ZNE Makes Its Big Apple Debut

The Delta in Brooklyn (credit: Voltaire Solaire) 

If you can make it there, you can make it anywhere. So we're excited to report that New York City has its first ever zero net building. The Delta, as it's called, is a retrofit of a 2,700 square foot building using both solar and wind power for energy needs and generating its own electricity, water and heat. Even with its unique triangular shape and lack of southern exposure, the five-story building located in Brooklyn uses enough renewables to offset its annual energy use.

The building is a triplex residence, studio residence, retail location and restaurant all in one, and includes solar panels, a solar skin, a special window treatment and a rooftop wind turbine, to make it ZNE.

The developer, Voltaire Solaire, partnered with IKEA, Samsung, Sharp and others to make the project come to life, and is now working on a second multifamily project.

Read more about the New York project here. 





 

Project ABC Green Home (And ZNE Blog Series) In Full Swing

Foundation poured at ABC Green Home at Great Park in Irvine, Calif. 

On the heels of ABC Green Home's recent groundbreaking, the project reached yet another major milestone last week -- the setting of the home's foundation slab. What started as an idea by Green Home Builder magazine's publisher and SCE to build an affordable, environmentally friendly home, is now becoming a reality.

Next on the fast-paced construction agenda is building the framing for the house, starting this week. As the project is set to be completed in just 70-80 days, we'll be chronicling the step-by-step process of the build with a series of construction updates and videos on the ZNE blog.  

For more information about the project, check out the June issue of Green Home Builder magazine, which includes a feature story on ABC Green Home's groundbreaking. And stay tuned here for more exciting updates.

ZNE More Mainstream, Researchers Say

Locations of ZNE buildings, in a variety of U.S. climates (source: NBI)

Zero net energy commercial buildings are becoming more mainstream and don't need to cost more to build, according to a recent report from the New Buildings Institute . The report looked at 21 ZNE buildings and 78 zero-energy-capable buildings in the U.S. and Canada, and determined features the buildings shared and any incremental costs.

What they found was that, although the buildings all use highly efficient equipment, there was no super advanced technology that is not commonly known or used. The study also found that there is a growing number of larger ZNE schools and office buildings.

While the buildings studied operate in many climates, they share a few common efficiency strategies, such as natural daylighting, high-efficiency lighting and increased insulation.

Read more about the research study here. 

CHIP On View at California Science Center Through May 31

Inside CHIP (source: SCI-arch Caltech)

Last month, we wrote about CHIP (Compact Hyper-Insulated Prototype), the progressive zero net energy building created by students from the Southern California Institute of Architecture and California Institute of Technology.

Through a partnership with the California Science Center in Los Angeles, the house is now open to the public for free tours through May 31, 2012. Visitors can explore CHIP inside and out weekdays from 10 am - 1:30 pm, and weekends from 10 am - 4 pm.

Read more about the exhibit here. 

Hawaii Now Home to Nation's First ZNE, LEED-Platinum Affordable Housing Project

Kaupuni Village (source: Hunt Companies, Inc.)

Kaupuni Village, touted as the nation's first ZNE affordable housing project, recently achieved LEED Platinum Certification in the LEED for Homes Rating System. Located on the Wai'anae coast of Oahu, Hawaii, the community was constructed by Hunt Companies, Inc., and planned and developed by the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands (DHHL), as a model for future developments.

All three- and four-bedroom homes within the community incorporate energy efficient features, such as solar water heating, photovoltaic panels to generate electricity, renewable materials, and energy efficient lighting and appliances. Housing is available to residents that meet the income requirements below 80 percent of the area median income.

As an added bonus, Kaupuni Village's community center will provide residents with opportunities to grow and prepare their own foods via gardening spaces, aquaculture ponds and an imu (or underground) oven.

Read more about Kaupuni Village here. 

ZNE Building to Become $1.3 Trillion Market

According to a report released this month by Pike Research, with green building becoming more mainstream, the ZNE building construction industry is expected to grow into a $1.3 trillion market by 2035, driven primarily by demand from Europe, where ZNE requirements are increasingly required.

While there may be a community of early adopter builders and designers in the U.S., Eric Bloom, Pike Research's building industry research analyst, sees states such as California and Massachusetts leading the way in the U.S. towards bringing building codes closer to a ZNE standard.  

Steve Galanter in our Customer Energy Efficiency and Solar division said this report demonstrates that current and anticipated future interest in ZNE buildings throughout the country is growing. SCE's interests align with this as we are pushing for economic integrated design and deep energy-usage reductions to ensure that this trend is market sustainable.

Read more about Pike Research's ZNE report here.

Introducing British Columbia's First Zero Net Energy Home

British Columbia's First Zero Net Energy Home (Source: The Globe and Mail)

Perched high on a hill in a Whistler neighborhood named Rainbow is a home with all the luxuries you'd expect from a new development in a popular resort -- and the eco-friendly bells and whistles that make it the first zero net energy home in British Columbia, Canada.

Built by Whistler's RDC Fine Homes, the 2,200-square-foot, three-level house features a solar photovoltaic system with six hundred square feet of steep solar panels that convert sunlight into electricity, to ensure the home creates as much energy as it consumes. With structural insulated panel walls, which use less lumber than wood-framed construction and help keep conditioned air in, less energy is required for heating and cooling.

Other attributes include spray foam insulation made from recycled plastics and vegetable oil to eliminate air leakage; high-efficiency, triple-glazed fiberglass windows that enhance energy performance; a hydronic pipe layot to keep floors warm in winter and cool in summer; and an energy-efficient HVAC system that recaptures the heat out of water going down the drain and recovers exhausted warm air from the dryer.

Learn more about British Columbia's first ZNE home here.  

Meet CHIP, the iPad and Kinect Controlled Zero Net Energy Home

The CHIP home (source: SCI-Arc/Caltech)

Can you imagine a zero net energy house that actually feeds power into the grid using a bank of solar panels and exterior insulation, without sacrificing style? Students from the Southern California Institute of Architecture and California Institute of Technology did, and they call it CHIP (Compact Hyper-Insulated Prototype).

Created as an entry for the U.S. Department of Energy Solar Decathlon, CHIP led the SCI-Arc/Caltech team to the next stage of the competition, which culminated in a display of the most progressive new building and energy projects on the Mall in Washington, D.C. last year.

Up to 45 solar panels can be mounted on CHIP's roof, providing three times the energy than the home actually requires. LED lighting and wireless switches mean less power and fewer bulbs, while HVAC energy use is reduced by using a large water storage tank.

The house is high tech as well, with wireless lighting controlled and power consumption monitored with an iPad. The thick thermal envelop around the house is controlled by a Kinect sensor bar using gestures and pointing, meaning CHIP can turn on specific hardware when you sit in certain chairs, close blinds when it's bright, and automatically lower shutters to avoid passive heating.

Read more about CHIP here.