Alan Hoffmann is a successful home builder in Dallas that has been building to “green” standards before green was, well, cool. He has been instrumental in shaping the green building policies in the City of Dallas and was part of the steering committee of the Dallas Green Building Ordinance. He built the first LEED Platinum Home in the city, and has continued to build to LEED standards as a practice since the USGBC rating system LEED for Homes was introduced in 2007. He has won numerous awards and recognitions for his innovative home building practices, from various home builders associations.
For Alan, an energy efficient, sustainably built home begins with simplicity, and a focus on the building envelope. His philosophy dates back to families roots is Ibiza, Spain where a typical home is 400 years old, does not have central air conditioning or heat, and generates its energy from capturing the ground source temperate from the thermal mass construction of the floors and three foot thick walls.
The modern version of this of this old and proven technology is mimicked by a product known as Insulated Concrete Forms (ICF’s), Alan’s building material of choice for the last 17 years. He uses a polystyrene flat wall ICF, with galvanized steel webbing, manufactured by ARXX. The advantages to using ARXX ICF’s are...
higher energy-efficiency
reduces HVAC size and cost
foam insulation construction technique form an air-tight building
low temperature variation
less noise
better indoor air quality
slower cure rate means higher strength
fire, wind and termite resistant
One of of Alan’s most recently awarded LEED home is located on Santa Clara Dr in East Dallas. Santa Clara features a centrally located mechanical room containing the HVAC, hot and cold water shut off valves, and a full house water filtration system. The tankless water heater was located on an outside wall and centrally located so that the water travels a shorter distance. Open cell foam was sprayed in the attic under the roofline and around the duct work, virtually eliminating duct leakage. The home is 2700 square feet and the average electricity and heating bill is about $70 a month.
Alan says that the energy savings from an ICF home more than makes up for the added cost to build an ICF home, which he estimates to be about 6-8% higher than conventional "sticks and bricks."
Future plans
Alan plans to implement his building techniques on a larger scale and has his sights focused on a neighborhood community comprised entirely of LEED homes. He is in the process of raising the capital for his new development, so he did not want to give out too many details, but he did share is that the homes and development would feature a universal design, so that a person could comfortably age in the home with easy modifications made to the existing floorpan.
The new development would promote a sense of community with such design elements as forward facing facades, walking paths, and common green space. He also plans to capture the storm water run-off to be used to water the common areas keeping future home owners dues low and controlling soil erosion and pollution.
You will have to stay tuned for more information on this new and exciting LEED development, but in the meantime it is nice to know that there is at least one builder in Dallas that goes beyond the required standards and has a real sense of his works impact on our natural resources and environment. Hopefully in the not to distant future will Alan be thought of as one of many.
Alan Hoffmann Homes: http://www.concretehomestore.com/
Dallas Green building programs: http://www.greendallas.net/green_buildings.html
ARXX products: http://www.arxx.com/Content/Products.
ARXX estimator calculator: http://www.arxx.com/Estimating/Estimator.aspx
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