Case StudiesCustom HVAC Configurations for Custom Spaces

In 2008, Amy and Rodney Lumpkin moved their family into a 3,000-square-foot home in Limerick, Pennsylvania. As the years passed, the home began to feel cramped for the couple and their five children. The Lumpkins decided to complete a 1,000 square foot addition; this would create two new bedrooms, a bathroom and a variety of other functional spaces. It would also necessitate getting a new HVAC system, since the old system didn’t have enough capacity to cover the new spaces. During the planning phase, the couple realized the project could be an opportunity to address a handful of comfort issues in the home’s original spaces. What system could offer everything they wanted? Only Zoned Comfort Solutions® from Mitsubishi Electric.

Brad and Marian Loomis have live in their 726-square-foot beach cottage in Morro Bay, California, for over 30 years. In 2013, they decided to revamp the cottage and double its size. By August 2015, they’d added an additional 724 square feet to transform their tiny cottage into a comfortable and roomy 1,450-square-foot home. During the renovation, the Loomises realized they needed an efficient way to cool their house during the summer and gain more personalized comfort year-round. To achieve these goals for their home, they selected Zoned Comfort Solutions® from Mitsubishi Electric.

In 2013, when Kirsten and Joseph decided to build a new 2,600-squarefoot, resilient home in the coastal town of Margate, New Jersey, for their family, they wanted to ensure that every feature in the house was energy-efficient. Therefore, when it came time to select the home’s cooling and heating system, the couple needed to find a system that would save energy while also providing comfort and blending in aesthetically. The solution: Zoned Comfort Solutions® from Mitsubishi Electric.

Hurricane Sandy made landfall in October 2012, damaging or destroying hundreds of thousands. of homes. One of those homes was a 1940s cottage that belonged to Kim Erle, LEED® AP, founder and president, Sunset Green Home, LLC, New York. When it came time to rebuild, Erle didn’t just set out to build a new home, she set out to build the coastal home of the future—a highly efficient, resilient house that would stand up to future storms and serve as a model for responsible building practices. In practical terms, that meant high-performance subfloors to weather-resistant aluminum roofing and a multi-zone Hyper-Heating INVERTER® (H2i®) system from Mitsubishi Electric. The result: a place to call home for years to come. The goal now: to have LEED certification in hand.

green|spaces is a nonprofit that works to advance the sustainability of living, working and building in Chattanooga, Tennessee, and the surrounding region. In 2014, green|spaces hosted a competition challenging participants to design a zero-energy, market-rate home. The winning design was adapted and built, and is now a 1,700-square-foot home – one of four planned. All four will feature Hyper-Heating INVERTER® (H2i®) technology from Mitsubishi Electric Zoned Comfort Solutions®.

Jenny and Aaron Stash wanted to buy a home in Northbrook, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago. When they didn’t find a home that matched their needs, they decided to build one. “Once we decided to build a house, we wanted to do it right,” said Jenny. Doing it right meant three things: sustainability, indoor air quality and energy efficiency. A three-floor, 3,500-square-foot house was carefully designed from the ground up, inside and out: bamboo flooring, indigenous plantings, fiber-cement siding, LED lighting and one extremely energy-efficient HVAC system from Mitsubishi Electric. The result: a happy family and LEED® Platinum certification.

Developer Sloan Ritchie and his wife wanted to live in a sustainable home in Seattle. When they found a lot in a beloved neighborhood, they decided to build a Passive House – a structure that complies with the Passive House standard, which focuses on an airtight building envelope, an approximate 90 percent reduction in space heating and an overall 60-70 percent energy reduction. It would be a first for them, and a first for Seattle. The result, called Park Passive, has been so much more than a record-breaking house. For the Ritchies, it’s been a wonderful place to raise a family; for the community, it’s been an inspiration. One of the mechanical systems making this achievement possible is a zoned comfort solution from Mitsubishi Electric.

A few years ago, the Fagins heard about the passive house concept and were eager to bring a high-performance home to Texas. Knowing that efficient mechanical system selection is key to low-load homes, Fagin Partners utilized Mitsubishi Electric’s Zoned Comfort Solutions® and its Performance Construction Team to make the Lively Passive House a reality.

When bank manager Catherine O’Neill retired in the California wine country in 2009, she decided she wanted a comfortable and environmentally friendly retirement home that made a distinct energy-efficiency statement. In a cul-de-sac of early 1960s ranch houses a few blocks from the central plaza in historic downtown Sonoma, Calif., she discovered a run-down 1962 farmhouse that had not been lived in for years but had “good bones.”

Since 1984, the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB), in partnership with a leading residential building trade publication, has sponsored The New American Home (TNAH) project. A concept home that makes its debut each year at The International Builders’ Show (IBS), this year’s TNAH is a 6,600-square-foot home in Montverde, Florida’s Bella Collina Golf Community. With strict energy-efficiency guidelines, the builder utilized Zoned Comfort Solutions® from Mitsubishi Electric to secure a variety of green certifications including EPA’s ENERGY STAR® and Indoor airPLUS programs.