Net Zero Energy Habitat for Humanity House
Habitat for Humanity of Metro Denver has dedicated what they’re billing as the ultimate energy efficient demonstration home. The Net Zero Energy Habitat for Humanity House, located on Carr Street in Wheat Ridge, Colorado, was specifically built to an energy efficient design that combines energy conservation with solar heat and power gen technologies to supply the home’s energy needs.
The project was sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) and NREL researchers used the latest tools and technologies in this home’s design. From the article at RenewableEnergyAccess.com…
The house features super-insulated walls, floors, and ceilings; efficient appliances; a solar water heating system; heat-recovery ventilation system to assure indoor air quality; compact fluorescent lighting; and windows coated with thin layers of metallic oxide to help keep heat in during the winter and out during the summer. The home’s 4-kW photovoltaic system is sized to produce excess energy in the summer to balance out winter consumption.
NREL staff will monitor the performance of the home over the next year to determine if the design of the home performs as expected or whether improvements will be needed to achieve zero energy.
[via Renewable Energy Access]
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POSTED IN: Eco Architecture, News, Solar
3 opinions for Net Zero Energy Habitat for Humanity House
Donna
Jul 21, 2007 at 8:16 pm
I would love to see some net-zero energy floor plans.
andy Brokmeyer
Oct 14, 2007 at 7:44 pm
In the interest of saving the planet, will somone please share a basic zero energy home floor plan and design plan?
I am disturbed that all these architects want a small fortune for such simple mutually beneficial technology.
Am I crazy? Or shouldn’t we share the knowledge?
-Andy b
Ted L. Clifton
Mar 3, 2008 at 6:04 pm
I have designed and built a number of Low Energy Use plans, at least one of which is very similar to the one above. In our climate, any of these homes will achieve true net zero energy with as little as 3.24 KW of PV, and a solar hot water heater on the roof. One is being completed this month, and will have the solar installed in April of this year. I have made them all available through my web site, listed above. Please check us out, we would be pleased to have other good plans made available through our site. Thank you,
Ted
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