I learned a lot here: http://www.greenbuildingadvisor.com/

You might look for folks who have worked on Passivhaus or LEED-certified homes in your area. I would think you could start with any local "green building" professional (raters, architects, builders, etc.) who can provide names of other pros.

Good luck!

Read. A lot. Then think carefully about your goals-- there are many flavors of "green" at many price points. And many evangelists who have the one true path they'd like to sell you. You probably are going to need to prioritize. It's easy to spend $1000/sqft for something that uses so much material you'll take 200 years to break even from an energy point of view.

We wanted to be very energy efficient with heating and cooling, so prioritized sealing and insulation. We used panelized construction to minimize waste, among other reasons. I think much of the hype about "organic" and allegedly nontoxic materials is overblown marketing nonsense (or flat untrue), so that's not something we chose to incorporate. Others will make different decisions.

It's my opinion that LEED and PassivHaus standards can drive some counterproductive decisions, so we didn't choose to go for a certified status, just happy to have the lowest energy use among similar houses in the neighborhood according to the utility company. (and a very comfortable house!)

Greenbuildingtalk is another good site to ask questions and learn. The more you know, the less likely you are to be talked into something that's not worth it. One thing we discovered living in a well-insulated house is that the comfort is terrific, over and above any money savings. Just be sure that your HVAC contractor understands the house you are building; many 'old-school' HVAC guys will try to way oversize the system. I had a so-called 'professional' try to tell me I needed at least 2-1/2 tons of HVAC, without even seeing the house! It turns out we only needed one ton. An oversized system costs more, wastes energy, and doesn't perform very well.

Another factor often overlooked is making the layout and orientation work with your climate. Many homes are simply plopped on a lot with no thought towards this. We spent a year studying the topography and sun angles on our land before locating our house. The interior layout was carefully chosen to take advantage of views, and have the morning sun in the rooms we wanted it in (kitchen and master bedroom).

In my opinion, the important factors to begin with would be designing the house to fit the land, employ the latest insulation techniques, and careful air sealing of the structure. It should go without saying (but sadly, it doesn't) that the insulation and air sealing has to be done properly, and designed for water vapor control. This is location specific, too. A wall structure that works in AZ could be all wrong in Seattle.

Also, using an architect that is used to planning on building this way helps a ton. I am almost done building and renovating a "good enough" home. Shooting for almost net zero.

Research. A ton. There's differing opinions as to which is the best way. Realize it will take longer and cost a little more to build. I believe in such tight houses, low voc is very important.

We went with the most experienced builder in the area, one who now does just this type of superinsulated home. I liked him and his team right away. Being able to communicate through tough issues is priceless.

Good luck!

We built green. We were largely self taught and brought our builder and architect along with us. We met with various architects and energy advisors along the way and learned something from each of them.

Think about what green means to you. For us it meant low energy costs and low maintenance. We were not into sustainable materials, recycled materials, low VOCs, locally sourced or other aspects of green that are included in some of the certifications.

So, for us we found:

Insulation is key. Regardless of how you generate a BTU, the longer you preserve it, the better. We used closed cell spray foam insulation which is also waterproof, adds structural integrity to the home and is very sound deadening.

Situating the house on the property is essential. Capture the sun from the south, minimize exposure to the north. Any passive solar gain is essentially free and works for the life of the house. (In December, the sunlight shines 12' or more into the house...in June, it barely skims the window sill.) We built into a southern facing slope so the house on the north side is one story, but on the south side, it's 2 stories with lots of glass for solar gain. It also berms the lower level from the prevailing NW winds. We don't heat or cool the lower level, though we can, and it maintains a temp of between 60 and 78 degrees year round.

We went with geothermal heating and cooling and 6 years in, it's still working fine. We chose to do air vs radiant heat as we needed only one ductwork system for both heat and AC and we were concerned with the flooring options with radiant heat. But in so doing, we placed all the ductwork in conditioned space so we didn't lose BTUs to very hot/cold attic spaces.

Because with geothermal your primary energy use is electricity, we added 5kw of solar panels to our roof. We pitched our roof to maximize solar gain and the roof is faced due solar south.

