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Left: Art Roffey and Gail Danto oversee every detail of their rising
Bloomfield Township house that they hope will inspire others to build green
luxury homes.

Right: Environmental consultant Jim Newman and owner Gail Danto (front
row) along with (back row, from left) owner Art Roffey, site manager Ron
Gressens and builder Joe Maiorano are part of the team involved in creat-
ing a luxury home that adheres to just-implemented LEED (Leadership in
Energy and Environmental Design) residential principles.

struction, flooring or, in some cases,
furniture, is either recycled or made
from reclaimed wood such as teak or
from plantation-grown wood such as
bamboo or lyptus.
Other flooring may be stone, quar-
ried from within a 500-mile radius,
or carpeting, manufactured from
sustainable products that aren't gas
emitting.
Steel, another recycled product, is
used extensively to withstand the large
windows, which allow views of the
pond from almost every room, and
in the steel cable guard rails which
secure the terraces.

The Extra Mite
To help achieve their goal of using
no outside power sources, Danto and
Roffey have gone further than most,
Newman says.
A series of 20 to 24 geo-thermal
wells dug 150 feet beneath the house
will pump up earth-warmed water.
When it flows through a lattice of
tubes placed under the base flooring,
it will help warm the house. "Heat
rises and ifs our feet that keep us
warm," Roffey reminds.
Solar and thermal panels will draw
in heat and retain it. Three skylights
will minimize the need for electric
lighting and six-inch instead of four-
inch studs will permit use of more
insulation for greater thermal effi-
ciency. Four-foot outside overhangs
will help control the sun.
Solar panels and geo-thermal

wells are expensive ways to go green;'
Newman says. "But they truly believe
in it."
Other sacrifices included giving up
using wood as a decorative part of the
facade since it required maintenance
and exchanging a traditional fireplace
for a denatured ethanol fireplace
which has thermal efficiency over 90
percent, Roffey says.
So-called 'normal" fireplaces are
very inefficient," he says, because so
much heat escapes out the chimney.
"From an esthetic standpoint, for a
home built without a chimney such as
ours, most vented fireplaces are rather
ugly and code requires the fire behind
glass. To us, that looks so unnatural."
In fact, their house will be so tightly
insulated that an energy-recovery
ventilation system will be used to
keep the air fresh.
And furnishings will be, for the
most part, made from natural materi-
als — a stone buffet and countertops,
cabinets and furniture made from
recycled or sustainably grown woods
and carpeting manufactured from
natural products that don't emit gas.
"For LEED certification, the furni-
ture doesn't have to be sustainable,
but we're going to try to maintain the
integrity of the house," Danto says.

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November 22 . 2007

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