Green Living and Historic Preservation

When you think of green building, old houses aren't what always first comes to mind. "Green building" may instead conjure up images of solar panels, strange-looking storage tanks, and grassy substances growing on the roof.

One of the primary principles of green building, however is recycling. This not only applies to materials, but also to whole buildings. Reusing a building is by its nature a "green" process.

Sure, old buildings can have drafty doors and windows, less than adequate insulation, and old mechanics that may make it operate at less than maximum efficiency, or at least less efficiently than a comparable new home built in a green-friendly manner.

Take the house I live in, for example. It was built in 1859 of solid brick construction. The walls are made of two layers of bricks with plaster on the inside walls. That means there is no space in between the walls to insulate. One solution could be to build out the interior walls and insulate there, but to someone who wants to maintain the original or existing look and feel of the house that's not an attractive option.

That doesn't mean the house isn't "green," however, as living green is as much a matter of process as it is about meeting specific criteria.

Brick has exceptional "thermal mass," which means it has the ability to store heat and then slowly release it. An insulated wood frame house is more like a blanket that keeps the heat in. During the summer months a brick home stays cool (until it's fully heated by the sun), and during the winter, brick walls store your home's heat and radiate it back.

Materials aren't the only green thinking consideration, however; another is size. Your home's bricks aren't the only thing that stores energy. Think of your entire home as stored energy. All the energy that went into making the bricks, the stairs, the foundation, the roof of your house is still there, as what is called "embedded energy," that which was used to make its materials and transport and assemble them. Choosing an existing home means that you are choosing not to expend more energy building another home.

Another consideration is size. A smaller less efficient home may take less energy to operate than a larger more efficient home. This goes beyond beyond heating: remember to consider the energy it takes to maintain a large lawn, or the energy it takes to travel to and from a home that's far from amenities and employment.

There's still more that we miss when thinking only about the insulation properties of external materials. A brick row house may also use less energy than a comparable detached home because at least two of the walls are attached to other walls--they never touch the cold on the outside. The fewer walls exposed, the more efficient the home is. From this point of view, a condo in a high-rise is more suited to saving energy.

Returning to the idea of historic preservation and whether it's compatible with green building, we can use the example of changing windows. I imagine the consensus out there is that double-paned windows are a must for buying a home. Most home inspectors will note if a home contains original or single-paned windows and suggest that they be replaced.

Many people who like old homes enjoy original features including windows. I was familiar with a 1830s farm house in the small town of Poland, Ohio, that in the late 1990s still had all its original windows. More, they had been sanded and painted so that they were in perfect operating condition--someone had put a tremendous amount of energy into preserving them, down to the original wavy glass that has a slightly distorted quality to it.

Unfortunately the home was sold and a new owner replaced all the windows with new double-paned ones. This may have been recommended by a home inspector and even viewed as a "green" adaptation. While it's true the replacement windows were more efficient than the original ones, it's also true that reuse is a green principle, and that simply adding storm windows or magnetic interior storms would have arguably been the preferred "green" option.

In short, when thinking green it's important to think beyond energy efficiency and using new, renewable products made of recycled materials. It's important to think about reusing existing homes as well as materials. It's important to think about the amount of space you occupy, both on the inside and outside of the house. It's important to think about where your home is in relation to the places you frequently travel to, and important to think about how much of your house is exposed to the weather outside.

Historic preservation and green building do go together, and living green is primarily a product of thinking green.

Eric Miller

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