Net-zero Energy Homes
In 2020, what will a green (great) home be and how will it be delivered?
We believe that energy efficiency should be the platform for any green, high-performance home, and, in the future, the majority of green homes will produce as much energy as they consume. Net-zero energy homes can be built as one-off projects today, but they don’t make sense for builders yet on a production scale.
Ultimately, the Alliance wants to make sure that these homes can be built cost-effectively, while delivering the other fundamentals of a quality house that homeowners expect. To help make net-zero energy a reality, the Alliance has launched the Lab Home program, a multi-year research effort in which we’ll build a series of unoccupied lab homes for study in four U.S. climate zones.
Traditional lab (or experimental) homes focus on technology alone, but we’ll be evaluating ours against three key criteria:
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Performance – We’re looking for whole house systems that will deliver 70% energy savings (conservation) and can be coupled with renewable energy sources—resulting in net-zero energy. While energy is a key component, it's only part of the picture. We’ll also assess each home in terms of comfort, safety, health, durability, and environmental friendliness.
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Constructability – Mass adoption of green building requires practical design. We'll try our best to use readily-available products and readily-available trade skills. We'll evaluate speed of construction in terms of days and man-hours and impacts on construction sequencing.
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Cost – Are these homes affordable to build and to own? Analysis of material and labor costs is a given, but we'll also consider lifecycle costs and homeowner "savings" (or the difference between increases in mortgage costs and decreases in energy costs).
We’ll be breaking ground on our first lab home in the fourth quarter of 2008. Watch this website for more details.
Want to get involved in researching tomorrow’s green homes? Become a member of the Best Practices Research Alliance, and access information as research is happening.