We also use a wood stove burning about 2 cord a year.

We went with tankless hot water heaters and are pleased with how they've worked. One we have operates just the master bath as I didn't care what it took...I was going to have an endless supply of uninterrupted hot water for my shower. Period!

We used casement windows as they not only seal tighter than double hungs, they act like fins on the house in the good weather and capture any prevailing breezes keeping our house comfortable without AC for most of the summer.

We have a deck on the SE corner of the house where it is protected from the NW winds, captures morning light, and is shaded from the hottest sun on summer afternoons. We also covered half the deck so we get shade and protection, yet can move out into the sun when we want it. We get far more use out of it during the year than we ever expected.

Also we kept the deck to the side, behind the garage, because we wanted to use the rooms in the lower level. A room with windows that look out under a deck still feels very much like a "basement" as opposed to lower level rooms with full daylight exposure.

The net result is, even though we live in the northeast with the highest energy costs in the nation, our total energy cost for our house (heating, cooling, hot water, electric, etc.) is far less than our cable bill.

There's a couple of places that do modular ( I know that sounds bad, but bear with me...) homes in this style, you might want to check them out. These aren't cheap either. They have classic layouts and plans, and both believe in wood stoves. When we were planning on a lot, we looked into these, but ended up with our remodel/addition.

Bright Built home - One of these got chosen as Boston Magazines home of the year or something like that.

Unity Homes - A branch of Bensonwood, a high end builder designer of timber frame homes. These are beautiful.

Even if you aren't interested in these per se, you can learn a lot about the specs. Both of these companies are respected.

Have fun!

Re certifications -- I was suggesting looking for such houses as a way to search for green building pros. We didn't care about certification either but our building/planning dept required some kind of rating, so we opted for the cheapest one ;-). You might at least consider whether you might qualify for incentive programs (e.g. Energy Star or rebates from your local provider) that might require documentation.

I think Springtime Homes has chimed in on some threads about indoor air quality, which was important to us as well.

mushcreek is right...to build green, build small.

Research why wood heating is frowned upon in green circles. It pollutes the indoor and outdoor air. In a tight house, managing indoor air quality is everything.

We have a wood stove but have a fresh air intake that feeds directly to the stove. Does not affect indoor air quality. You have to spend some big bucks and get a tight wood stove.

I can't begin to imagine how burning wood for home heat is going to be "green". You'd need to build a very elaborate, energy intensive scrubber system to get the pollution levels down to that generated by a typical gas or oil furnace, much less to make an improvement. CO2 emitted per BTU produced is terrible for wood. It will add stuff a lot worse than VOCs to your indoor air quality. Seems very much like a lose, lose, lose proposition.

We did put in a fresh air exchange unit in the house.

Woodstoves do not add to climate change, though they do cause other types of pollution. Indoors it does add a lot of ash dust to the air from when you put logs in or clean the ash bin out. But while it's burning, it doesn't/shouldn't add pollution to indoor air...it sucks air from inside the house and puts it out the chimney.

But that's why I said you have to decide what green means to you...for us, it's to keep our energy costs low.

I do have a fresh air exchange in the house. That's separate.

Theres a fresh air intake that only goes to the stove, from outside to the stove, not in the house. So the air flow come from outside into the stove and up the chimney. Wood guys prefer to not doing that, the stove does lose some efficiency, theses aren't your grandmas woodstove. The amount of burn on these stoves are amazing. There's no pollution in my home.

Look at Germany, where Passivhaus started, they have wood stoves in them. They are small, slow burn, and efficient. The stoves have to be small due to how tight the homes are. The Danish, Jotul, and others, can't remember the names now.

Living in upper New England, it's always wise to have a reliable back up heat.

Ours is Jotul too. We looked into venting in outside air and due to what I read of fire risks and given how little air they actually use, we decided it was safer not to do that.

We have a Bari soapstone wood stove. No extra fire risks with the incoming air vent. Ours is a new model designed for fresh air intake, was yours?

