(Boulder, CO 9/7/2006)

Since construction was completed in November, 2005, on Solar Harvest, the City of Boulder’s first net-zero energy home, Eric Doub and his family have enjoyed living in “simply the most comfortable home we ever have experienced.” The home is now fondly dubbed the first “Better-Than-Net-Zero-Energy” home. Designed by Eric Doub and his wife Catherine Childs and built by Eric’s award winning general contracting firm, Ecofutures Building Inc., Solar Harvest has achieved many milestones in its first year.

Since last October, over 1,300 people have toured the home and as many others viewed virtual tours of the home through Eric’s presentation at this summer’s Solar 2006 Conference. In December, 2005, Energy Star home performance raters recognized Solar Harvest as the most energy efficient home in Colorado, achieving 97.7 out of 100 possible points. And in July, Eric was awarded with the Colorado Renewable Energy Society’s Sustainable Building Award for innovation and energy efficiency in residential construction of Solar Harvest.

Built to achieve net-zero energy means that the home incorporates appliances, systems and controls into a home design, such that over the course of a year the home will consume less energy from the utility grid than it supplies to the utility. In recent study of the home’s energy production, it is apparent that within the first 4 months, the PV array generated enough electricity to offset any it consumed before thermal systems were fully operational. Within another 2 months, the home supplied twice that amount; meaning that while other homes turned up air conditioners and faced rising utility bills for the summer, Eric and his family continued to experience pleasant conditions using less energy than ever before.

Features of the home that create these comfortable, energy efficient attributes include: a super-insulated, tight building envelope; a 6,000 gallon super insulated tank for solar hot water storage; a 6.84 kW PV array; and high efficiency appliances. These unique design features – using commonly available materials and standard building practices – allowed Solar Harvest to possibly be the first home in the nation approved under modern code in a cold climate, without back-up heat systems powered by either fossil fuels or wood.

“Ultimately there are two projects here: One is the house as a sustainably built structure, and the other is the home we create within,” Doub says. “With the solar greenhouse for heating and horticulture, and super-efficient systems for space and water heating, we are creating a living environment that is safe and comfortable, and while relatively large in size, also light on the planet. In a sense we are making the future become the present, sooner. As energy guru Amory Lovins says of the coming transition from fossil fuels to sustainable systems based on efficiency and renewables: Why not enjoy the inevitable?”