Zero-energy Building - Worldwide - United States

United States

In the US, ZEB research is currently being supported by the US Department of Energy (DOE) Building America Program, including industry-based consortia and researcher organizations at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), the Florida Solar Energy Center (FSEC), Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), and Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL). From fiscal year 2008 to 2012, DOE plans to award $40 million to four Building America teams, the Building Science Corporation; IBACOS; the Consortium of Advanced Residential Buildings; and the Building Industry Research Alliance, as well as a consortium of academic and building industry leaders. The funds will be used to develop net-zero-energy homes that consume at 50% to 70% less energy than conventional homes.

DOE is also awarding $4.1 million to two regional building technology application centers that will accelerate the adoption of new and developing energy-efficient technologies. The two centers, located at the University of Central Florida and Washington State University, will serve 17 states, providing information and training on commercially available energy-efficient technologies.

The U.S. Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 created 2008 through 2012 funding for a new solar air conditioning research and development program, which should soon demonstrate multiple new technology innovations and mass production economies of scale.

The 2008 Solar America Initiative funded research and development into future development of cost-effective Zero Energy Homes in the amount of $148 million in 2008.

The Solar Energy Tax Credits have been extended until the end of 2016. Solar power in the United States

By Executive Order 13514, U.S. President Barack Obama mandated that by 2015, 15% of existing Federal buildings conform to new energy efficiency standards and 100% of all new Federal buildings be Zero-Net-Energy by 2030.

Energy Free Home Challenge - In 2007, the philanthropic Siebel Foundation created the Energy Free Home Foundation. The goal was to offer $20 million in global incentive prizes to design and build a 2,000 square foot (186 square meter) three-bedroom, two bathroom home with (1) net-zero annual utility bills that also has (2) high market appeal, and (3) costs no more than a conventional home to construct.

The plan included funding to build the top ten entries at $250,000 each, a $10 million first prize, and then a total of 100 such homes to be built and sold to the public.

Beginning in 2009, Thomas Siebel made many presentations about his Energy Free Home Challenge. The Siebel Foundation Report stated that the Energy Free Home Challenge was "Launching in late 2009".

The Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory at the University of California, Berkeley participated in writing the "Feasibility of Achieving Zero-Net-Energy, Zero-Net-Cost Homes" for the $20-million Energy Free Home Challenge.

The website energyfreehome redirects as of October 2012 to fvgroup.com/philanthropy, and information on the $20-million Challenge is no longer available at that site.

If implemented, the Energy Free Home Challenge would have provided increased incentives for improved technology and consumer education about zero energy buildings coming in at the same cost as conventional housing.

Arizona

• Zero Energy House developed by the NAHB Research Center and John Wesley Miller Companies, Tucson.

California

• The IDeAs Z2 Design Facility is a net zero energy, zero carbon retrofit project occupied since 2007. It uses less than one fourth the energy of a typical U.S. office by applying strategies such as daylighting, radiant heating/cooling with a ground-source heat pump and high energy performance lighting and computing. The remaining energy demand is met with renewable energy from its building-integrated photovoltaic array. In 2009, building owner and occupant Integrated Design Associates (IDeAs) recorded actual measured energy use intensity of 21.17 kbtu/sf-year, with 21.72 kbtu/sf-year produced, for a net of -0.55 kbtu/sf-yr. The building is also carbon neutral, with no gas connection, and with carbon offsets purchased to cover the embodied carbon of the building materials used in the renovation.
• The Zero Net Energy Center, scheduled to open in 2013 in San Leandro, is a 46,000 square foot electrician training facility created by the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 595 and the Northern California chapter of the National Electrical Contractors Association. Training will include energy efficient construction methods.

Colorado

• The Moore House achieves net-zero energy usage with passive solar design, ‘tuned’ heat reflective windows, super-insulated and air-tight construction, natural daylighting, solar thermal panels for hot water and space heating, a photovoltaic (PV) system that generates more carbon-free electricity than the house requires, and an energy-recovery ventilator (ERV) for fresh air. The green building strategies used by Thomas Doerr of Doerr Architecture and Ecofutures Building on the Moore House earned it an amazing and verified Home energy rating system (HERS) score of -3.

Florida

• The 1999 side-by-side Florida Solar Energy Center Lakeland Florida demonstration project was called the "Zero Energy Home." It was a first-generation university effort that significantly influenced the creation of the U.S. Department of Energy, Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, Zero Energy Home program.

Michigan

• The Mission Zero House is the 110-year-old Ann Arbor home of Greenovation.TV host and Environment Report contributor Matthew Grocoff. As of 2011, the home is the oldest home in America to achieve net-zero energy. The owners are chronicling their project on Greenovation.TV and the Environment Report on public radio.

• The Vineyard Project is a Zero Energy Home (ZEH) thanks to the Passive Solar Design, 3.3 Kws of Photovoltaics,Solar Hot Water and Geothermal Heating and Cooling. The home is pre-wired for a future wind turbine and only uses 600kwh of energy per month while a minimum of 20 kWh of electricity per day with many days net-metering backwards. The project also used ICF insulation throughout the entire house and is certified as Platinum under the LEED for Homes certification. This Project was awarded Green Builder Magazine Home of the Year 2009

Iowa

• the MUM Sustainable Living Center was designed to surpass LEED Platinum qualification. The Maharishi University of Management (MUM) in Fairfield, Iowa founded by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi (best known for having brought Transcendental Meditation to the West) incorporates principles of Bau Biology (a German system that focuses on creating a healthy indoor environment), as well as Maharishi Vedic Architecture (an Indian system of architecture focused on the precise orientation, proportions and placement of rooms). The building is one of the few in the country to qualify as net zero, and one of even fewer that can claim the banner of grid positive via its solar power system. A rainwater catchment system and on-site natural waste-water treatment likewise take the building off (sewer) grid with respect to water and waste treatment. Additional green features include natural daylighting in evey room; natural, breathable earth block walls (which were made by the program’s students), purified rainwater for both potable and non-potable water functions; and an on-site water purification and recycling system consisting of plants, algae, and bacteria.

