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Pullman resident takes “going green” to a whole new level

When most people think of building a sustainable house, they think of throwing a few solar panels on the roof and buying an “environmentally friendly” dishwasher.

For WSU Capital Planning Project Manager Dyonne Davidson, constructing a “green” home meant starting from scratch – solar panels included.

“That was one of my conditions for moving up here,” said Davidson, who moved to Pullman from Portland, Ore. “That I would get to design this ‘green’ house and eventually have it built.”

Davidson said her main goal in designing the house, located at 1310 SE Harvest Drive, is to reduce the energy consumption caused mostly by heating and cooling.

Homes and other buildings use 70 percent of the state’s electricity and are responsible for more than 30 percent of Washington’s carbon dioxide emissions, according to a house bill passed in the state of Washington.

After Davidson’s house is built, she said her energy use could potentially be cut by about 75 percent.

The 2,800-square-foot four-bedroom house will be built on a concrete foundation. The main floor of the house is also made of polished concrete. Davidson said a dark chocolate colorant was added to the floor cement mixture, along with some colored river rocks.

“Before we build any interior walls, we will take a grinder to bring down the surface of the concrete until it slices through the top of the aggregate, then bring it to a smooth polished finish,” she said.

Underneath the concrete lies 150 tons (two feet deep) of sand. Davidson said the sand plays a key role in retaining and storing heat throughout the winter. The sand bed retains heat through solar thermal panels mounted on the roof that send excess heat to the hydronic tubes located in the sand. The insulation around the sand bed helps to store the heat, essentially heating the house from the bottom up. Davidson said the sand alone cost her around $3,000.

Davidson said the solar thermal panels will also heat the water tank in the house, creating the hot water needed.

The house will not have an electric air conditioning system. These two essentials for any house, heat for the winter and cool air for the summer, will take care of themselves through Davidson’s designs.

Davidson designed the house so it has many windows placed strategically around it. These windows will create cross ventilation throughout the house. With those windows and a whole-house fan placed in the central area of the house, the house temperature will fluctuate little throughout the year.

Pullman Senior Building Inspector Greg Colvig said Davidson’s home is the only “green” building being constructed in the Pullman area that he is aware of at this time. However, Colvig said he was told by one contractor that a house constructed on Hanna Street is a LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) and there is also a commercial apartment building that developers have talked about being LEED-certified.

“Buildings built to the Washington State Building Code are required to be designed to meet minimum standards,” Colvig said. “Houses built in the state of Washington are very close to being ‘green’ buildings due to the requirements of the state energy code.”

Along with Davidson’s solar thermal panels, sand and concrete heating system, and windows placed around the house, her roof is also a sustainable one. She said she decided to have to roof made out of metal. When it rains, the water coming off the roof will be clean and won’t grab any of the toxins shingles or other roof materials might contain. The metal roof will also be very durable, lasting for a long time.

Donald Bender, professor and director of the wood materials and engineering laboratory in the College of Civil Engineering, said materials used when building a “green” home are important. Bender said wood is clearly a “green” material, being the only major construction material that is renewable.

“With other building materials such as concrete and steel, fossil fuels are required to make the material into useable products,” he said. “So, for these materials, they result in net carbon gain to the atmosphere.”

Not everyone has the financial means to build a “green” house from scratch like Davidson’s. However, she said some kinds of solar panels are a bit cheaper these days, providing opportunities for almost everyone to be able to do something more “green” with their house.

She said, however, that she definitely spent quite a bit more money on the materials and building costs for this “green” home than she would have to build a regular home. She said she is just hoping that in the long-run it will end up being cost-effective. Davidson said that most people, however, probably will not start from scratch to build a “green” house unless it’s made easy for them.

“Until something is really in your face, people aren’t really going to change,” she said.


SOURCES

Dyonne Davidson: Phone- 509-335-5974
E-mail- dyonne@wsu.edu

Greg Colvig: Phone: 509-338-3287
E-mail- greg.colvig@pullman-wa.gov

Donald Bender:
Phone- 509-335-2829
E-mail- bender@wsu.edu