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Houses Awards Winners

VIDEO: 2012 HOUSES Awards – Best Energy-Smart Home

By Official Fine Homebuilding Post

Best Energy-Smart Home Award: Chris Larson

With passive-solar strategies at its core, the home that Chris designed is just as much about the homeowners’ lifestyle as it is about energy use. A sensible combination of a tight building envelope and practical mechanical systems conserves energy, requiring only a moderately sized renewable power plant-for hot water and electricity-to balance energy use and production.

Read about this and all of the award winning homes in the Fine Homebuilding 2012 HOUSES issue.

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View Comments

  1. DRafalski | Apr 27, 2012 02:21pm | #1

    I was curious of the paint color used in the arch opening area, as I am looking to paint a new addition with similar wood trim colorings. I thought that your choice looked great!

  2. mr_seguin | Apr 28, 2012 07:36pm | #2

    I have been reading a bit about passive solar energy and it seems to revolve around a fair bit amount of windows to let the sun in and warm the floor to radiate in the house BUT, how can this strategy be good in -40 degree celsius temperature. Wouldn't you bee loosing a lot of heat through those huge windows?

  3. Benjamin1988 | May 08, 2012 04:35pm | #3

    Sounds like a good system

    BENJAMIN RAUCHER

  4. greenxxx | May 18, 2012 10:08am | #4

    This project has excessive volume & glass to work !!!
    Then comes the electrical solar array & geothermal architectural crutches to make this thing go . Not only top 1% in cost but has an large mfg carbon footprint .
    Well hell I could drive my doghouse , pup tent , shack ............ you get the idea off this system .
    This is greenwashing at its worst & then you go pay the green scribe for a certification .
    This is a modern art project , nothing more, for the top 1 % .
    Listen up kids this is wasted site & resources, passive solar (cooling , heating , natural daylighting )costs no more than the status quo ($100/sf +/-)in this area and has no electro-mechanical devices to fail .
    How do I know this ? I've been doing passive solar for 40 years about 50 miles from this project .

  5. ecdunn | Dec 06, 2018 02:01pm | #5

    This looks like a very car centric home. Hope they are charging and electric car off their solar panels. Also, from a green standpoint, we need to stop building homes in rural zones. Undisturbed soil can store over twice the carbon as disturbed and an infinite amount more than paved over soil.

  6. suburbanguy | Dec 06, 2018 04:14pm | #6

    I'm confused. If one puts up enough solar cells can't any home be net zero energy? So what's the point of this home or the whole NZE movement? Isn't some other metric like energy use per cubic foot of interior volume, per square foot of window glass, more meaningful?

  7. user-3976312 | Dec 12, 2018 08:47pm | #7

    You can by hybrid SUV's as well. Does that represent some kind of progress? This project does not start from a desire for conservation. I love how they make the point of the money they're saving after sinking an untold amount into an indulgent art project. But what about those hurricane catchers!

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