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Tree Spaulding at MOSAIC Community Lifestyle Realty

Green Homes and Communities

Tree Spaulding of MOSAIC Community Lifestyle Realty is the preson creating this Web site. Our business is built on values and relationships. One of our values is healthy, environmentally sustainable building and development. Because many people see what a wonderful place Asheville is, they are either moving here or buying vacation and second homes here. So, developers are trying to keep up with the demand. That is not good news for our beautiful mountains.

This was the unfortunate scene of one Asheville-area development.

Mosaic values environmentally sound, regional and site-specific planning and sustainable, healthy design and building practices. Western North Carolina (WNC) is a wonderful place to live if you value these things. Through a partnership with the WNC Green Building Council and the state's HealthyBuilt Homes program, there is now a WNC HealthyBuilt Homes certification program that supports small and medium-sized home builders in green construction. They offer technical help, design reviews, and workshops. For a home to be certified HealthyBuilt, the builder must adhere to strict guidelines.

There are individual HealthyBuilt homes scattered throughout neighborhoods and there are also a growing number of green communities. We'll try to keep you posted on them here.

There are two homes for sale in the Hudson Street Cottages, a great little green community in West Asheville.

Green Features Green homes, both new and remodeled, in the Asheville area have a variety of interesting features. I will describe some of them here.

Home-made Passive Heat Absorber

		This is a home-made passive heat absorber. Is that cool?! No, actually it's warm! Mounted vertically on the side of the house that gets the most winter sun, it soaks up the heat and transfers it into the house, as you can see below, through a little door. This one is about 3' x 6'.
Here's a close up of the lower right corner. It's a box that holds a piece of corrugated steel, which is painted black. Then it's covered with heavy glass. These can be purchased, but this one is home-made and seems to work just fine. This is a great example of something you can do when renovating a home.
		This is the wall inside the house on the other side of the heat absorber. There's an opening at the top and bottom with a door that can be opened to let the heat flow into the room. That's Marcus Renner of Appropriate Building Solutions opening the door. This heat absorber was his creation.
Here's a close up of the opening. So simple, yet so effective. In the summer you just keep the little doors shut.

Solar Radiant Floor Heat

What is this maze? It's wunder-full radiant floor heating tubes during construction. These special tubes will carry a liquid that has previously been heated by solar panels and then circulated through a storage tank that's hooked up to various sensors, a back-up source of heat and other things before it is pumped through the tubes at a controlled temperature. The tubes can be embedded into a concrete slabe or installed under many other kinds of floors including some kinds of bamboo, wood and tile.

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