James O'Reilly, the developer of Fairway Hills, wants to build a neighborhood that is earth friendly ("Green")  The dilemma is that everyone has a different idea of what their Green home should be. David Wigder, Vice President of Business Development at RecycleBank, talked about this problem in his blog Getting Smart About Green Targeting. The Green home market is fractured and undefined at this point and it is important that the technologies incorporated into a home will make good practical sense.

Given the uncertainty about what people want, it is useful to outline the goals that the developer of this community has set.

1) The homes will be modest sized- around 2,000sf- the homes will be custom and can be any size the buyer wants. But building a large 3,000sf+ home and calling it "efficient" just seems to  run against the goals of this project and the philosophy of conservation.

2) Geothermal Heating/Cooling- This is the most practical heating and cooling solution available today. It eliminates dependence on fossil fuels (except for the electricity production) It is convenient, economical to run and very reliable.

3) Passive solar-  The homes will be designed and sited to take advantage of the suns warmth in the winter months. This just makes sense, it is basically free energy to heat the home during the cold New Hampshire winters. It is the ultimate in reliability. The use of glass connects the interior of the home to the natural beauty of the outdoors and makes the views of the surrounding land part of the interior of the home.

4) Use of recycled material- Using engineered materials that are made from recycled materials will provide several benefits:

• less virgin material saves natural resources
  
• engineered materials are often stronger
  
• Most of all engineered materials require less maintenance for the homeowner

The Fairway Hills Project really started back in 2003 when James O'Reilly bought a house on 76 acres in New Durham New Hampshire. The home was built on land that was a thriving blueberry farm. It sat on the Northerly side of Copple Crown mountain and had stunning views of the White mountains.

James thought of developing the land but wanted to do something special with it. His first thought was to creat a neighborhood of homes that were energy efficient. Although building an energy efficient home is not new or different, the idea of creating a whole community of homes that are efficient seemed to be a new idea. His searches for other neighborhoods of energy efficient homes built in New Hampshire did not turn up much. They just did not exist.

As fuel prices climbed and the Green Home movement gained in popularity the thought of creating such a neighborhood began to really make sense to him. In 2006 he began the task of surveying the land and getting conceptual designs for the neighborhood done. In 2007 he took the proposal to the town of New Durham for the long approval process. (he is not quite done with getting approvals, but it is close)

Now the serious work of defining exactly what the neighborhood will be focused on. There are so many ideas about what an energy efficient home should be. ( you may notice that we are not using the term "Green" home. There are so many concepts of what "Green" is that it tends to be confusing)

In the next post I will begin to define the high level goals of the community. We are looking for feedback on what people really want in a community that is earth friendly. So feel free to post your comments and any thoughts you may have.