Extending green building to masses

Jeffrey Mitchell’s company specializes in integrating controls for lighting, alarm, heating and entertainment systems into a single control system. His typical customer owns a home with a value of at least $2 million that contains dozens, or even hundreds, of elements requiring integration. But there are only so many of those customers around and now Mitchell, chief systems designer for the Charlestown-based RS Design Group, is seeking ways to use the same technology to enter a new market: creating greener homes.
RS Design Group recently completed the installation of a system that tracks energy usage and automates lighting and heating systems in a home in Narragansett. Mitchell said the system was a first for the company that now believes it can market scaled-down systems. Those systems would cost a few thousand dollars as opposed to the company’s typical systems that average $40,000 per home. The company formed a new division about four months ago called RS Ecomagic solely to focus on integrating green technology.
“The idea was to see if we could develop another market, not just houses that are overly complicated and need to be simplified” through a central control, Mitchell said.
The system Mitchell installed in the Narragansett home provides the homeowners with a continuous stream of information, including the amount of electricity being used, how it is being used and can provide a history of energy usage spanning the past six months. The system also stitches together all of the lights in the home and allows someone to shut off all the lights with one button.
RS Design Group utilized existing technology in a way that “wasn’t exactly written on the box” to create the system, Mitchell said. He pointed to a sensor under the driveway touted by the manufacturer as a way to trigger the doorbell to ring when a car pulls up. Instead, Mitchell tied it to the outdoor lights, which now only come on when someone pulls into the driveway, saving energy and ultimately saving dollars. It is also an item RS Design can market on its own or as part of a small package aimed at the midincome homeowner market. He is not the only one seeking to jump on the green bandwagon.
“I think the opportunity is there for a lot of people to capitalize on this. Right now it’s called green building, but I think in 10 years it will be just building again because these are going to become standards,” said Kimberly Hageman, the Narragansett homeowner.
She launched Green Life Smart Life to both raise awareness of the technology and to provide companies – some of which are her clients at her marketing firm – a platform to show off their green skills. And during an open house in early December company representatives were eager to show off their work on the home.
Lisa Ayala, a sales manager for London-based Titan Wood, said her company planned to include photos of the home’s porch and deck in its marketing materials that will make their way around the world.
The modified pine Titan supplied meets Forest Stewardship Council standards that lumber distributors and home centers are increasingly demanding suppliers meet, Ayala said.
“The world’s … more aware of the need to find alternatives to old-growth forests,” she said. “This opportunity is huge for us now.”
Other companies say they are already seeing environmental concerns driving business. Five years ago homeowners gave no thought to insulating piping, said Jeanne Reddy, an HVAC designer at Reddy Piping Concepts in Narragansett. Back then the company never went out on a job just to insulate piping, she said.
But then energy prices went through the roof two years ago and people started calling. Today, about 10 percent of the company’s work involves retrofitting existing piping systems to make them more energy efficient, Reddy said.
“It was definitely one of the areas where business began to grow in the past [few] years,” she said. And while a desire to reduce energy bills by homeowners has helped Reddy, tax incentives have spurred business for Hazard Steward, managing director at Newport Geothermal.
He said his company sees a growing market for the systems – which pull heat from the ground – as long as Congress keeps federal tax credits in place. Those credits let homeowners deduct 30 percent of the cost of the system on their federal tax returns.
Stewart said that keeps the price of the system on par with a traditional gas or oil heating system and keeps customers calling.
“If those go away it takes technology out of the hands of the medium-income bracket,” he said.
Other tax credits help offset the cost of purchasing energy-efficient appliances. And the state is preparing a program – paid for with $1 million from the federal stimulus program – that will provide rebates to Rhode Island residents that purchase qualifying appliances.
The program, which could come online as soon as late January, would offer consumers rebates between $150 and $500 for new energy-efficient appliances provided they turn in their old one.
In general, the new appliance will need to meet Energy Star guidelines and will apply to a host of appliances including refrigerators, freezers and dishwashers, as well as boilers and water heaters, said Kenneth Payne, a consultant at the R.I. Office of Energy Resources.
Indeed, tax credits play a role in encouraging homeowners to incorporate green technologies and, by extension, keeping companies with those projects financially viable.
Hageman, the Narragansett homeowner, said she expects to receive $55,000 back via tax credits. That also means that suppliers of green technology must be able to deliver on their promises or homeowners will be stuck holding a larger bill than expected, Hageman said.
“The more these guys know the better off they’re going to be,” Hageman said. &#8226