I got confirmation today from our evaluator at Energy Logic who emailed that the USGBC has agreed with their evaluation and will award our house the Platinum LEED level! This is an exciting end to our quest for LEED certification. We began this journey ten years ago with our goal being the highest level of LEED.
We had no idea what the path would be or how long it would take.
We almost lost heart a few times as the rules for a gut remodel seemed to be beyond our reach. But we kept going, agreeing to any stipulations that would allow us to qualify. The two back bedrooms, were not demoed to the studs. But we were able to increase the insulation by having it blown in tightly to eliminate any gaps.
Qualifying as a gut remodel was the biggest obstacle along with eliminating air intrusion. For the rest we always chose the most energy efficient and technically advanced products we found. We were dedicated to reuse and recycling building materials. I studied building science and learned as much as I could about the energy and water conservation and healthy environment principles that LEED required and recommended.
We decided to add a Tesla solar roof as an upgrade to our garage roof solar panels. That 16.2 Kw of power is what put us over the top as a net zero house and earned the maximum number of points in energy and atmosphere. I’m keeping track and analyzing data from our systems so that the house will have records of performance.
Throughout this blog I’ve shared our efforts, our ups and downs, advances and delays. There are currently 670 posts and several pages of documentation. I enjoy telling the tale so the blog will continue. We don’t intend to stop improving the energy efficiency of the house and the development of homestead projects. We also have interior finishing to complete and of course ongoing maintenance and repair. I have been branching out to other projects and family times which I labeled distractions. But now they will become more central to this blog. This is the time to celebrate how far we have come in fulfilling this dream.
Until we get the actual certificate this revision of our original target certificate will have to do.
