Net-Zero Home and Community Buildings (and beyond)

design goal:
to luxuriate in life (cold beer, warm shower), to live lightly on the land :
design a compact building with a tight, well insulated envelope that responds to your climate, take advantage of everything you can, recognize your opportunities , control ventilation, design a right-sized mechanical system

site design
climate + context + community + landscape
super-insulation and infiltration reduction: the first step is always conservation, so we want to insulate well and control air and moisture movement through he building’s envelope (skin)

passive solar design:
to gather, store, and distribute the sun’s energy to heat a building passively (no fans or pumps). includes tuning window types and amounts depending on the wall’s orientation

passive cooling design:
use of fresh outdoor air to control thermal comfort: night flushing and capturing of seasonal wind patterns

efficient mechanical systems:
integral to design and renewable energy strategy

renewable energy and carbon offsetting:
active solar, geothermal, wind, pv, micro hydro to net out at zero

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