A net-zero energy house is one that creates as much energy as it uses over the course of the year. It is a home that doesn’t pay any energy bills.
The National Institute of Standards and Technology in Gaithersburg, Maryland built a test house on its suburban campus to see whether a comfortable four-bedroom home occupied by a family of four and enjoying the amenities of modern life could actually use no net energy. After a yearlong test, the house passed with flying colors, actually producing a reasonable energy surplus.
The all-electric home was occupied by a computer-operated virtual family that cooked meals, washed clothes, took showers, watched television, and did all the energy-consuming things that typify our lives. The two-story, 2,700-square-foot house features energy-efficient construction and appliances, highly-effective insulation and sealing, and the energy-generating technologies of solar panels and solar water heating. The house was built to LEED Platinum standards, the highest level for sustainable structures.
Despite a particularly cold winter and 38 days of snowfall, the house ended up producing almost 500 kilowatt-hours more energy than it used for the year. The house would have racked up $4,300 in electric bills for the year had it not made all its own energy.
Building the house was expensive. It cost about $160,000 more than a comparable conventional home. But continuing research at the site will yield knowledge, methods and tools to help reduce this cost difference and make zero-energy homes a reality for as many of us as possible.
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Energy to Spare: NIST Completes Successful Net-Zero Energy House Experiment
Photo, posted April 2, 2009, courtesy of Dru Bloomfield via Flickr.
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Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.