Its Hot: Looking Replace Your Commercial HVAC System in Reno?
Summer has final hit in Reno and Northern Nevada. If you’re a commercial building owner, your tenants are “dying” for their cool air starting this week. Here at Better Green Building, we have the contacts to make sure your building is taken care of. One thing to keep in mind this time of year is, “are you wasting half of your energy bills cooling the outside?” One unfortunate fact about the money we spend on many commercial building built in Reno in the hay-day is that they can leak up to 50% or more of the cool air you generate to the outside. That is great for trying to cool Nevada’s deserts, but when you’re looking to have a cost effective Air Conditioning system, it just doesn’t make sense.
We recommend that if you are costing out a new HVAC system, or even just one condenser, you should consider looking at your whole building envelope. Make sure you talk to an expert not only in HVAC systems, but a holistic energy and building contractor. If we can be of any assistance, we invite you to request a free site visit with one of our professionals.
Fred Altmann: From School Teacher to Builder & Back
Original by Daniel Herr @ Made In Reno Blog
Fred Altmann is a unique character; unassuming, friendly, obviously an avid outdoorsman and extremely active just shy of 68 years old. I met Mr. Altmann for lunch at Yosh’s Unique Deli in South Meadows (I might need to write a post about them soon, the Tri-Tip Sandwich on Dutch Crunch was awesome) to hear his story. After talking with him, chances are most Reno residents have run across one of Fred’s companies in the past 30 years: Altmann Construction, Altmann Ott Homes, or today’s Better Green Building. His current venture, Better Green Building Company focuses on green construction practices, renewable energy and energy efficient buildings in Reno and Lake Tahoe.
35 years ago Mr. Altmann got his start in construction after he and his father built Fred’s (and his wife Jill’s) first house in the Santa Cruz mountains. Fred said, “It was a disaster of an experience, but you know, I really realized that I loved working with my hands and I enjoyed seeing the whole idea come together.” Growing up Fred’s father had been a Ranger in … READ MORE (Original) ->
Energy Efficient Mortgages: Hello Nevada?
The Federal Housing Authority’s Energy Efficient Mortgage (EEM) Program allows new home buyers or existing homeowners to roll the cost of energy efficiency projects into their FHA insured mortgage. Through the EEM program, you can finance 100% of the cost of an “energy package” which includes things like:
- Furnace or air conditioner repair/replacement
- Insulation or Windows
- Solar or Geothermal energy
It’s frustrating enough that as a nation we are having such a tough time embracing a forward-thinking energy policy, but it’s unnerving when Nevada seems to ignore what the rest of the US (and world) is doing. There must some type of information filter in the Sierra Nevada range because in 2011 Sacramento completed more EEM’s than anywhere in the nation, while Reno, Nevada completed less than 5!
We need to get the word out to the real estate community here in Northern Nevada. EEM’s are an incredibly effective way to help homeowners save on their long-term energy expenditures! This also increases the total value of the mortgage and helps close the deal by putting the home buyer at ease. The savings are self-financing — this is a rare occurrence these days that needs to be leveraged.
The median home price in Reno, NV is $143,000, and homeowners are eligible to finance up to 5% of the total closing costs toward the energy efficient mortgage. This means that if we were able to convert 250 (a modest effort) of these average home mortgages into EEM’s that would result in a city-wide residential energy efficiency investment of $1.78 million!!!
This is something we can do right now…so let’s do it.
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