Communities

Information gathered and analyzed represents an essential case study for designers, builders, and energy analysts interested in building high performance homes with predictable results.

With Building America support and without paid advertising, Clarum’s first large-scale, near Zero Energy community (the largest in the country to date) sold three times faster than expected.

Centex Homes’ "Powersave Plus" community blends cost-effective energy efficient features with roof integrated solar electric systems to reduce homeowners’ average electric bills by 70%.

Sacramento area’s Fallen Leaf at Riverbend answers the universal problem of urban sprawl through the construction of desirable, attractive, energy efficient, solar homes in an infill area.

Seastar Communities opened Sonata, the first standard Zero Energy Neighborhood (ZEN) of its kind in the Redding area, designed to save homebuyers up to 50% on utility costs.

Premier Homes opened their second standard "zero energy" community in the Sacramento region - Premier Oaks in Roseville. This visionary project combines private industry with public interest for the good of the environment.

Prototypes

Serving as a real-life laboratory for innovative research, two identical homes were built side by side: one using conventional methods and one with innovative new technologies.

Four highly-efficient desert homes with the same floor plan and different innovative wall and cooling systems will provide lessons that will be applied to future housing developments.

Through energy-efficient designs and solar thermal and electric systems, BIRA helped plan this desert home to use about 90% less energy than the same home built to code. To make this the Ultimate Family Home, focus groups were organized to gain insight on exactly which amenities today’s families need.

Systems

BIRA is studying the highly-efficient water-cooled condensing units manufactured by Freus in both of these prototype homes to better understand the attributes of water-cooled condensers.

The Concrete Structural Insulated Panels (CSIP) tested in this project have the possibility to be a cost-effective solution to building tight, well insulated, peak shifting homes in cooling climates.

Utilizing climates with low humidity and a diurnal temperature swing, NightBreeze^TM whole house ventilation provides automated cooling with filtered night air using the HVAC system.