Good question and happy to see all the excellent feedback. +1 to Air-sealing, insulation and don't forget a good window package which all make up the building envelope. Energy Star certification is an affordable and proven path for third parties to verify builders and designers are providing the right balance on all the components that impact energy efficiency, comfort and indoor air quality. Energy Star certification has enormous value in the hands of the right team and project.

Water heating is a big time issue that pays back better research and selections. I disagree that tankless should be a default choice and would explore a heat pump water heater as the best option for an energy efficient and healthier home. They are a tougher fit in your northern climate but basements or sealed crawlspaces are good locations in your climate.

Any combustion appliance inside the living space, especially fireplaces and woodstoves, increase risks of catastrophic house fires. Make-up air supply ducts to woodstoves are a bit contentious as there are risks of backdraft embers causing trouble in the supply ductwork but I think the right details are fine in tight homes.

I agree that burning wood is bad for outdoor air and especially indoor air. Many rural situations call for them but most people are needlessly attached to indoor fire burning for emotional reasons. It can be cheap fuel and provide mandatory backup heat but be prepared for high upfront expenses, lots of maintenance needs, increased chances of roof leaks, and worse indoor air quality. In most homes, they cause more energy problems than they solve due to increased air leakage.

I think many high performance homes, especially with good passive solar design, can be resilient through power outages without a woodstove but rural upstate NY sounds like a better place than most for including one. Making your building envelope as efficient as possible will mean reduced need of indoor fires and all the work, risk and air problems that go along with them. Soil and air will benefit from less combustion and more wood integration with topsoil.

Insulation, sustainable methods of heating / cooling, don't forget your windows and passive solar siting of your home. There's no one answer and there's no one way to attain it. For example, if your state subsidizes solar installations, you MAY be better doing a "decent" efficiency heat pump instead geothermal and getting closer to net zero by producing energy.

As was said - the best climate control is the temperature that you don't have to change / apply heating and cooling to. Sealing is key - and make up air is critical - make sure that comes in in the right place - i.e. not over a lawn that uses chemicals to keep it "green". Try to keep your house at slightly positive pressure so that you're not randomly sucking in outdoor air.

Indoor air quality is huge - eliminate any indoor combustion - I don't want to compete for oxygen with fire. ;-)

Consider your roofing if you are in a warm climate - solar reflectivity indices are crucial to trying to keep heat out of your home - and there's a huge difference even in WHITE! We're fortunate that our roof is rather hidden and we can have "blinding white" - but that will REALLY help our heat loads in the summer.

I live in upper New England and have a heat pump water heater in my basement. My builder up here has installed them in several houses, and they work very well. We do have it on hybrid mode, with will pull in electric if necessary.

Meris- What kind of heat pump water heater do you have? I looked into them a few years back, and there were a few cheap ones with horrible reviews, than very pricey ones, with nothing in between. I'm wondering if you can now get a decent quality unit that doesn't require a second mortgage. Here in SC, our basement would be a prime candidate, as it never gets below about 60, and the added noise wouldn't bother anyone.

Mushcreek, check to see if your state/local efficiency program or utility company offers rebates on efficient appliances. Ours (Efficiency Vermont) offered a $400 rebate on a heat pump dryer, and $75 on washers and refrigerators. I know there were rebates on our heat pump hot water heater and electric air source heat pump (which we put in instead of a furnace) too - but those came through the installer, so I don't remember how much they were. The rebates are designed to bring these more expensive efficient technologies down to close to the cost of regular models.

We ended up with a State heat pump hot water heater and it seems good so far (but we haven't moved in yet, so mostly just washing paint brushes with the hot water!). Our installer had put in a bunch of them and had good things to say.

Mushcreek, thanks for bringing it up and look forward to the feedback from Meris and others. I just looked at reviews for the GE Geospring that seems to be advertised for 1k and under and it was grim. The two we've installed are fine so far with some quiet grumblings about sound but it's only been 2-3 years. Reviews were a little better at Amazon. Something to keep in mind, it's easy to forget about water heaters when they work but with trouble, no hot water is something worthy of serious complaining. If you purchase the GE from a big retailer, consider an extended warranty.