Missouri

• In 2010, architectural firm HOK worked with energy and daylighting consultant The Weidt Group to design a 170,735-square-foot (15,861.8 m2) net zero carbon emissions Class A office building prototype in St. Louis, Missouri. The team chronicled its process and results on Netzerocourt.com.

New Jersey

• The 31 Tannery Project, located in Branchburg, New Jersey, serves as the corporate headquarters for Ferreira Construction, the Ferreira Group, and Noveda Technologies. The 42,000-square-foot (3,900 m2) office and shop building was constructed in 2006 and is the 1st building in the state of New Jersey to meet New Jersey's Executive Order 54. The building is also the first Net Zero Electric Commercial Building in the United States.

New York

• Green Acres, the first true zero-net energy development in America, is located in New Paltz, about 80 miles (130 km) north of New York City. Greenhill Contracting began construction on this development of 25 single family homes in summer 2008, with designs by BOLDER Architecture. After a full year of occupancy, from March 2009 to March 2010, the solar panels of the first occupied home in Green Acres generated 1490 kWh more energy than the home consumed. The chart of energy use and production is available at http://www.greenacresnewpaltz.com/pages/performance.html. The second occupied home has also achieved zero-net energy use. As of June 2011, 5 houses have been completed, purchased and occupied, 2 are under construction, and several more are being planned. The homes are built of insulated concrete forms with spray foam insulated rafters and triple pane casement windows, heated and cooled by a geothermal system, to create extremely energy-efficient and long-lasting buildings. The heat recovery ventilator provides constant fresh air and, with low or no VOC (volatile organic compound) materials, these homes are very healthy to live in. To the best of our knowledge, Green Acres is the first development of multiple buildings, residential or commercial, that achieves true zero-net energy use in the United States, and the first zero-net energy development of single family homes in the world.

• Greenhill Contracting has built 2 luxury zero-net energy homes in Esopus, completed in 2008. One house was the first Energy Star rated zero-net energy home in the Northeast and the first registered zero-net energy home on the US Department of Energy's Builder's Challenge website. These homes were the template for Green Acres and the other zero-net energy homes that Greenhill Contracting has built, in terms of methods and materials.

• The headquarters of Hudson Valley Clean Energy, located in Rhinebeck and completed in 2007, is the first and only zero-net energy, carbon-free commercial building in New York State and the entire Northeast. The building consumes less energy than it generates, using a solar electric system to generate power from the sun, geothermal heating and cooling, and solar thermal collectors to heat all its hot water.

Oklahoma

• The first 5,000-square-foot (460 m2) zero energy design home was built in 1979 with support from President Carter's new United States Department of Energy. It relied heavily on passive solar building design for space heat, water heat and space cooling. It heated and cooled itself effectively in a climate where the summer peak temperature was 110 degrees Fahrenheit, and the winter low temperature was -10 F. It did not use active solar systems. It is a double envelope house that uses a gravity-fed natural convection air flow design to circulate passive solar heat from 1,000 square feet (93 m2) of south-facing glass on its greenhouse through a thermal buffer zone in the winter. A swimming pool in the greenhouse provided thermal mass for winter heat storage. In the summer, air from two 24-inch (610 mm) 100-foot (30 m)-long underground earth tubes is used to cool the thermal buffer zone and exhaust heat through 7200 cfm of outer-envelope roof vents.

Oregon

• Net Zero Energy Building Certification launches in 2011, with an international following. The first project, Painters Hall, is Pringle Creek’s Community Center, Café, Office, art gallery, and event venue. Originally built in the 1930s, Painters Hall was renovated by to LEED Platinum Net Zero Energy Building standards in 2010, demonstrating the potential of converting existing building stock into high‐performance, sustainable building sites. Painters Hall features simple low-­‐cost solutions for energy reduction, such as natural daylighting and passive cooling lighting, that save money and increase comfort. A district ground-­‐source geothermal loop serves the building’s GSHP for highly efficient heating and air conditioning. Excess generation from the 20.2 kW rooftop solar array offsets pumping for the neighborhoods geo loop system. Open to the public, Painters Hall is a hub for gatherings of friends, neighbors, and visitors at the heart of a neighborhood designed around nature and community.

Texas

• The University of North Texas (UNT) is currently constructing a Zero Energy Research Laboratory on its 300 acre research campus, Discovery Park, in Denton, Texas. The project is funded at over $1,150,000 and will primarily benefit students in mechanical and energy engineering (UNT became the first university to offer degrees in mechanical and energy engineering in 2006). This 1,200 square-foot structure is now competed and held ribbon cutting ceremony for the University of North Texas’ Zero Energy Laboratory on April 20, 2012.

Vermont

• The Putney School's net zero Field House was opened October 10, 2009. In use for over a year, as of December, 2010, the Field House used 48,374 kWh and produced a total of 51,371 kWh during the first 12 months of operation, thus performing at slightly better than net-zero. Also in December, the building won an AIA-Vermont Honor Award.
• The Charlotte Vermont House designed by Pill-Maharam Architects is a verified net zero energy house completed in 2007. The project won the Northeast Sustainable Energy Association's Net Zero Energy award in 2009.