Architectural firm wins award for "green" home in North Cornwall Township

A Lebanon County architectural firm recently won an award for making a North Cornwall Township house more environmentally friendly.

Nest Architecture received the Green Home of the Year Award from the Central PA Chapter of the U.S. Green Building Council for its redesign of Rick and Cindy Scott’s home on Walden Road.

The award was given Tuesday at the ForeverGreen Awards Dinner at Millersville University in Lancaster County.

“We’re very excited about (the award),” said Nest founder Kip Kelly. “It helps bring awareness to our need to keep thinking about energy. I think it’s a great program, and we’re proud to have been given the honor.”

The house was built in the 1960s and was in need of an upgrade, Kelly explained. The Scotts wanted to minimize energy costs and water usage and wanted to use as many nontoxic materials as possible.

The house now has more than 50 “green” ideas, including a geothermal heating and cooling system, solar panels, materials with high recycled content, a recycled rainwater system and a roof garden.

“Everything we used was either recycled materials, recyclable materials or materials that had no (volatile organic compounds),” Kelly said. “You’re starting to see more and more of those — products without VOCs. They’re not very good for you.”

Solar panels on the roof generate 200 kilowatts of power, and there are solar “sunflowers” that also generate power, Kelly said. The house is not “off the grid,” so to speak.

“The house is producing just about as much energy as they use,” he said. “Most of the year the house produces enough energy from the sun to handle their needs. Some days it doesn’t, so they used the grid as a backup.”

Public water is also used only as a backup. The house has 13 300-gallon rainwater collection tanks in the basement for household use, plus six tanks outside that collect rainwater for outdoor use, such as watering the garden and the lawn.

“During the rainy season, they have an ample supply of water, but when we go a few weeks without rain, they use the city water as a backup system,” Kelly said.

Scott said he is very happy with the upgrades.

“It’s to show that we can have a very functional and ... aesthetically pleasing home that is also environmentally friendly,” he said.

The water system is quite interesting, Scott said, noting that he and his wife used only rainwater, including drinking water.

“We don’t add anything, but we have several filters,” he said. “I’ll be honest with you, it tastes better. There’s no chlorine and no chemicals. Quite honestly, after you drink it for a while, water from the system tastes strange to you.”

The project took about two years, but there will be additional upgrades, Kelly said.

“I think we’ll continue to tweak it as time goes by to make it more efficient,” he said.

Kelly founded Nest in 1995 in Los Angeles. He opened an office on Willow Street in Lebanon in 2000.

To view a video of the house, visit LDNews.com.