Energy efficient living

The Charleston Housing Authority has been awarded nearly $3.3 million in federal stimulus money to build two small, energy-efficient apartment houses and retrofit a third, as part of a demonstration project that will evaluate innovations like tankless water heaters and solar panels in public housing units.

"We will be studying the cost- effectiveness," Housing Authority Director Don Cameron said. "This is to be a learning laboratory."

The two 4-unit buildings also will provide more housing for low-income residents of the city.

The buildings will be constructed on Reid Street on the grounds of a former cemetery, adjacent to an existing apartment house that will be renovated. The Housing Authority bought the cemetery property in the 1980s, not knowing it had been a 19th century graveyard, and earlier this year relocated about 350 sets of remains from the site.

The $3,280,038 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act grant was awarded through a competitive process by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Charleston was among three dozen housing agencies nationwide that won funding. In South Carolina, Columbia also was awarded a grant.

The amount of the grant works out to nearly $1.1 million for each of the three apartment buildings, or $273,337 per apartment, not counting the cost of the land, the cemetery relocation or the existing building that will be renovated.

In contrast, Cameron said the authority spent about $150,000 per unit when it built condos on Daniel Island subsidized for middle-income families.

Cameron said the cost of the housing on Reid Street reflects the premium on energy-efficient appliances and things like permeable paving, which allows water to seep through and recharge aquifers instead of running off to storm drains.

"An asphalt parking lot would cost a lot less, for example," he said.

The buildings also will feature solar panels to provide some of the electricity, Energy Star-compliant high-emissive roofs, Energy Star appliances, low-flow toilets and shower heads and faucet aerators to save water.

Cameron said the authority hopes to learn how much money the energy- saving construction will save long-term. The authority hopes to seek bids as early as November.