A large contractor has recently started a Net Zero Energy home in Farmington.
First off – what is Net Zero? Basically, it means your house produces as much energy as it uses. This typically means heat, cooling, appliances, lights, etc can run from grid electricity at night, and during the daylight, your PV system is sized to offset that usage over the course of the year.
The house is marketed at $280,000 and similar sized and outfitted houses are selling for $320,000 locally (before Bush Recession II kicked in).
This is cool, since Farm Town’s economy is 90% oil, gas, and coal. If there is a market for a major builder to see value in building Net Zero here in Fossil Fuel Land, then America might be waking up.
They use a tight building envelope and minimize waste of materials. An air exchanger is part of the system to make sure air quality is good. They put a large PV electric system on the roof, and tie into the grid. The heat, cooling and cooking come from electricity, so there is no natural gas or propane coming into the house.
They do all this and make money doing it. This is a large private contractor, that is not building houses from grants or for free.
I would like to see even more. They do not take passive solar gains into consideration. Their house plans are done so that they can plop a house down onto a street without considering where due south is, just like any other typical American builder does. They don’t insulate as much I would. Their thermal mass use is limited. It’s easy to be critical, but it is good to see that even in Oil-N-Gas town there is a market for an efficient home that doesn’t waste energy.
Photos show the insulation that isolates the perimeter of the foundation from the outside, and their view from in front of the house. You can see into Colorado and west to Shiprock. Not bad for an "affordable" sized home.
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