Our Robin Roy is on the ground at Extreme Makeover: Home Edition (Sundays 8/7c on ABC) construction sites this week, explaining super-insulating SeriousWindows and how they produce a higher insulating R-value than standard dual pane and ENERGY STAR®. See what happened today with Clean Skies’ video coverage of Extreme Makeover: Home Edition in the making. We can’t wait to see what the deserving family thinks of their new near-zero energy home in November when the show goes live. A heroic effort by all parties - hundreds of volunteers, G&M Contracting, the DOE and Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Burch Builders Group, and all building manufacturers involved. See pics here

See full press release here.  Today we announced the promotion of Mark Mitchell to Chief Operating Officer. Mitchell has been serving as Serious Materials’ Vice President of Business Development & General Counsel since 2007 and brings over 20 years of operating, finance, and business development experience in high-growth companies. In his new role, Mitchell is responsible for driving the company’s day to day operations, expansion and profitability.

“Mark has played a pivotal role in our exceptional growth, including our recent high-profile acquisitions in Chicago and Vandergrift,” said Kevin Surace, CEO of Serious Materials. “In his new role, Mark’s strategic leadership and operational track record brings additional breadth critical to Serious Materials as we continue to build our infrastructure and capacity for growth.”

Mitchell led the transactions that resulted in Serious Materials’ window and commercial glass manufacturing expansions including the acquisitions of Alpen, Kensington Windows, and Republic Windows & Doors.

“I look forward to continuing to build on the innovations and successes Serious Materials has already brought to the built environment,” said Mitchell. “We are entering a time of accelerating growth nationwide, and I couldn’t be more pleased to be taking on this new leadership role.”

Extreme Makeover projects designed with Department of Energy guidance to serve as examples of new near zero energy, cost-effective building design

From our full press release today:

Extreme Makeover: Home Edition (Sundays 8/7c on ABC) has come to the Washington D.C. metro area to demolish and rebuild two buildings – a community center and a residential home. Serious Materials, the leading energy-saving building materials company in the U.S., has donated its super-insulating SeriousWindows for use in both projects. With input and guidance from the Department of Energy (DOE) and Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), a DOE Laboratory, each project is designed with advanced energy-efficient materials and serve as examples for cost-effective near-zero energy building design that can be accomplished today.

“Windows are absolutely critical to the energy efficiency of residential and commercial buildings,” said Jeff Christian of ORNL who served as the Zero Energy Home consultant for both projects. “Given our zero energy design goals for these projects, I immediately called upon Serious Materials for their super-insulating windows. To maximize insulation, visibility, and energy savings, we chose high R-value SeriousWindows. I couldn’t be more pleased that Serious Materials contributed to these projects.”

One measure of thermal insulation of a building is measured by R-value. The higher the R-value of a window, the better it insulates, keeping cool air indoors on hot days and warm air inside on cold days. The most common single and dual pane windows range between R-1 and R-3. ENERGY STAR® windows are in the R-2.5-2.8 range. SeriousWindows used in the Extreme Makeover projects are R-6 super-insulating windows, exceeding ENERGY STAR® performance by more than two times, resulting in drastically lower energy use, lower utility bills, and improved comfort for the buildings’ inhabitants.

“We are thrilled to participate in this project to showcase for consumers and building owners the dramatic difference super-insulating windows can make,” said Kevin Surace, CEO of Serious Materials “By installing SeriousWindows, you can not only cut up to 50% off of your energy bills, but you can also use more windows in the design of any home or building, and benefit from greater visibility, daylight, and more comfort all year round.”

Extreme Makeover will install super-insulating SeriousWindows throughout the newly built home and community center to save energy and maximize natural daylight and ventilation. SeriousWindows with SeriousGlass allows for solar heat in winter and blocks solar radiation in the summer.

About the Energy Performance of the New Near-Zero Energy Residential Home
According to ORNL, the computer simulation for the new construction of the near-zero energy home is designed to deliver an energy performance of 27, based on a scale of 100 being typical new residential construction and 0 being a true net zero energy home. The total estimated energy costs of the new home is expected to be less than $3 per day, compared to $10 per day of a conventional new home of the same size in the D.C. area. The annual whole house savings of the new near-zero energy home will be approximately $2500 per year.

About the Energy Performance of the New Community Center
Proper design and construction of schools and community centers ensures healthy and comfortable learning environments for children and all occupants. It has been extensively researched and proven that well designed classrooms improve tests scores, attendance, and retention of quality teachers and staff.  High performance schools and community centers also save taxpayer dollars, conserve important energy resources, and reduce operating costs.

Super-insulating SeriousGlass in public buildings and schools also offers the most in energy savings and financial payback. According to Architectural Energy Corporation, SeriousGlass offers the highest annual energy savings, savings over 30 years, and fastest payback compared to typical glass solutions found in most schools in Washington D.C. today. With SeriousGlass, schools in the Washington D.C. area can save up to 20% compared to certain dual glazed systems. This amounts to a 30-year savings range of up to $4.8 million over double glazed windows. SeriousGlass delivers return on investment for Washington D.C. schools in as little as 18 months.

“It is possible, it can be done, and we have to do it. We have to show people it can be done.” That’s what one of our industry colleagues at the DOE said when we were talking about Extreme Makeover’s energy goals for their new projects - a near-zero energy home and a community center in D.C.  This week ABC’s Extreme Makeover is invading Washington D.C., and with the support of hundreds of volunteers, dozens of companies donating their products, local contractors, and the DOE, the Tripp family is getting a new home to live in and underserved students and parents a new community center. Read more about the lucky family and community center here.

What’s different about these new construction projects is that they will demonstrate energy saving at its finest - and what is possible today with the combination of the right off-the-shelf advanced materials. Super-insulating SeriousWindows are just one of them. We’re thrilled to be part of the project and work with our fine partners to demonstrate America’s goals of energy savings.  Tara of DWM Magazine reports on yesterday’s super busy build day. Burch Builders Group, one of the two local contractors donating their time to leading the projects, is posting regular updates, too.

The US Department of Energy held the 2009 National Weatherization Training Conference in Indianapolis from July 20-23. Serious Materials was there to help people understand how our new super-insulating, affordable window line, SeriousWindows WAP Series™, created specifically for Weatherization Assistance Program (WAP) agencies and states to be able to source into low-income housing projects as replacement windows, fit into the Weatherization program.

We hope we helped people understand how important windows are to weatherization. By replacing existing windows with super-insulating, high R-value SeriousWindows, families can reduce their heating and cooling bills by up to 40%. (R-value measures the thermal insulation of, for instance, windows and walls.)

The graph below compares the cost savings that families can enjoy when windows are replaced vs. other forms of weatherization.

But the best part of the conference was meeting people in the field and learning from them. We created a video featuring visitors to our booth answering two questions: What is the biggest challenge you face as the Weatherization program has changed? And If you were President Obama for a day, what would you change about the Weatherization program? We thought this content was interesting and compelling enough to share with readers here.