Green Building

Green Building

At Paul Allen Homes, “green” means building environmentally sensitive, eco friendly homes that exceed the Energy Star guidelines, exceed the Build Green NM “gold” guidelines and meet or exceed the energy efficiency guidelines established by the State of New Mexico. Building environmentally sensitive homes is more than just recycling some construction trash, installing water faucets that restrict water flow and putting a lot of insulation into a home. This is a total process that starts months before construction and should continue as long as you own your home.

Certifications

Paul Allen Green Built Homes participates in the Build Green NM program and is an ENERGY STAR QUALIFIED NEW HOMES builder.  ENERGY STAR is a government-backed program helping businesses and individuals protect the environment through superior energy efficiency.  This means that your house is certified by an independent, third party LEED engineer.

READ MORE
Energy Star Qualified Home
Build Green New Mexico
US Green Building Council

ENERGY STAR qualified homes can include a variety of ‘tried-and-true’ energy-efficient features that contribute to improved home quality and homeowner comfort, and to lower energy demand and reduced air pollution.

A/C: Manufactured by Carrier our refrigerated air conditioning units have a seasonal energy rating (SEER) of 15. And cost less than $100 per year to run. PER YEAR. (In case you thought we said month) Check out the Home Energy Ratings (HERS) of our homes on the floorplan pages.
Our water heaters are tankless. Yep, no giant pot of hot water just waiting around to get used. But that doesn’t mean you can’t have three people taking showers at the same time and running the dishwasher. By all means go right ahead. At 15x less to operate than a standard water heater you’ll be saving a lot more than just water.
Our homes are built with double glass vinyl framed widow with a 3.3 low-e window rating. Translation? They keep your house nice and insulated. Plus they come with a lifetime warranty from the manufacturer. We liked them so much we thought, why not add more? So we did.
Starting with 2×8 construction we then blow in fiberglass insulation that’s held into place with a stretched fabric. It’s 4x more dense than regular BATT insulation and infiltrates all the space between the walls. And no need to worry, the only settling that happens in the house is where to put last years birthday present from your 6 year old.
We do what’s called a tri-poured foundation meaning that the concrete is poured in three stages. This allows us to insert rigid Styrofoam inside the stem wall and 2 feet to the interior under the foundation cap. This blocks thermal creep and keeps the outside temperature from coming through the floor. Still too technical? Check out our construction video here.