August 26, 2009 – ABC’s Emmy-award winning reality show Extreme Makeover: Home Edition arrived in the Washington, DC area this week to build a new, energy-efficient home with structural insulated panels for the Tripp family. Nikema and Tamara Tripp have devoted most of their spare time and income into making their Hyattsville, MD neighborhood a better place by operating a youth bus ministry for Woodland Baptist Church. Each week, about 40 kids board the bus for fun and safe activities that have ranged from bowling on a Friday night to flower arranging for Mother’s Day.
Their unending generosity has left the Tripp faimily’s 900 sq. ft., 2 bedroom home in disrepair, which Nikema and Tamara share with their three young sons, Micah, 5, Ethan, 3, and Aaden, 9 months. On Saturday, August 22, the family was surprised by the Extreme Makeover: Home Edition team and sent to Disneyland while their new home is built.
With input from the U.S. Department of Energy and Oak Ridge National Laboratories (ORNL), the home was designed as a near-zero energy home that can save homeowners thousands of dollars on utility bills. ORNL Building Technologies Center Founder and buildings researcher Jeff Christian recommended structural insulated panels (SIPs) for the home based on their past performance in several ORNL research homes.
“Over the last nine years I have become infinitely familiar with six very high performance zero energy houses built with SIPs,” said Christian. “After learning about the near-zero energy design goals for the home, the first call I made was to SIPA to get SIPs for the home.”
SIPA member Winter Panel donated a complete SIP package for the project. Building insulation and air tightness are crucial in a near-zero energy home, and SIPs provide an unparalleled level of performance in these categories. The building envelope also included a foundation made of insulating concrete forms (ICFs) and energy-efficient windows from Serious Materials.
Christian worked to secure the donation of many other high performance technologies, including a geothermal heat pump, standing seam metal roof, an innovative hybrid hot water heater, and a 4 kW array of solar panels. Energy modeling predicts the home will have a HERS Index of 27, meaning it will be approximately 70 percent more efficient than the average new home.
The total estimated energy costs of the new Tripp residence is expected to be less than $3 per day, compared to $10 per day of a conventional new home of the same size in the D.C. area. The annual whole-house savings of the new near-zero energy home will be approximately $2500 per year—major savings for a family that continues to donate their income to a charitable cause.
