By Bruce Oreck
The Next West House is the first LEED Platinum zero-carbon house in America. Designed to optimize energy efficiency and employing a wide range of technologies, this house produces far more power than it consumes. Over time, it will actually “repay” the grid for the energy embedded in its construction.
Sustainable building practices really mean the creation of a building that not only maximizes comfort and minimizes energy consumption today, but also the creation of a structure built to last that will adapt to our future living patterns. The Next West House accomplishes all of this.
The Next West House has also been designed to demonstrate that “green” building practices are not about sacrifice, but about intelligence. Luxury does not have to be in conflict with sustainability. The Next West House achieves all of this using only “off-the-shelf” products. In other words, if you can’t just go buy it, we didn’t use it.
Color-correct next-generation LED lighting provides light quality virtually identical to incandescent lights, with none of the drawbacks of compact fluorescent bulbs. Almost no heat, a 20 year rated life, no mercury, dimmable, and unflickering.
Photovoltaics provide all the power for the house. But by using hybrid solar, the house is automatically both grid-tied and grid-independent. A redesigned plumbing harness allows for almost instant hot water at any faucet without the use of circulation pumps or demand heaters.
Grey-water processing combined with the latest “low-flow” plumbing fixtures means that even with 4 ½ baths, the Next West House will use 50% less water than a conventional home.
Super insulation (using insulated concrete forms, structural insulated panels, and insulsoy closed-cell insulation) combined with tight construction techniques have yielded a perfect and unheard of “0” score under the Home Energy Rating System (the lower the number, the better). What this translates to is a home that uses incredibly little energy to heat, cool, and operate! This also means that the Next West House is really comfortable in all weather conditions.
But green building is as much about old knowledge as new. Looking backwards to traditional home design, the Next West House also incorporates deep south-facing porches to provide direct warming sun in the winter, while providing shade in the summer. The home minimizes the use of glass on north- and west-facing walls without sacrificing natural light.
Homes need to be built as much for the future as for today. The Next West House incorporates a variety of clever and unique approaches to allow it to flex and change as future technologies and living styles present themselves.
Anyone who thinks that sustainable building solutions are still off in the future is living in the past! Visit the Next West House. See, touch, and learn about a constellation of solutions available today—all economically viable today too. |
