Easy, Breezy Greenies: An Energy Star Home in New York
(Page 3 of 5)
January/February 2009
By Jessica Kellner
Walking the walk
“Many people think you should put up a fence and a gate, but our home is open to both the environment and the community,” Rabia says. “We go back and forth between these worlds where one moment we have 120 people in the house and the next moment I’m all by myself feeding the cats. If it weren’t for the green aspects of the house, we wouldn’t have had this much impact in our community or this much fun. It would’ve been a nice, beautiful place to host things, but with the green aspects it’s so interconnected and so vibrant.” Rabia says the home has enhanced her family’s lifestyle. “When you juxtapose the green technology with the beauty of the house, it has a lot of impact,” she says. “Whether it’s a performance or a fundraiser, everything is connected to the green aspects. That’s what draws people here. People are really hungry for information about sustainability.”
The Nagins are happy to be front-runners in what they believe will someday be the norm in home construction. “It has to come from the top and bottom,” Paul says. “Congress could say, ‘We’re allocating money for solar research and providing incentives for homeowners,’ but people have to be willing to go for it and incorporate it into their lives.”
Airtight's all right
Though an extremely airtight house is energy efficient, it also means no fresh air circulates through the home, making an air circulation system necessary. The Nagins’ system adds another layer of efficiency. “Even if you only have healthy products in the house, you don’t want to be rebreathing your own air, so Energy Star requires a recovery ventilator—a clever device that pumps in fresh air from outside and, at the same time, takes the return air from the house,” Paul says.
The pump combines the incoming and outgoing air masses. In winter, incoming cold air is preheated by outgoing air. “It’s a natural heat exchange,” Paul says. “For a very small amount of energy—like 75 watts—you get completely fresh and prewarmed air coming in.”
Community matters
Paul and Rabia Nagin’s community, Skyview Acres, was founded in the 1940s by environmentalists and pacifists looking to escape New York City. Rabia’s family was friends with some of the founding members, and she spent many teenage summers there; their son’s first violin teacher also lives there. “It’s very sentimental to me being here, and not just because of the family connections,” Rabia says. “We have an amazing community here. There are 10 people over 90, and they’re all politically active, amazing people. We’ve come full circle to come back here and make our home.”
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