MetroABQ Blog

LEED Platinum home 1508 Summer Ave NW, above, has an extremely tight ‘building envelope’, which is the barrier between the conditioned environment (inside) and the unconditioned environment (outside). To keep the interior air as high quality as possible, the builder installed two ERVs, or Energy Recovery Ventilators. (Notice the vents on the ceiling in the pictures above and below.) As the air inside is tightly regulated, the ERVs take stale indoor air and exhaust it outdoors via a heat exchanger; fresh air is supplied inside from the outdoors through the exchanger, capturing most of the heat during the winter, and cooler air during the summer.

There are only a few dozen LEED Platinum residential homes in the MetroABQ that are not part of larger housing complexes. The new Nob Hill Platinum Apartments, seen here, is an example of a multi-unit Platinum project. Smartly, more LEED Platinum residential homes are being built in the city. The image above is of 1508 Summer Ave NW, a rare two-unit Old Town LEED Platinum infill townhome, designed & built by Paschich Design Group. The home got a 95 point score, which is an amazingly green-built home. Paschich is a local design/build group that focuses on new construction LEED certification and refurbishing older homes.