Feb 13 2014
Real Green Building Systems (RGBS) offers a game changing, integrated approach to building new and sustainable homes that are affordable, according to a business case study released recently by Steven R. Booth, Ph.D., with Los Alamos National Laboratories (LANL).
Noting the “green” market is expected to grow between 29 percent and 38 percent of new U.S. homes by 2016, the study (LA-UR-13-29224 - Business Case Analysis of Real Green Building Systems, LLC Technologies) explains how RGBS is not only meeting this growing demand, it is able to do so at a cost comparable to conventional stick built homes.
RGBS is a New Mexico-based firm that provides an energy and water conservation approach to homebuilding. Since constructing and then living fulltime in the first test home in Farmington, New Mexico in 2009, RGBS CEO and Founder Doug Lenberg has worked with architects, developers, builders, and homeowners across the country to develop sustainable and affordable new homes. The LANL study explores how RGBS works as a consulting partner to the stakeholders in community development, including government municipal organizations, regulatory agencies, members of the developing, planning and building communities.
RGBS uses the following five synergistic components in its system:
- Water Conservation and Reclaimed Water for toilets and outdoors shrubbery
- Plumbing-Based Fire Suppression System (PBFSS) for 100% sprinkler coverage, including the garage
- Solar Thermal Energy for radiant heating and domestic hot water
- Thermal Insulation for whole house envelope
- Renewable Energy (Photovoltaic – PV, wind generation, hydropower, methane gas, etc.)
Each of these components can be used separately, but the greatest savings are realized with a bundled system.
After analyzing costs and benefits of an integrated suite of the RGBS system, the LANL study found the overall cumulative present value cash flow of the RGBS technologies to be about $30,000 over 30 years, with a payback or return on investment in the eighth year. The upfront additional cost for all RGBS systems, compared to a typical home, is about $10,000, and this is paid down by about $1,500 in net savings annually. The LANL study further explains how the RGBS components approach to building homes will result in greater energy and cost savings.
Before the RGBS system was developed, communities and municipalities were separate from the home and the homeowner and unable to interact with or influence each other. How the home was built and how it functioned had no effect on the infrastructure. The municipality still had to provide infrastructure like water and fire protection to the homes, often at high costs to the community.
The patent-pending RGBS system has become a “game changer” by restructuring the individual homeowner's financial relationship with the municipality. As the LANL study shows, homeowners who use all five RGBS systems realize significant long-term savings and a quicker return on investment. In an RGBS community, the municipality immediately benefits by dramatically reducing its infrastructure costs through downsized water lines and significantly decreasing the need for fire department stations and administration. High cost infrastructure is dramatically reduced, thus allowing community growth and prosperity without burdening taxpayers with additional costs. This can reduce community life-cycle investment expenses to the point where housing developments, including those that are marginal, can become financially feasible and even relatively poor towns can experience residential growth.
Source: Real Green Building Systems