After shivering for 20 winters inside their drafty 1576 sq ft 1945 Garrison Colonial in Melrose, MA, owners David Fink and Barbara Simko requested a MassSave energy audit. The auditor stated that the house would be an excellent candidate for the National Grid DER program. Thus began their journey towards zero net energy. The owners […]

We bought an 1,142 sf one story house with full basement, gutted and superinsulated it, and added 192 sf on piers. The initial blower door test was 3,117 CFM50. Interior finishes were in poor shape; the floor plan was worse. We wanted to fix an existing building on a developed site rather than build new, […]

This renovation transformed this building from an energy guzzler to a resilient and healthy spacious 2-family, designed to use less energy than it produces. Careful planning resulted in high efficiency of the building envelop, of the heating, cooling and ventilation systems. The solar panels provide the energy needed to run this two family. This is […]

The Carlsson Family Home is a 3,157 square foot home built by Birdsmouth Construction in Portland Oregon. Construction began in July of 2014 and the home was completed in June of 2015. The original home was a 1925 craftsman that had a poor foundation, uninsulated walls, single pane windows, an old gas furnace and a […]

The owners, Peter and Rachel Stevens, are also the architects. As they started renovations, it became clear that most of the systems and finishes needed replacing, which made this two-family a perfect candidate for a Deep Energy Retrofit. All the exterior finishes had lived out their lifespan (and the aluminum siding recycles well), so exterior […]

One barrier to broader adoption of ZNE practice is the perception of ZNE as expensive and exotic. In this project we addressed this issue directly, demonstrating that ZNE renovation can be straightforward and practicable, providing qualitative improvements, significant savings in energy and carbon emissions, and excellent return on investment. We started with our small, simple, […]

Our home is a 120-year-old farmhouse in downtown Amherst, MA. At the time of purchase, it had no insulation in the walls or attic, was heated by an oil furnace from the early 20th century, and was clad in mint-green asbestos shingles. Although walking distance to downtown, all of the public schools, and in a […]

Our home is a newly constructed single-family residence located in downtown Maynard, Massachusetts. Maynard is a micro urban community west of Boston full of sidewalks, stores, and eateries. We reside in the house with our two children. As potential first-time homebuyers we had initially searched Maynard for an existing starter home that would provide 1) […]

Inspired by issues of global warming, our goal for our new home was to create a comfortable, modern living space that produced more energy than it consumed. We also hoped to produce enough energy to power an electric car to provide the majority of our transportation. And we hoped to do this in a home […]

KB Home earned a U.S. DOE Zero Energy Ready Home certification on this highly efficient home they call the “Double Zero House” because it is a net zero energy home producing as much energy as it uses in a year and because the home uses zero fresh water for irrigation with an onsite greywater recycling […]

“If you stop by Spartan and Hannah’s 1500 square foot home on a sunny January afternoon, you will find yourself surrounded by warmth. This isn’t because of a wood stove, or a sophisticated heating system—in fact, you will probably find that the only heat source for the house, a 12kbtu heat pump, will be off. […]

“Up Hill House was designed and built by the homeowners, Larry and Jill Burks, in southern Washington County, New York. It produced more energy than used the first year of occupancy and is on track to do so again this year. Our house is at the heart of an effort to live a more sustainable […]