LEED Home

The previous home was modified to reach a LEED Gold Rating. Changes to the home include: increased outer wall thickness, addition of blown-in cellulose insulation above the ceiling, upgraded windows to achieve required U -value, addition of insulation below the concrete slab, energy star appliances, and high efficiency fixtures. The fallowing LEED certifications will be achieved:

To meet the LEED certification, special fixtures, appliances, and lighting have to be purchased. These products are more expensive than the average products you may find in a normal home. It will cost approximately an extra $1000 to meet these LEED requirements. The LEED home will save approximately $120 a year on electricity and water bills. The payback period is 8.3 years. Items that must be upgraded are:

The load calculations were performed as before and the resulting heating and cooling loads were used to select the proper geothermal unit. The LEED home will require the use of a 24,ooo Btuh geothermal unit. The ground loop temperature as well the condenser and evaporator temperatures were estimated through system simulation in MatLab. The following results were produced:



The operating cost of the LEED home heating and air conditioning was calculated and is listed
below:



To determine the benefit of the LEED improvements, the payback period for the LEED improvements was estimated alone and then was combined with the geothermal cost and savings to give a combined payback period for the geothermal and LEED improvements.

Payback Period = 37 years

The combined payback period was then estimated and is shown here:

Payback Period = 24 years