PART 2: EICHLER AND CONTEMPORARY CALIFORNIA HOMES
Contemporary homes tend to share architectural features with their Victorian progenitors. Photo: CertaPro Painters of Berkeley
From stately Victorian townhomes to trendy mid-century Eichlers, the housing stock in the Bay Area is diverse, often beautiful and sometimes less than energy-efficient. With winter around the corner, it’s time to start thinking about your heating bill. To this end, we’ve created your comprehensive guide to energy efficiency in Bay Area homes. In Part 1 (published last week), we covered Victorian, Edwardian, Craftsman and ranch-style homes. To wrap up, this week, we’ll discuss energy efficiency in Eichler and California Contemporary homes.
Again, we asked our panel of professionals how to make Bay Area homes energy efficient.
EICHLER HOMES
Eichler homes are known for their wonderful design and woeful energy systems. Photo: The Rostad Team of Coldwell Banker, 2015
“Eichlers” are midcentury modern tract homes built by developer Joseph Eichler between 1950 and 1974. Found throughout the suburban Bay Area, Eichlers are characterized by flowing spaces, floor-to-ceiling windows, radiant heating and central atriums. Joseph Eichler was committed to using design to bring the outside in—a feature loved by many homeowners. Of course, sometimes there are good reasons to keep the outside out: keeping Eichlers warm in the winter and cool in the summer can be a real challenge.
If you live in an Eichler home, here are some things you can do to keep the outside out:
Roof
Unlike traditional ranch-style homes, most Eichler roofs have a large flat area combined with a sharply sloped projection and vaulted interiors with exposed rafters that leave no space for insulation between roof and ceiling. To solve this, Paul Proctor suggests putting a “hat over the hat”: place insulation on the existing roof and build another roof on top of the new insulation.
Windows
Floor-to-ceiling windows are an Eichler hallmark. These oversized sheets of glass are frameless and held in place with wooden stops. While all that glass is visually appealing, the enormity of the energy loss is not. One option is to reconstruct the wall into a series of contemporary, framed windows. But if you don’t want to mess with the Eichler design, John Gorman says you can replace the old glass with double-paned insulating glass. “That way, you don’t have a bulky aluminum, fiberglass or vinyl frame cutting into the viewing area, which means the look remains truer to the original design.” Keep in mind, however, that unframed glass may not have a long warranty or insulate as well as a framed unit.
The floor-to-ceiling windows in Eichler homes provide tons of natural light while taking a toll on home heating systems. Photo: Bette Hollis, 2015
Heating and air conditioning
The radiant heating systems used to heat Eichler homes weren’t energy-efficient when they were installed, and now, decades later, many of these systems have broken down. While they can be repaired, Larry Waters of A-1 Guaranteed Heating & Air recommends replacement. After you’ve sealed and insulated your home, install a multi-zone mini-split. This consists of a single unit that uses electricity for both heating and cooling. Multiple indoor fan units installed in each room (or zone) pump either heated air or refrigerant. Each room has its own thermostat, which allows for maximum climate control and, ultimately, improved energy efficiency.
Solar
Like ranch-style homes, Eichlers tend to have a large expanse of roof. However, as Heath Galloway points out, unlike most ranch homes, the roofline on an Eichler is very low-profile. “Solar panels don’t like flat—they want to be perpendicular to best catch the sun,” he says. Still, you don’t have to rule out solar for your Eichler. But it’s a good idea to have your installer work with a roofer to make sure they drill down through the roof’s insulation and tongue-and-groove into the exposed beams.
CONTEMPORARY CALIFORNIA HOMES
By the end of the 21st century, gables and other roof ornamentation returned to contemporary housing. Photo: Howard Bloom – Intero Real Estate, 2015
In the 1980s, the popularity of ranch homes gave way to a new (or, to be precise, old) style of building. Homes got taller, living rooms sank and gables began popping out of roofs. After 50 years of Modernism, ornamentation reappeared with a vengeance.
Green building technology has advanced significantly in the last 10 years, so even contemporary homes can use an energy efficiency tune-up. Here’s what you can do to give your contemporary home an energy-saving makeover:
Roof
Like Victorians, contemporary California homes tend to have complicated roofs, with multiple angles and vaulted ceilings. Paul Proctor says the original roofing material of many homes built in the 1980s was wood shake. As the roofs have aged, some homeowners have opted to replace wood shake with less expensive (and less energy-efficient) asphalt shingles. If that’s the case with your contemporary home, insulation can mitigate the lower energy efficiency of the asphalt. When using asphalt shingles, make sure your roofer follows the building code and properly vents the attic. Also, in vaulted, insulated ceilings, a minimum of 1-inch vented airspace must be provided between the roof deck and insulation. This will help prevent condensation that can cause damage and ultimately lead to mold growth.
Even “new” homes may need to have their windows replaced. Photo: Pattiboe.com Real Estate, 2015
Windows
In 1978, the newly formed California Energy Commission began calling for all new homes to be built with dual-pane windows. While the changes were certainly a good step in the direction of energy efficiency, by the 1990s, John Gorman had seen many of these “young” windows begin to fail. Technology has improved significantly since these windows were installed, so if your windows are fogging up or hard to open, it may be time to replace them.
Solar
Dormers and other roof geography can make installing solar challenging but not insurmountable. Photo: Sungevity, 2015
Heath Galloway laments the moment in the 1980s when architects began to get a little crazy with their designs. All those faceted rooflines, hips and valleys, and dormer windows make installing solar panels far more challenging. Consequently, if you live in a contemporary California home, don’t expect a sleek rectangular array of panels. Instead, your installer will likely put multiple smaller, oddly shaped arrays in place. You may not like the more eclectic look of the broken up panels, but you’ll definitely enjoy your energy savings down the line.
Special thanks to our panel of contributors and to John Fraine for his review of this work. Please note that any factual errors are mine alone.
Read Part I: Victorians, Edwardians, Craftsman and Ranch Homes
References
architizer.com/blog/ranch-homes
energy.gov/articles/history-light-bulb
forward.com/culture/152215/how-eichlers-brought-design-to-suburbia
homeguides.sfgate.com/bungalow-vs-ranch-house-8779.html
jdarchitect.com/Site/Styles__Victorian_%26_Edwardian.html
www.oldhouseonline.com/victorian-ornamentation-glossary
www.victoriansociety.org
www.scribd.com/doc/16184012/AN-AMERICAN-VERNACULAR-Cliff-May-s-ranch-Homes