An Ossining resident has been honored by the U.S. Department of Energy with a DOE Housing Innovation Award for advancing the housing industry nationally. Daniel Colombini earned this award by crafting his LEED Platinum passive house in Ossining, which stands as a single-family, three-bedroom home with an attached garage.
His standout home is one of the 24 national recipients of the 2024 DOE Housing Innovation Award and is one of only two in New York and New England. The other winner is a house in Esopus in the Hudson Valley.
“As part of its Zero Energy Ready Home (ZERH) program, the U.S. Department of Energy recognizes leading builders who are delivering better homes to Americans across the country,” notes the U.S. Department of Energy.
The home boasts about 3,500 square feet of living space and represents a new model for sustainable, energy-efficient, and cost-effective residences. The LEED Platinum passive house has been honored for “spurring the housing industry to construct more efficient, healthy, and resilient homes.”
A passive home is categorized as a high-performance building standard developed by the Passive House Institute and is currently the only internationally recognized, performance-based energy standard in construction. On the other hand, LEED is the most used green building rating system in the world, with Platinum LEED being the highest certification one can receive. The Ossining home meets both standards, achieving the highest levels of energy efficiency and green design.
Additionally, the home is “zero energy,” meaning it is both net zero and carbon neutral, including the home’s energy consumption and electric vehicle charging.
“Energy-efficient and green design is vital, given the challenges of climate change,” says Colombini.
Colombini is a Principal at Goldman Copeland, the New York City-based consulting engineering firm. The engineer had his mind set on crafting a new standard of suburban housing when it came to his Westchester property. The home is considered a partial tear-down and retrofit, meaning he initially purchased a home, tore down everything except for its foundation, and reused 75% of the materials from the old house in the new building.
The Ossining home incorporates passive house principles, increasing the cost of construction by 8% compared to a traditional house. However, this cost is expected to be paid off within 10-15 years through the energy savings built into the home. The design features include a high-performance thermal enclosure, airtightness and heat recovery, continuous balanced ventilation, high-performance glazing of windows and doors, shading and daylighting, and moisture control.
Due to these upgrades, the air quality of the home has improved significantly and been high enough that Colombini’s allergy-induced asthma has disappeared.
Located adjacent to the Teatown Nature Preserve, the home’s plants and landscaping are made up of native species designed to improve stormwater management and mitigate invasive species. The landscape designer for the project works with Teatown and is familiar with the local landscape. The architect is Christina Griffin of CGA Studio in Hastings-on-Hudson, the contractor is Ed Nugent of Fort Montgomery, the certification consultant is Integral Building + Design in New Paltz, and the landscape architect is Barbara Restaino of Restaino Design in Grahamsville.
“This house provides the home that my family wanted while demonstrating that the highest standards can be attained cost-effectively. I’m excited that it has been honored by the U.S. Department of Energy and now provides a model for the nation,” says Colombini.
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