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CES set out to prove a point: Design a house that is attractive and utilizes no foreign energy.

The modest New England farm house style home sits at the end of an 800-foot driveway on a secluded 14 acre lot in Killingworth, CT. Accompanying this home is a post and beam barn, chicken coop and detached barn style garage. The property will serve as a working organic vegetable farm and tree farm. The roof of the barn is where the 65 solar photovoltaic panels are installed that will provided all of the electrical power for the residence. On the roof of the main house are 10 solar hot water panels for heating the domestic hot water. Altogether these panels will generate 20,000 kwhr/yr of electricity. The house also has a water-to-water standing column Geothermal HVAC system that will also be used for the domestic water well.

The interior of the home has a soft elegance with its combination of modern technology and understated farmhouse details. When the rooms aren’t being filled with natural light they are lit with LED fixtures and the paint, woodwork, flooring and cabinets were all chosen because they emit low or no VOCs (volatile organic compounds). Many of the finishing details throughout the home come from recycled materials; reused countertops from old homes, an old barn door installed on a slider to hide the LED television, recycled doors for the interior rooms and recycled slate for the window sills.

Paperwork has been submitted to register this residence as LEED for Homes Platinum certified- the highest of the nationally accepted benchmarks developed by the U.S. Green Building Council and it has met the requirements of the Connecticut Energy Efficiency Fund Net Zero Challenge. 

  

This is a high-profile structure, not in size, but in stature. This 3,200 sq.ft, four bedroom net zero energy home features the following:

• Super insulated envelope: double-staggered stud, Icynene foam insulation,   R40 wall, R60 roof, R35 basement

• High-efficiency Marvin Tripane™ windows and doors

• Schuco Photo Voltaic (PV) cells for 14.8kW of electricity generating 20,000   kWhr a year

• AET hot water panels for domestic water, generating 120 gallons of hot water   daily

• AET hot water panels for space heating generating 300,000 BTU’s a   day

• Climate Master Geothermal (standing column well) for HVAC system

• Energy Star appliances and lights

• Energy recovery ventilation with 85% energy efficiency

© Consulting Engineering Services, Inc. 2009