Habitat townhouses get ‘green’ upgrade

Earth Day Build-A-Thon brings energy efficiency to low-cost homes

The townhouses received weather-stripping in the windows and doors, were provided with low-toxicity insulation in the walls and floor, and will be equipped with energy-saving appliances, donated by Whirlpool.

It’s the Montgomery County division of Habitat for Humanity’s first project with a focus on environmental sustainability, which it plans to incorporate into future projects.

‘‘This is going to be a way of doing business for us,” said John Paukstis, executive director of Habitat for Humanity in Montgomery County, during Tuesday morning’s opening events. ‘‘Now the bar is, if we build or do a rehab, it will be a ‘green home.’”

In Montgomery County, Habitat for Humanity, a nonprofit housing organization, requires homeowners selected on financial need and ability to repay the home’s mortgage to contribute 150 to 500 hours to the construction of the unit, depending on the size of the family and age of the family members.

Volunteer groups and individuals have also contributed to the construction of existing Habitat homes in the Linganore Woods subdivision. Volunteers will continue to work on the new townhouses Friday and Saturday.

On Tuesday, representatives from the Montgomery County Department of Environmental Protection and the Maryland Energy Administration were on hand to advise the 20 volunteers on the importance of environmentally friendly construction.

‘‘There is a lot of value in ‘green building,’” said Eric Coffman, senior energy planner for the county’s Department of Environmental Protection. ‘‘It’s not only what a home costs; it’s what it costs to operate as well.”

Representatives from Amicus Green Building Center, a Kensington-based company that sells ‘‘green” products and offers environmental design consulting, were scheduled to conduct a seminar in the afternoon and again Friday and Saturday.

Walt Auburn, the assistant director of energy efficiency programs at the Maryland Energy Administration, said the insulation work done for the Build-A-Thon could save 20 percent to 30 percent on energy costs per year, and most homeowners don’t realize how much energy they waste each day.

‘‘If you just walked through your home on a windy day, you could feel the air ... coming in by just putting your hand up to windows and doors,” he said. ‘‘It’s the simple things that make a difference.”

The 12 units that volunteers will work on this week will join 12 other Linganore Woods townhomes built by Habitat with the same energy-efficient specifications that were finished last summer. Each unit is about 1,300 square feet, has three bedrooms and two-and-a-half bathrooms. Each unit will be sold for $140,000 — the same as the building costs, as is Habitat’s policy.

During this week’s event, volunteers will range from Habitat staff, corporate groups and individuals, all under the guidance of volunteer architects. David Hinchcliffe, a volunteer from WARW 94.7 FM radio, which calls itself ‘‘The Globe” and advocates for the environment, said he was excited to help build a home for a low-income family and also learn about energy conservation.

‘‘Volunteering for this is going to do a lot for me as well,” he said. ‘‘When I remodel my house, now I can do it in an educated way.”