Long a proponent of mandates from above and people-led propositions with hugely unintended consequences, California regulators have proposed that new building projects be “zero net energy” by 2020. As the local press has pointed out, the state utilities commission cannot regulate construction, but that’s probably just a minor obstacle from the Californian perspective.
Reasonable or not, it raises the question: Can a new home — a normal new home people would live in, not a tepee in field — be made “zero net energy”?
Turns out a few different groups are hard at work on just that idea. The key is “zero net.” These are not homes that use no power, but hyper-efficient homes that use power when necessary, then generate power back to the utility grid when possible. One such home, the Rose House, is under development at the Oregon Institute of Technology. The U.S. Department of Energy built two homes in Lakeland, Fla. — one zero-net and the other as a “control” home — back in 1998. Private builder Ideal Homes built one in Oklahoma as well, as part of a DOE project.
But the British are taking an entirely different tack, aiming instead for a net-zero carbon emitting home, part of a U.K. initiative that is also likely to become law, eventually. Kingspan, a construction materials firm, came up with a model home that burns sawdust pellets and has super-efficient cooling systems, just one of several entries in the Offsite competition.
