'Green' construction

Bernie Little Distributors Inc. and ABC Fine Wine and Spirits believe that sustainability is the smart way to construct buildings.

Bernie Little recently completed a 5,500-square-foot building for its Sebring office, while construction on ABC's new store in front of The Home Depot in Sebring is continuing.

"A lot more people are realizing the value," said Blake Linville, owner/operator of Adaptive Builders and an energy efficiency specialist. "The payoff can be received in as few as two years."

Linville, who is a LEED accredited professional, noted that people who own commercial buildings have the most to gain because the structures are large consumers of electricity and water.

In the four years he has owned Adaptive Builders, Linville said it is amazing the number of products that have come out that include paints, flooring, wall coverings and glues. He added that there is even a composting toilet on the market.

"There are so many different things you can do," he said.

The Structural Insulated Panels (SIP) technology was used in the Bernie Little building.

Chastain-Skillman Inc. of Sebring designed the building. According to Suzanne Hunnicutt, the project architect, the exterior walls and roof were constructed using insulated metal panels with additional standard batt insulation.

The interior lighting is controlled by occupancy sensors in each room. The T5 fluorescent bulbs were installed.

The air conditioning system is designed to reduce energy consumption with equipment that has an energy efficiency rating nearly 40 percent higher than is required.

The low-flow toilets use from 30 percent to 50 percent less water than required by code.

Richard Harper, operations manager for the distributor, said it was about getting more energy efficient, noting that fuel costs will not be going down.

"We want to be good stewards," Harper said. "There is a payback."

The best thing about SIP, according to Linville, is that it reduces waste in materials. Also, installation is not difficult.

Phyllis Fitzpatrick, construction coordinator for ABC Fine Wine and Spirits, said the buildings are being constructed out of expanded polystyrene with Styrofoam building blocks that are filled solid with concrete.

The light fixtures are Cree 12w LED and the fluorescent bulbs are T8 andT5. The light fixtures are also on timers so that store lights go on at opening and shut down just after closing.

Linville said those bulbs reduce energy consumption and lower the demand on the air conditioning.

All unoccupied rooms/ storage, utility and restrooms are on motion activated timers.

The stores have electronic monitoring, that controls the heating ventilation and air conditioning, which are set and cannot be controlled at the store level. Fitzpatrick said only the facilities manager can have the temperature changed. The A/C is normally set at 74 degrees and is shut down at night. The walk-in beverage cooler is also controlled.

The windows have a special window film from IBM which blocks 80 percent of the heat from the sun, according to Fitzpatrick.

"We're building stores that we plan to own and work in for years to come, so it makes sense to make investments that have a long-term payoff," said Lorena Streeter,

marketing communications manager for ABC Fine Wine and Spirits, in a prepared statement.

"Energy use is an incredibly important discussion on many levels in this country, so for us, it just makes sense to build in a way that is sustainable for us, as well as the community, well into the future. And of course, with energy costs continuing to rise year over year, investing in energy efficient buildings helps us keep costs down, which helps keep prices down," Streeter said.

She noted the design of the Sebring store is the same design going into all of its new stores, including the one that just opened in Lake Wales.

The same design features (wall types) were used when ABC built a new store in Daytona Beach Shores earlier this year, replacing an old store of about the same size. According to Streeter, energy use dropped considerably - the power bill dropped by about $2,000 a month. She pointed out that the old store had a lot of glass windows.

"We've also retrofitted some of the other features, such as the timers, over the past several years and seen energy use drop a lot," Streeter said.

The SIP technology is also being used in all 60 single-family homes at Mason Ridge's in Sebring. Mason's Ridge is Highlands County's first "green" affordable housing community.

John Hawthorne, executive director of Highlands County Habitat for Humanity, said the homes can withstand hurricane winds up to 120 mph.

"The homes we built before that are stick built were not energy efficient," Hawthorne said.

The appliances in the homes have the Energy Star rating, which means they use less electricity and water.

Hawthorne said owners have reported the energy bills in some Habitat homes in Sarasota are less than $100 a month.