Green Home in Lima Earns LEED Certification
By: Katrina Irwin
Updated: November 9, 2012
A home in Lima is setting the standard when it comes to going green. It's the first house in the Finger Lakes region to be LEED certified platinum.
Jane Peers and William Relyea knows what it means to help the environment. A year ago, they finished construction on their "green" home in Lima.
"We wanted to build a handicap accessible house and we wanted to build it green so we weren't using non-renewable energy sources. Wanted to be able to provide our own," says Peers.
Some of the homes green features include geothermal heat, solar panels, and triple pane windows. They also used beams from an old barn that had been in Jane's family for years. "It was a lot of memories, the end of memories, but the beginning of new memories," she says.
At first, they weren't planning on getting the home certified through the green building council. But they learned that many of the things they were already doing would help them qualify. "There's a lot of help out there that people don't realize until they actually get into the process," says Peers.
All of the green improvements made inside and outside of this home have added up to some big savings. Last year they produced 90% of their own energy. Plus, grants help offset some of the costs of construction. But the real payback will come down the road.
"When we looked at it, it was a 10 year payback period which I don't think is a bad investment," says Peers.
