Indeed it is!
Last year we completed an eight house cluster of permanently protected affordable housing designed to be “Net Zero Possible”, meaning that if you live carefully in these homes you may be able to produce as much total energy, on an annual basis, as you use.
After careful monitoring of the energy use in the eight houses and extensive data collection, our systems engineer extraordinaire—Marc Rosenbaum—has analyzed the data in depth. We also ran a net zero energy contest and two households managed, during the first year, to make more total energy than they used (and others came close). Zero energy can be a reality! We hear many claims about energy use, energy savings, and net zero energy, but it is rare to see measured comparative data.
Out there in the world, we find, people are clamoring for this kind of data. If you know of anyone who might be interested, forward the documents or let me know.
See a condensed version of the analysis below. Click on it and you’ll be able to read it. Or click here for the complete study.
bill and nancy bauer
We located your site while visiting threegrovesecovillage. We are a husband/wife team and own and operate a strawberry farm in Champlin, MN. We are approaching the age of 70 and it’s time to slow down, at least with the farmwork. We love our 45 acre farm and have spoken with various developers. None of them have the vision we do. They build HUGE non-energy wise homes and we have nothing in common with them. Our goal is to leave the legacy of our farm (our farm is well known throughout the Minneapolis area), not of huge energy hogs, but of homes that are all net zero or as close to that goal as possible. We own the land, but as small farmers we do not have the capital to do all of this ourselves. Can you, will you, possibly give us some direction as to how to attract the capital necessary to get our plan off, or should we say on, the ground? Any advice you can give these two farmer dreamers might steer us in the right direction. And thank you for all the information we are reading about energy efficient homes! – Bill and Nancy Bauer –