Ecofutures Newsletter: February 2010

Ecofutures Newsletter: February 2010

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Ecofutures Website HomepageBrand New Website

After months of hard work, we’ve finished our new website.  We were lucky to have the help of Boulder-based PowerUp Productions, who expertly executed the web creation and design of the site.   We hope you’ll find it to be very user friendly and easy to navigate.  Please check back on occasion, as we will make frequent updates, especially to the Founder’s Corner (CEO Eric Doub’s blog) and News sections.  Here’s a mini site tour:

Social Media

Since fall 2009, we’ve added social networking to our daily activities.  We’ve been so pleased with the depth of the connections we’ve achieved with local, national, and even international communities—industry professionals and non-professionals alike.

Please consider following us via these social networking channels:

Twitter Just shy of 1,500 followers.  ~630 tweets since August 2009.  We tweet news about Ecofutures, green building, energy efficiency, renewable energy, climate change, and other relevant Colorado news. Twitter is a free social networking and microblogging service that enables its users to send and read messages known as tweets.

Facebook Fan Page Just shy of 60 fans.  Started in October 2009.  The latest Ecofutures updates and most relevant industry news. Facebook is a social networking website where users can add friends and send them messages, and update their personal profiles to notify friends about themselves. Additionally, users can join networks organized by city, workplace, and school or college.

LinkedIn See Ecofutures’ company profile and connect with Ecofutures’ employees. LinkedIn is a business-oriented social networking site. Founded in December 2002 and launched in May 2003, it is mainly used for professional networking.

Flickr See the latest Ecofutures project and event photos. Flickr is an image and video hosting website, web services suite, and online community.

YouTube Videos done by Ecofutures or about Ecofutures, including HGTV’s “Red, Hot and Green” segment on our flagship zero net energy home, Solar Harvest. YouTube is a video sharing website on which users can upload and share videos.

Share This Also, please help us get the word out by sharing any sections of our site displaying the “share this” icon (picture to the right) at the  bottom of the page: email a friend some info, post an Ecofutures item on your Facebook page or Twitter, Digg/Stumble us, and more!

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Completed Project: HERS -3 Home at High Altitude :: Evergreen, CO

“Our new home reflects the harmonies that we enjoyed with Ecofutures and all of the people involved in the building project.” -The Moores.

The Moores moved into their home in March ’09.  Designed in a traditional southwest/adobe style with natural finishes and sustainable materials, the home integrates the best techniques and technologies used in high-performance home construction today.  Despite typically cold and windy site conditions, the home was rated HERS –3 post-construction, which means that it is projected to generate more energy than it uses.  Only a handful of homes in the U.S. have been awarded this distinction, and the home’s no-energy bill performance was achieved for only 8% more in cost.

Learn more about this state of the art, high-performance home:

  • Online Portfolio Page: See photos, what the Moores had to say about their home and Ecofutures, and learn about the home’s key details, renewable energy systems, advanced energy & comfort systems, and building envelope.
  • Project Profile: PDF explaining the various high-performance components of the home including its air-tight building envelope, fresh air circulation, on-site energy & heat production, solar-heated water, and non-toxic, sustainable interior finishes.
  • Project Photos: Take slideshow tours of construction, finished, and housewarming (held on 9/27/09) galleries on Flickr.
  • Read the “Breaking News” section of the newsletter to find out about the BASF Builders Challenge Award the home earned us this year.
  • To see all the technical details of the home, please click here.

Frazer Net Energy ProducerCurrent Project: Net Energy Producer in “Icebox of the Nation” :: Fraser, CO

Despite the annual mean temperature in Fraser being 32.5 °F, Ecofutures’ integrated design team has designed the home to be better than zero net energy, even with considerable conditioned space and “extracurricular” energy uses.  17kW of solar PV will power the 5,200 sq. ft. house, 900 sq. ft. detached wood shop, AND 2 all-electric Tesla vehicles (1 Roadster and 1 five-door when it’s released into the marketplace)!  For 8% more in construction costs, the homeowners can power their entire house and their cars without paying anything (net) to a utility company, thereby future-proofing their home against rising energy costs!

