Mar 18 2010
Jay Madden has designed a “green” home for his family in Loveladies, Long Beach Island, NJ and has applied for LEED Gold Certification from the U.S. Green Building Council. Jay believes that “following the Council’s construction guidelines will provide us with a highly efficient home. LEED Certified home promises to be healthier, more energy efficient, and more durable. A green home will leave a much smaller environmental footprint”. Included in his design is the SMART VENT® automatic foundation flood vent.
“I have been using SMART VENT®’S since they were invented. Few products are standard in our designs, and SMART VENT® is one of them. They go into every drawing we do. The SMART VENT® insulated flood vent contributed to our ability to create a conditioned crawl space.” Not only did SMART VENT® allow Madden to condition his crawl space, the vent’s construction and aesthetic appeal provide additional benefits. “The SMART VENT® is more durable with its stainless steel construction, does not clog or get covered up like regular air vents and its functionality allows us to use significantly less vents in our homes which improves their appearance.”
LEED is an internationally recognized green building certification system, providing third-party verification that a building or community was designed and built using strategies aimed at improving performance across all the metrics that matter most: energy savings, water efficiency, CO2 emissions reduction, improved indoor environmental quality, and stewardship of resources and sensitivity to their impacts. Developed by the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), LEED provides building owners and operators a concise framework for identifying and implementing practical and measurable green building design, construction, operations and maintenance solutions. SMART VENT® is a proud member of the U.S. Green Building Council.
Eco-Friendly SMART VENT® has always been green. With a focus on producing a product that is long lasting, low maintenance, energy-efficient and economical, all elements driving the green building movement in the building industry. Specifying and installing SMART VENT® Foundation Flood Vents can contribute toward achievement of numerous credits for LEED-NC certification. The performance and technologies engineered into these automatic openings can help to achieve
pre-requisites and accumulate points in the following categories and credit areas of LEED-NC Version 2.2: Site Selection; Energy and Atmosphere; Materials and
Resources; and Indoor Environmental Quality.
Matt Leahey, SMART VENT® technical rep, gave a Lunch and Learn seminar after a local Building Inspector meeting on Long Beach Island, attended by Madden. “It was very educational. It is amazing how regular air vents don’t do the job. It was a real eye-opener.” States Madden. “Matt has been great to work with. Everyone at SMART VENT® is always helpful, especially on the technical front”.
All SMART VENT® products are certified engineered openings through the International Code
Council. They provide an automatic entry and exit of floodwaters, which in turn, relieves the hydrostatic pressure yielded upon foundations during flooding. The stainless steel vents have two patented floats that automatically release with rising water. This allows the bidirectional vent door to rotate out of the path of floodwater thus providing the required 3” diameter of completely unobstructed open area for the water to enter and exit.
Because SMART VENT® vents are code compliant, FEMA accepted and ICC-ES Evaluated, homeowners across the country realize huge savings on their NFIP insurance premiums by installing them.
"Our insulated flood vent models allow an architect to design a sealed or conditioned crawl space in a flood zone; our vents contribute credits to the USGBC LEED program & the NAHB Green Building Standards. GREEN construction is more then just using recycled materials, it means building a sustainable structure, our ICC-ES certified flood vents insure the foundation of the home is protected against hydrostatic forces that can destroy a home during a flood event, a great GREEN home starts with a solid foundation and protecting foundations in a flood zone is our specialty." State Tom Little, National Sales and Marketing Director at SMART VENT®.