Earth-Friendly Building That Comes With A Vocab Lesson

Who out there has heard of fiber cement? Apparently there is such a thing and a house is made of the stuff out in Charlottesville, Virginia. This is what the tree huggers are building with these days to cut down on the need to crank up the heat or a/c. They're also using other stuff called recycled-content cellulose, open-cell blown foam, Galvalume, and Siberian Larch. All this adds up to a mighty tight seal between the house and the world outside which naturally results in a whole lot of acronyms. This house, for example, has a 56 HERS rating and uses a 19-SEER 2.5 ton HVAC system to keep all that inside air from going stagnant. Find out what all that means by reading the full story. Photos from Ross McDermott and Joey Conover

· Warm Modern Montrose House [JetsonGreen]