Halfman Green Home on Tour
4 March 2009 Halfman Green Home on Tour
The newly-constructed Green home of Professor of Geoscience John Halfman, his wife Barb Halfman, geoscience technician, and their family, will be included in the Geneva Historical Societys Tour of Homes. The home is cited as being totally green and including radiant floor heat. According to Halfman, it is really only mostly green because they couldnt take advantage of every green technology they would have liked. However, We still use propane for backup heat, instant hot water and cooking. But the house does take advantage of passive solar, has energy efficient appliances, has solar photoelectric technologies and is very well insulated. It also utilizes natural lighting, and natural ventilation and shade for the summer, he says.
The Halfmans hadnt moved into the home at the time of the interview for the article, but moved this week and are working on getting things out of boxes in time for the tour.
Assistant Professor of Art Rick Hauser and his firm, In Site: Architecture in Perry were the architects for the house.
Hauser explains some of the key differences between the Halfman home and traditional construction. The first, most important thing to do when trying to build with a smaller environmental footprint, is to build with a smaller actual footprint. We designed the home with spaces that multitask, with spaces that feel larger by borrowing visual depth from other spaces or taller volumes, and with limited excavation.
They also developed a Hearth Wall concept in which all utilities are concentrated in an 8-foot wide trench below the house, and all the guts of the house are concentrated in this central wall, which also contains the physical hearth (the fireplace) and the social hearth (the kitchen counter).
Proper orientation, south glass, and overhangs regulate summer sun while admitting winter rays, while operable low windows on the south side, high windows on the north side and an open floor plan encourage natural cooling breezes in the summer.
A super-insulated envelope limits air infiltration and will greatly reduce the amount of energy required to keep everyone comfortable next winter. And the radiant flooring puts the heat where its needed and results in human comfort at a lower temperature than a forced air system.
Hauser will be giving a lecture at the FLIs Seneca Room on March 10, titled Geneva, NY LLC: The Case for Private-sector Rehab. He will speak about the imperative of community entrepreneurism, the steps involved and the nuts and bolts of buying and rehabilitating downtown buildings. More information about this talk is available on the Finger Lakes Institutes workshops page.
Finger Lakes Times
Theres no place like home
Carrie Nicchi March 4, 2009
GENEVA Geneva Historical Society volunteers have something special in mind for this years Tour of Homes.
We are excited to be offering homes from four different centuries from colonial to totally environmentally green, said Karen Achilles and Karen Fouracre, co-chairs of the event. House tour participants will be able to appreciate the development of America, as seen through its housing.
They said it took about a month to carefully select the homes to include. At one end of the spectrum theres John Brennans 1797 home at 9 & 11 Park Ave., and at the other is John and Barb Halfmans energy-efficient home with radiant-heat floors across from Fox Run on Route 14.
Im a little nervous to have so many people coming through my home, Barb Halfman said last week.
Who can blame her? The family of five wont be moving in themselves until next month.
The biggest challenge was building it ourselves. Its a non-standard design, so it is not a cookie-cutter house. It took a couple of years to complete, but again thats because we built part of it ourselves.
In 2006 and 2007, roughly 700 people bought tickets for the Tour of Homes and organizers said they hope to do as well this year.
List of homes by date:
1797 John Brennans home on 9 & 11 Park Avenue.
1813 Matt Parrotts B&B White House on (98) Washington Street.
1827 Two apartments in the Bauder/Penta/
Osburn house at 46 Park Place.
1827 Centennial Center, 603 South Main St.; extensive renovations were done in 2008.
1835 Balmanno Cottage, 583 South Main St.
1840 Bruce and Keren Tuxhills Barn/Home on Earls Hill Road. Renovated in the 1940s and again in the 1970s.
1878 Scott and Ruth Osborn, Route 14 next to Fox Run.
1998-99 Kathy and Gary Garcia, South Kashong Drive.
2009 John and Barb Halfmans totally green house, Route 14, across from Fox Run.