and faucets also exceed federal code requirements for water conservation.

For the new landscaping, the couple chose plants that are drought-tolerant or need little water, and an efficient irrigation system with a smart controller that waters according to plant needs, soil moisture and weather. The topsoil was amended with compost and dressed with mulch to help retain moisture in the soil and improve soil quality. Less than one-third of the landscaped property is planted with turf that requires irrigation.

Community & Living Green

The project received GreenPoint Rated points for being located in an urban setting served by public transit. The home also earned points for its efficient size and its location in a compact, walkable neighborhood with stores,

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