Daniel Colombini, a Principal at Goldman Copeland, has won the US Department of Energy’s Blazing the Trail Grand Award for his LEED Platinum “Passive House” in Westchester County, NY. The national award recognizes “the builder with the most innovative use of technologies, materials, sensors, automation, and advanced controls to optimize the performance of the home.” The award was presented to Dan Colombini (center) at the US DOE’s Housing Innovation Awards Ceremony in Salt Lake City on October 2.
The award-winning single-family three-bedroom house with an attached garage and about 3,500 square feet of living space is located in Ossining, NY. It offers a new model for sustainable, energy-efficient, and cost-effective residences.
Dan Colombini, the engineer-homeowner, set out to create a new standard of suburban housing. The home is a partial tear-down and retrofit, meaning that the house that he originally purchased was torn down except for the foundation, which was retained, and 75% of the materials in the old house were reused and thereby diverted from landfill.
The new house incorporates passive house principles including a high-performance thermal enclosure, airtightness and heat recovery, continuous balanced ventilation, high-performance glazing of windows and doors, shading and daylighting, and moisture control. The overall design provides an air quality that is so high that Dan’s allergy-induced asthma disappeared.
The cost of construction was 8% higher than a traditional house. That additional cost will be paid off by energy savings within 10-15 years – with energy savings continuing to accrue thereafter.
“The Colombini house is a landmark project in Westchester,” said architect Christina Griffin of CGA Studio in Hastings-on-Hudson, NY. “Not only does it reach the highest standards of energy efficiency and sustainability, but it demonstrates that they can be attained at an additional cost that can be recouped through energy savings in about a decade – far less than the period of a typical home mortgage.”
To speak with an energy expert at Goldman Copeland, which has completed energy audits and retro-commissioning projects for more than 70 million square feet of commercial and institutional properties, contact Sarah Ingber at [email protected].