On January 20th, we received some wonderful news from our stellar on-site Project Manager, Jeremy Mercier: “All inspections passed with flying colors today.  The inspector had said it was one of the most well-built homes he had ever seen and that it should be a model for future homes in Grand County.  He was blown away with our wall assemblies and said that if this was code, we wouldn’t be in the trouble we’re in.”

All framing has been completed, and insulation, radiant tubing, and concrete floors are underway.  By the end of February, drywall will be complete, and the home should be ready to live in by August.

To view our Flickr gallery of this home under construction, please click here.

To see all the technical details of the home, please click here.

Current Project: Near Zero Net Energy for 5% More :: Longmont, CO

The Hainlines’ custom home, overseen by expert on-site Project Manager, Jim Pendergast, is due to be completed in August and is projected to achieve a HERS 9 rating.  The Hainlines came to Ecofutures at the onset, relying on our expertise to provide them with the best integrated design team possible, and thus only 5% of the overall construction budget had to be allocated to achieve Boulder County’s BuildSmart-mandated HERS 10 or better.   That 5% included building envelope upgrades such as walls with interior thermal breaks, closed cell spray-in-place foam, and double dry wall, as well as high-performance windows, and a large sun space 3 feet deep that acts as a solar air collector for space heating. Solar thermal and solar electric renewable energy systems were also included in that 5%. Currently, Jim is having his crew finish up exterior framing and roofing, as well as start on paint and stucco.  Throughout the interior, the HVAC and electrical phases are beginning and the glass for the innovative sunspace was just installed.

To view our Flickr gallery of this home under construction, please click here.

To see all the technical details of the home, please click here.

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Eric Attends Exclusive Konwa Kai ZNE Think Tank Meeting

On January 25, Founder & CEO Eric Doub attended the invitation-only Konwa Kai meeting held in Orlando, FL and hosted by Daikin, the 2nd biggest A/C company in the world.  The Japanese company is entering the North American market and has been seeking out industry-leading expertise in the area of Zero Net Energy.  Daikin executives discovered Eric upon touring Ecofutures’ zero net energy flagship home, Solar Harvest, offered through the September ’09 EEBA Conference.  Impressed by what they saw and after flying 6 executives out to Colorado in November to see various Ecofutures projects, they invited Eric to be one of 35 executives and engineers from North America, Europe, Japan, and China to attend Konwa Kai, Daikin’s annual think tank & innovation meeting.  Eric eagerly accepted and gave one of four non-Daikin presentations at the meeting and left feeling “so honored that Daikin asked me to participate and considered me worthy of being in the company of such well-respected and internationally-known industry leaders.”

Ecofutures Receives BASF Builders Challenge Award for Building ZNE Home in 2009

On Tuesday, January 19 at the International Builders Show in Las Vegas, Ecofutures accepted its award for completing the Evergreen ZNE home in March ‘09, its 2nd project to achieve the off the charts score of –3 on the U.S. Department of Energy’s EnergySmart Home Scale (E-Scale).  When the DOE issued its Builders Challenge in 2008, Ecofutures’ Solar Harvest was the first home to be registered under the program with a negative HERS score of –3.  Ecofutures currently has 4 homes registered under Builders Challenge and looks forward to enrolling many more in the coming years!  See the case study Builders Challenge did about Ecofutures’ –3 homes.

We also want to congratulate the other builders that received awards this year: David Weekley Homes (Texas) for qualifying the most homes (280) for the Builders Challenge in 2009.  Artistic Homes (New Mexico), Time O-Brian Homes Inc (Wisconsin), and Yavapai College (Arizona) for qualifying zero net energy homes (homes that produce as much energy as they use) through the Builders Challenge in 2009.  See the Builders Challenge case studies on these builder’s homes.

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Sign up for next tour: February 17 @ noon

We offer periodic tours of Solar Harvest, our flagship zero net energy home and residence to Ecofutures Founder/CEO Eric Doub.

Our next tour is scheduled for Wednesday, February 17th from noon to 1p.m and will be led by Eric.  Consider signing up for the Feb 17th tour or put yourself on a list for a later date by filling out the “Tour Sign Up Request” form on our website.

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