River's Edge Design Charrette

July 10th was big day for the project as we had our second LEED Design Charrette. The very first category in the LEED for Homes rating system is “Integrated Project Planning.” We are required to conduct a preliminary rating with our LEED Provider in order to target the level we want to reach (Certified, Silver, Gold, or Platinum), identify the credits we are seeking to reach our target and assign accountable parties for each credit.

Additionally, we will gain one point each for assembling an “Integrated Project Team” and holding a “Design Charrette” for one full day or two half days during the design process which we we did. Our project team consists of the following members:

Mike Holcomb from Alliance for Environmental Sustainability – LEED Provider
Mike Holcomb from Home Inspector General - Green Rater
Eric Hughes from Image Design, LLC – Residential Designer
Joel Harner from Let Us, Inc. – Builder & Construction Management
Jake Vierzen from R-Value Concrete Structures - ICF Installer & Concrete Expert
Isaac Bainbridge  – HVAC & Mechanical Expert


During our first half day Design Charrette we educated the project team on the LEED for Home process and the 18 prerequisites and ran through the LEED checklist with them. During the second Design Charette we concentrated on filling out the LEED for Homes Checklist with the LEED for Homes provider and coming up with our preliminary LEED for Homes rating. We were excited to be scoring a "Gold" preliminary  level of certification which is exceptional for the size of the home. We are using a preliminary HERS rating of 50 on the home which is no easy task and basically says that our home would be half way to a zero energy home and 50% more efficient than code we are confident that we will be lower than that based on the scores of our past homes.  Some type of photovoltaic would almost certainly be necessary to help us reach a Platinum rating and we are still not sure the budget will allow this. Keep a eye on future post to see if we can score some more points with Landscaping, Materials and our final HERs score.