could never cool it below 80 F. “She could never make it com-
The above photo shows Annunciation before its
fortable,” Kornman says. “Today, she’s got a super-tight house and despite our doubling her square footage, her summer energy bill has dropped to $130 a month.” In uptown New Orleans, most homes are built on piers that raise them about 3’ off the ground. To accommodate the addition of a sec- ond floor, Kornman had to repair the concrete piers and new ones to handle the additional weight. The next step was reinsulating the entire house, including applying foam insulation to the attic ceiling. “You’re talking a space that can be as hot as 150 F on a summer’s day, and turning it into a passive conditioned space,” Kornman says. “The attic stays much cooler— varying about 10 F from the temperature inside the home—and the air conditioning unit that’s up there runs far more efficiently.” Kornman also upgraded all of Annunciation’s windows, turning to Energy Star windows as replacements, and notes, “One of the things about New Orleans is that the elements people love are the things that make these old structures incredibly energy inefficient,” he says. “For instance, people love that old single-paned glass that appears all wavy when you look at it from certain angles, but those windows actually double their energy bill.” “It’s the same with the 12’ ceilings in these houses,” Kornman
continues. “They like the 10’ windows and 8’ doorways in these homes, which were built to allow the wind in to help circulate the air, but by today’s standards they are inefficient. The problem is, aesthetically, these are exactly the elements people want. So by re- ally focusing on sealing the housing envelope, we’re enhancing the potential resale value of the home, by being able to maintain these features while making the home function much more efficiently.” In addition to tightening the home, Kornman says he relies on low- or no-VOC paint, low VOC adhesives, and—recycled material
28 GreenBuilder September 2010
green renovation. Homes in Uptown New Orleans are in high demand because the neighborhood didn’t flood in the aftermath of Hurricane
Katrina. Builder Chris Kornman says many of the features home buyers love in a New Orleans home, such as single
pane glass windows, are terribly inefficient when it comes to
energy use. The kitchen retains the high ceilings and a transom window over an interior door.
aside—uses only no-added-formaldehyde building products. “Every step of the way, as we reconstruct the home, we’re going to put something in that was healthier than what was there,” he says. On the recycled material front, Kornman spoke particularly of
the bricks and the ancient pine wood floors found in an old New Orleans home. Many of the homes he’s worked on have had three or more fireplaces, one which was once dedicated to cooking, while the others served to heat the home during the winter. “Of course, none of these fireplaces work anymore, so what we
do is take the bricks down one by one and then reincorporate them in some way in the finished structure, whether that means as a new fireplace or even as front steps.” “The other thing is the heart pine flooring,” he continued. “It’s re-
ally common down here, and really valuable. So what we do is take it up, store it, reinstall it later, sand it down and coat it, and it comes out as just a beautiful hardwood floor.” Kornman incorporated all of these steps in Arabella, an invest-
ment property and model home that he’s currently selling through Southern Homes’ in-house real estate division. “I think one of the elements I like best about this project is the Energy Wise guarantee,
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