We've also done the AO Smith Voltex, $2600 at Amazon which is very well reviewed but it's the Steibel Eltron, $2300 that I recommended for my parents and has me thinking of buying a new water heater despite owning a perfectly good Rheem Marathon. Both HPWH have good reviews and 10 year warranties. The potential to get off of my dehumidifier is what makes me think it will payback quickly plus it helps reduce Air-Conditioning loads.

A big problem with water heaters is when they die, quick replacement is paramount but they only stock the cheapest models. Heat pump water heaters pay back quickly both for new construction and premature replacement in part due to their healthy dehumidification effects. At least the ones that run for 2-6 years or more do..

I hadn't thought about the dehumidifier angle. We run one 2-3 days a week here in SC in our basement. I could always keep my cheapo unit as a spare in case the HP ever went out; I could even plumb them together so there would no work involved if I had to switch over. Some pipe fittings and valves, and I could switch or isolate whenever I needed to.

HPWH may not handle the entire basement needs, depending on site and construction details but should handle small, quality construction on average sites. Basements and properly built crawlspaces are ideal, apparently even in New England climate. Garages staying above freezing temps are good too.

Muckrake my builder still prefers tankless over the HPHWH. He's installed quite a few and they have not held up.

I'm biding my time. I don't usually rush into a new technology until it's been pretty well sorted out. I figure a HPWH will have to last 10 years to break even. 'Muckrake'? Am I that much of a troublemaker? LOL!

Our basement is pretty dry by SC standards. ICF construction, plus waterproofing, dimple board, gravel backfill and gutters keep any groundwater out. It's just atmospheric humidity, which we'll always have in SC.

I have thought about adding a solar HW panel (DIY, of course), and I think that would beat even an HPWH. We have a pretty good roof angle, and it's something I've had an itch to build.

'Muckrake'? Am I that much of a troublemaker? LOL!

OMG! LOL. Darn spellcheck!

Simple payback of HPWH depends on how much hot water is used and what you are comparing it to. Ten year payback would be for an expensive HPWH, home that uses small amounts of hot water compared to average and compared against a relatively cheap and efficient water heater. I think most simple paybacks would be in the 2-6 year range, which ignores the AC with dehumidification benefits. A well performing GE geospring at a low price could easily payback in one year compared to cheapo electric resistance tank in a high usage household.

Nothing beats solar hot water for efficiency and with a DIY install and maintenance, that could be time and money well spent. I have a compost water heater that preheats water on it's way to my Rheem Marathon tank. I measured 85 degrees the other day, a big jump in temperature from the ~50 degrees of the ground and roughly $300 in materials.

Cpartist, did your builder come forth with more information since your post in the Tankless with Tank thread? It sounded like that experience is outdated and he should come up to speed on some of the newer HPWH models available which seem pretty well reviewed to me. Tankless are not without their problems and hidden costs like supply gas piping, venting, and monthly service charge from gas provider despite the amount used.

madteaparty, our builder once said to me, "net zero just means you have a lot of PV." He was partly joking but it's interesting because in 2020 all new homes in California are supposed to be net zero ... what are folks going to do if they have a lot of trees? If you prefer hardwood floors let me throw in a quick plug for Rubio Monocoat. On the GBA website I linked earlier there are discussions of the concept of "Pretty Good House"; might be worth a look.

Oil-based polyurethane is an odd choice for such a home but will eventually dissipate. If your definition of green only involves finish materials, more research is advisable.

Airtight and ventilated right is something to come to terms with. Airtight homes with outdoor air ventilation are considered healthier than leaky homes with no outdoor air ventilation systems. This is the best way to provide the constant amount of fresh air recommended by building scientists and indoor air quality experts. You can't depend on a leaky building envelope or windows because there is not enough control, and not enough fresh outdoor air to supply recommended rates.

There are probably better choices than Jeld Wen, you might want to start a new thread when it comes to that choice here or the windows forum.

I understand insisting on the woodstove and think you can find a performance based builder to include one. As for the gas cooktop, you may want to consider an induction cooktop if you truly value indoor air quality.

