BEAM Featured in VISION House LA

LOS ANGELES -- A construction site in fashionable Pacific Palisades will become much more than an example of southern California luxury living. The home also will serve as an education and demonstration site for sustainable building and healthy living.

The VISION House Los Angeles incorporates California’s new mandatory green building standards, CalGreen, that emphasize performance, durability, energy efficiency, water conservation, indoor air quality, efficient systems, and sustainable materials. The project is a joint effort of Green Builder Media and Structure Home, a Los Angeles-based builder. The project team will host a wide variety of educational, promotional, and community-focused events during and after completion.

The BEAM Serenity QS Central Vacuum System chosen for the project delivers up to five times the deep cleaning power of a conventional vacuum. It removes 100 percent of contacted dirt and allergens from the living area without stirring up dust inside the home. The system has been clinically proven to relieve allergies. The BEAM system also qualifies for green building certification points in both the National Association of Homebuilders and LEED green building standards.

Improving Indoor Air in Vision House

When husband-wife builders John Plevich and Kim Foy set out to build one of central Florida’s most sturdy and energy efficient homes, they were determined not to solve one issue by creating another. As a result healthy indoor air quality plays as important a role in Vision House 2011 as energy efficiency.

“Because we were building such a tight building envelope, we had to make sure we kept good control of the indoor air quality,” Foy, co-owner of Southern Traditions Developers, says of the Green Builder magazine-sponsored demonstration home in Orlando’s College Park neighborhood.

The 2,500 square foot main house plus 500-square-foot guest suite over the garage were built to meet guidelines of the “Blueprint for Safety: A Stronger Shade of Green” program administered through the Federal Alliance for Safe Homes. The program promotes building homes that not only meet traditional green building guidelines and are strong enough to withstand hurricanes and other forces of nature. As a result, insulated concrete forms provide a secure shell for Vision House that also forms a thick, energy efficient thermal blanket that limits interior temperature swings.

Although Southern Traditions rarely had installed central vacuum systems in previous custom home projects, Foy says this case was different. The BEAM Serenity QS Central Vacuum System that was installed in the Vision House delivers 600 air watts of quiet cleaning power to remove all contacted dust and allergens from interior surfaces.

“With this house, we were excited to try it. In order to keep the dust down and everything, it was recommended to us that a central vacuum is a good way to increase the indoor air quality,” she adds. “So we did it and we actually love it.

Since Vision House opened to the public, Foy and Plevich have sold several additional homes, all with central vacuum systems.

“We build for a lot of young families and one of the things they talk about is having really good air quality,” she says. “There’s so much talk about cancer and allergies and things like that, especially the moms are concerned about those types of things out of concern for their children.”

Adding further to the home’s appeal is its price. Foy says home dispels a widely accepted myth that green building is costly. The Vision House was built for less than $150 per square foot.

“It doesn’t take a whole lot of extra money for things that are good for you,” Foy says. “The Vision House really pushes the envelope and demonstrates things that you can do any time you build that don’t require a lot of money.”