Corvallis Green Building
G. Christianson Construction brings over 25 years of experience in green building to your project. EPA and Oregon Energy Trust’s new Best Practices Guide advocates efficient home construction. We have been using these practices for over 25 years in Corvallis. For example, we use advanced framing techniques that reduce wood and increase insulation while still remaining structurally sound. Our designers use solar design best practices by maximizing daylight during the winter and shading your windows during the summer.
Our subsidiary Complete Efficiency provides retrofit services to seal your home from drafts, add floor, wall, ceiling and attic insulation. The long term goal of energy retrofit work is to move your house towards passive house principles by reducing your home’s energy usage and carbon footprint (and adding renewable energy sources to generate the balance).
Some of the steps to reach this goal include replacing your inefficient heating system with a new mini-split heat pump or furnace, installing new solar photovoltaic panels, solar hot water systems and ground or water source heat pumps. Lighting, appliance, window and door upgrades are another way to reduce your energy use.
Our Office’s Energy Upgrade
This solar array was installed on the roof of our office building located at 644 NW 4th Street, Corvallis. We installed the photovoltaic array when we remodeled this 100 year old building into a modern office. The 26 Sanyo Photovoltaic panels are suspended off the roof on a metal track system. These panels feed to an inverter in the basement where the DC power is converted to AC power. The panels produce about 5,200 kilowatt-hours of electricity per year, which is roughly a $600 annual power savings. Typical for Corvallis, the solar energy is in a net metering agreement with the utility company where we are able to sell the excess power to the utility company. In the summer we get ahead of our energy consumption and in the winter it goes in the other direction.
John and Bea’s High Efficiency Home
John and Bea’s overarching goal was to create their dream home in Corvallis. A big part of their dream was to create a comfortable, efficient green home. We installed two different solar systems. The panels clustered on the left are photovoltaic, they generate electrical power. The panels on the lower right are part of a solar hot water system. Cold water is pumped through these three panels which heat the water, which then circulates down through the basement storage tank transferring it’s heat to the clean drinking water. The preheated clean water in the storage tank supplies the house, and if necessary, a Takagi instantaneous hot water heater boosts the water temperature. On a sunny day, the instantaneous heater rarely needs to turn on.
This home was built to the Earth Advantage New Homes standard, earning the Platinum Award (the highest given by Earth Advantage). To achieve this, we built with insulated concrete form blocks, sealed all of the walls and ceilings to reduce air leakage, installed extra insulation, added a heat recovery ventilator, installed mini-split ductless heating systems, built dual 1500 gallon rain cisterns for landscaping water, added solar hot water panels, and installed solar photovoltaic panels. Pervious pavers direct water to a new manmade wetlands area. Earth Advantage also requires inspection of the insulation, testing of the heating systems and checking the house for air leakage, as well as other tests.
Bea is also planting hundreds of native plants on the property.
Energy Upgrade Services
- Install solar electric panels
- Install solar hot water systems
- Add insulation to walls, floors and attics
- Test ductwork for leaks and sealing
- Replace old windows with double or triple pane windows
- Replace inefficient heating systems with
- Mini-split heat pumps
- Ground source heat pumps
- Hydronic/radiant floor heating
- Thermal mass for passive solar heat storage
- Design with solar best practices for day lighting
- Add skylights for reduced lighting costs
- Build with reused, recycled or green products
- Paint and carpet with low VOC and formaldehyde free products
- Install high efficiency lighting systems (LEDs, Halogen, CFLs)
- Build with FSC certified wood products
- Build raised heel trusses to maximize attic insulation
- Add heat recovery ventilators for good air quality
- Replace water heaters with high efficiency tankless systems
- Install new low water usage fixtures
- Install new dual flush toilets
- Build with ICF or Insulated Concrete Block walls
- Build a new low energy or passive energy house
- We will help you find rebates
