Making net-zero homes affordable

If you’re not wealthy, living in a net-zero home probably isn’t attainable right now. It costs a lot up front to install solar panels, weatherization measures, and electric appliances, even though those upgrades translate into tiny energy bills.

Milwaukee is trying to flip that dynamic with an assist from Habitat for Humanity. The Wisconsin city has launched a plan to build 35 affordable homes on vacant lots in disadvantaged neighborhoods, as well as a factory to make insulated wall panels for net-zero manufactured homes, Kari Lydersen reports for the Energy News Network in a new story out today.

Here’s more from Kari about another Habitat for Humanity chapter building net-zero homes that you won’t find in the full story:

In Oregon, Bend-Redmond Habitat for Humanity has built about 20 net-zero homes and will increase construction thanks to a donor. They plan to build 13 net zero homes in the next year.

CEO Carly Colgan said the homes are built on-site by volunteers, with heavy insulation, triple-paned windows, efficient appliances, heat pumps, highly efficient ductwork and solar panels. The organization has put solar panels on about 50 of its homes, including almost all of them over the past seven years, Colgan said.

The group hopes to build eight of its homes next year with panelized walls, but is still searching for a panel manufacturer so it doesn’t have to rely on ​“stick built” homes assembled by volunteers.

“It should be a lot faster and easier for our team to put together” panelized homes, Colgan said. ​“So if this works out well for us and the price point is where we want it to be, it could be something we use going forward, for larger developments.”

She said the Habitat chapter taps state and federal incentives for their homes, so that the end cost of a net-zero home is only about $10,000 more than a home that simply meets code.

“We had a homeowner call us when she moved in, she was in disbelief when she got her first utility bill, for $14,” Colgan said. ​“Her last bill in her old apartment had been $208. As a single mom, that savings every month…is just a life-changing thing.”

Read Kari’s whole story here.

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