A sustainably designed residential community outside Atlanta is wooing eco-minded buyers with in-ground heating and cooling systems at no extra charge.
The 223-acre Pinewood Forest development in Fayetteville, Ga., is across the street from Pinewood Atlanta Studios, a full-service film studio from the U.K.-based brand that’s produced James Bond, Star Wars, and Marvel classics. To attract young creatives and entrepreneurs, Pinewood Forest developers focused on urban living and interaction with nature.
Pinewood Forest includes 15 miles of trails across 118 acres of public green space (51 percent of the town) with gardens, ponds, and a forest preserve. Every home is either on or within a block of a park, according to the developer. In a community where residents enjoy all that nature has to offer, heating and cooling residences with geothermal energy just “makes so much sense,” says Rob Parker, Pinewood Forest president.
The systems are mandatory for every Pinewood Forest home in part because of the peace and quiet that results from eliminating outdoor compressors, says Parker. The walkable town was designed to achieve a dense footprint with about eight homes per acre.
“You don’t get the benefit of a quiet neighborhood if you go geothermal and your next-door neighbor doesn’t,” he says. “If we’re going to put people in a dense environment … where they’re going to have private courtyards but very public interaction, then making it one of the quietest neighborhoods they could ever live in was one of our most important selling features.”
Pinewood Forest will be the first community in the country to use this technology on a large scale. Fifty homes are currently built, but once the community is complete in five to seven years, all 1,300 single-family residences will be outfitted with independently operating geothermal systems.
Homeowners can either buy their home’s geothermal system and fold the cost into their mortgage or lease the system by paying a monthly fee that’s considerably less than their utility bill savings, Parker says. The monthly lease fee starts at $55 and increases based on the size of the home and geothermal well.
Vertical wells below each residence tap into the earth’s natural temperature of about 58 degrees year round. Bosch and WaterFurnace heat pumps take advantage of these stable conditions to heat or cool the homes more efficiently than above-ground HVAC compressors. The geothermal system can offer residents up to 70 percent energy savings and last over 50 years, according to the developer.
Two more components of Pinewood Forest’s eco-friendly strategy, solar power and smart home technology, are optional. Buyers who opt for these features can achieve net-zero or net-positive energy in any Pinewood Forest home, the developer says.
Builders at Pinewood Forest include Atlanta-based builders Redwood Custom Home Builders, 1023 Construction, and McKinney Builders, and Roswell, Ga.-based Brightwater Homes. All builders have bought into the geothermal technology and are excited for its value add, according to Parker. Since the developer handles most of the up-front installation costs, builders see only a small increase in their construction costs, he adds.
Pinewood Forest homes range from $290,000 to over $1 million, with most in the $300,000 to $500,000 range. Parker says that buyers are excited that geothermal technology is available to them, since it’s not common for this price range. He estimates that demand will grow as more people learn about the benefits of geothermal systems and the financing mechanisms for them.
“The confidence that we have now is once people understand the benefits [of geothermal systems] and live with them, they are going to ask for it when they go into their next home purchase,” Parker says. “They will carry that excitement through their lives and their families.”
