Green. It's the hot color in new-home construction.

Ten percent of all new homes will be green construction by 2010, up from just 2 percent in 2005, according to The 2006 McGraw-Hill Construction Residential Green Building SmartMarket Report.

Christopher Oquendo/Special (ENLARGE)

Tributary at Manchester felt right to Thomas and Patricia Peterson, who grew up in small towns and wanted the same for their daughter, Hannah. They also became convinced that energy-efficiency was the only way to go.

Christopher Oquendo/Special (ENLARGE)

Even though the Petersons went from 2,300 square feet in Dunwoody to about 3,800 square feet at their Douglasville home, their energy bill is almost half the amount it was.

Christopher Oquendo/Special (ENLARGE)

Laura Barton, with Duncan, fell in love with the green construction and her third-floor view at Oakland Park.

Here in Atlanta, water conservation ideas and stories of rising energy costs are in the news almost every day. It's no wonder Atlanta home builders are jumping on the green bandwagon to give their buyers a way to save money and resources.

The good news is that much of what was once cutting-edge technology is becoming commonplace building practice. Sydney Roberts is home services program manager for Southface Energy Institute. Her job is to keep up-to-date on the most current technology and make it accessible to builders. She says the market is transforming so quickly that it's hard for even the professionals to keep up.

"Our building is now 10 years old and was constructed to be a demonstration of the latest and greatest technology in residential building. A few ago, the manufacturer of our refrigerator came through and was horror-struck. He told us that the worst refrigerator we could buy on the market today was better than what we had in our kitchen. That's how quickly and thoroughly technology is changing," she says.

Real estate agents are working to keep up with trends, too. Steve Hoffmann and Susan Dowdy, agents at Jenny Pruitt & Associates in Buckhead, offer workshops to real estate professionals to help them understand sustainability and stay abreast of what's happening in the green building market.

How can you keep up? Roberts, Hoffmann and Dowdy offer suggestions for today's Homefinder lesson: Green Homes 101.

Things to find out:

• How was the site developed, and what happened to the debris from the construction?

•What about insulation? Is the attic insulation R-49? What about wall insulation and air sealing (caulking)?

•What's the SEER (seasonal energy efficiency ratio) on the air-conditioning system? Is the unit the right size? Too big a system won't dehumidify properly and the equipment will short cycle, wearing it out quickly.

• For the furnace, what is the AFUE (annual fuel utilization efficiency) rating?

• How is the water heated? Consider a gas tankless water heater or point-of-use models to save by not having to store heated water.

• Look for WaterSense labeled high-efficiency toilets, which use 1.3 gallons per flush or less. Toilets are the largest users of water inside a home.

• Are the appliances Energy Star? They'll save both water and energy.

•If you're using carpet, is it certified by the Carpet and Rug Institute's Green Label Plus program?

• Is the landscape planned for lower maintenance and water use?

Hoffmann and Dowdy's top five green tips in your home:

•Look for framing made from Forest Stewardship Council-certified wood.

• Service your HVAC system at least every two years and change filters regularly.

• Take advantage of natural light whenever possible.

•Consider carpet tiles which are easy to replace where there's damage and have a longer life than roll carpet.

• Use compact fluorescent light bulbs. The quickest way you can save energy is just to swap out your light bulbs.

What does it cost?

The U.S. Green Building Council says the net cost of owning a green home is comparable to — or even less expensive than — owning a standard home. "Month to month, people who live in green homes save money by consuming 40 percent less energy and 50 percent less water than standard homes," Roberts says.

He says now that items such as low-emissivity windows have become standard, "The cost of being green is already being built into construction. The true cost of homeownership includes not only the mortgage payment, but also utilities and maintenance. The owner of a green home pays less per month in total and owns a more valuable asset. Plus the home is more comfortable and has better indoor air quality."

More information on green topics is available at the Southface Web site, www.southface.org. Under Resources and Services, there are fact sheets on everything from efficient lighting to air sealing to rainwater recovery.

Roberts says, "Don't be afraid to ask your builder the hard questions about their green claims. Do they have data to back it up? Are they part of programs that provide independent testing? Print out our EarthCraft House worksheets and ask the builder to sit down with you so you can see exactly what they did to make their homes more energy- and resource-efficient."

Hoffmann adds, "Look for the right certifications and labels. Trust but verify, that's the best way to avoid the 'green wash.' "

ENERGY EFFICIENT HOME CHANGES THE WAY FAMILY THINKS

Patricia and Thomas Peterson were looking for a new home for their new family. Patricia tells us about their search. "We had a 15-year-old home in Dunwoody. The house had been mine from before we were married, and we wanted a home that would be 'ours.' It was also incredibly inefficient energy-wise. The windows were drafty; the nursery was always 10 degrees cooler or hotter than the rest of the house. It was really disappointing."

How they looked for a new home: "We looked at between 50 and 75 different master-plan communities all over Atlanta. We saw some Haven Properties communities north of Atlanta and were introduced to the whole idea of EarthCraft and Energy Star and building green. My husband, the consummate researcher, was online for weeks reading about how houses are constructed and how far home builders have come in making homes more energy-efficient. The more we read, the more convinced we were that if we were buying new construction, we wouldn't buy something that wasn't energy-efficient.

Why Tributary at Manchester? "Both my husband and I were raised in small towns, so we wanted a place to raise our daughter that would have that same sort of feeling. When we drove in here, we knew this was it; this was where we would be living. It felt like the kind of place you grew up, or wish you had.

Their house: "We designed this five-bedroom, five-bath house from the ground up, taking an existing floor plan and making it match our needs. We would come out every Sunday and watch the house being built. We took pictures of the process. When they put up the studs for the walls, the spaces between each and every piece of wood was caulked. It's completely sealed from the ground up. That surprised us. There was that kind of attention to every little thing throughout the house.

How that impacts them every day: "Our house stays at a constant temperature. When I set the thermostat at 72 degrees, the house is 72 degrees. Something we can't touch but we do appreciate is that the quality of the air here is much cleaner. We went from 2,300 square feet in Dunwoody to about 3,800 square feet here. And our energy bill is less now than it was in that house almost half the size.

What they learned: "We'd never built a house before, but watching this process from the ground up, coming out every week and seeing the progress they made, we really appreciate the extra steps they took to make sure this home was truly energy efficient. It's sort of funny. When we were moving in, my husband said he didn't feel right about having our old inefficient washer and dryer, so we got a new stack unit that uses only 14 gallons of water per wash load. We're recycling like crazy now; it really has given us a whole new perspective and desire to be thoughtful about our use of resources."