On our house, my builder is very versed in the superinsulated Passivhaus concept, not as much as the chemical free aspect. They were willing to do what I wanted, I just had to do a little footwork to get the info; it was all about a good working relationship. (Going on 6 months plus on this project, end in site, thank goodness we like & respect each other!)

I researched and requested those finishes, although many things need to be low voc anyway. I did Rubio monocoat on the floors, first around here, and did Polywhey on the window sills. Rest of my trim was painted. It has been excellent having a home that doesn't smell.

I'll get my hot water info when I go down to do laundry in a bit.

My heat pump water heater. State Premier Hybrid Electric

I am doing a lot of "green" things here -- but due to pricing, not everything will be green. MA code has a lot of green-mandated ideas, a lot of which will also be energy efficient, and I'm happy to comply.

I'll be putting in solar (on grid but able to go off) paneling, with my home facing due south -- because it also is attached to a buy-back plan on the electric grid, I will be getting rebates. I'm putting in forced-air ductwork, because eventually I plan on geothermal -- until I can do geothermal (which won't happen until I sell the current home), I'm going to have to rely on window fans and window A/C units -- in New England, geothermal will be most useful for summer cooling.

Interior stains (except the floor since it is high traffic) are water-based and essentially "no-VOC". I will find the best low-VOC for the flooring stain. Everything wood is from fast-growing pine -- and the house is pine log from a kit -- sustainable growth at least until "everyone" decides to build log. Bamboo would be an even better flooring choice, but my GC has sourced a good place for finding wide plank pine floors.

I'm recycling my furniture to my new home. Why buy new, unless something is beat up enough to replace it with something else?? (And much of my current furniture belonged to my parents, or to my grandparents... it's cycled out of that so-stoopid "dated" term to becoming "vintage"!) Um, function dates. Appearance only gets dated if you are superficial, or if you plan on flipping/selling soon...

Take into account passive solar concepts. Also where you can (and in my walkout basement, yes) concrete heat collection. Concrete warms slowly, relinquishes heat slowly. In the back of my basement, built into the northern soil bank, I'm putting in a root cellar. (Amusement note: I marked off the place I want this root cellar walled in, and GC noted he'd insulate the rooms I marked in the basement -- that root cellar and a workshop where I don't want cats licking up stained glass shards or sawdust -- I'm like --- um, the purpose OF a Root Cellar is to get the standardized deep-earth temperatures from the surrounding soil/rock/clay! -- Once explained, he agreed! NO Insulation! The earth is its insulator!)

At any rate, don't expect your GC, or even an architect, to understand all the fine points of what you may want. You yourself... you have to keep up on the literature and your personal needs for Green.

I got several extremely helpful books from this source, over the years: Chelsea Green I can't remember the name of the book (and I lent it out to a friend and it rather vanished) but it provided the angle to roof your home so you get the best passive solar benefits winter and summer, depending on your latitude.

Careful with root cellars/cold rooms, they can be very moist, and can introduce mold. Especially in tight homes. I had a cold room, and left a thermometer in it. Not cold enough, we ended up insulating it. This was pre-existing.

Induction range, I love mine. Sensitive like gas (even more so), safer, & boils water SO fast.

Thanks. I'll keep on top of this space as I go. But appreciate the warning!

I had high hopes for mine, I hope yours works. You are planning it, so I bet it will.

One thing we discovered when doing the HVAC calcs for our small, tight, well-insulated house was that most wood or gas fireplaces stoves put out WAY too much heat! We decided against installing one and then having to open windows to use it. I bought an antique mantel at a yard sale, added a cast iron summer cover, and built a hearth out of faux brick. I set it up for Christmas, but we like it so much it has become a permanent fixture.

Our calculated heat load is only 12,000 BTU, and that's in the coldest part of winter. It was an unusually mild fall here, but we didn't turn our heat on until January 4th, and turned it off in early March. We only heated for two months this season! As I often say, and will repeat- Make sure your HVAC contractor understands modern, energy-efficient construction, and sizes your system appropriately.