The Department of Energy sponsors a "solar decathlon" each year. It invites collegiate architects to design and build solar-powered energy efficient homes. Two years ago, the winner was a German company whose house cost $2,000,000 and couldn't have looked like much since it was covered in solar panels.
In this year's competition, a team of students from Stevens Institute of Technology, Parsons the New School for Design and Milano School for International Affairs, Management and Urban Policy wanted to build a home that made use of the latest technology, but that was also affordable for the average person.
They managed to build an "energy neutral" house in partnership with Habitat for Humanity of Metro DC at a cost of $200,000. The home is a prototype. Habitat DC will be building six similar homes in the area.
Habitat homeowner, Lakiya Culley, was able to purchase the home for $133,000 on a no-interest, thirty-year loan. Habitat follows the principles of what Habitat Founder, Millard Fuller, called "Biblical economics," one aspect of which is that the poor are not charged interest. Think Progress:
Lakiya’s house was built based on passive house design principles. The basic concept of passive house is to lower energy consumption by being super-insulated and practically airtight. Empowerhouse has 12-inch thick walls and triple-glazed windows and, as a result, uses up to 90 percent less energy for heating and cooling than an ordinary house. Such low energy consumption enabled Empowerhouse to have one of the smallest solar panel arrays in the competition, which helps keep construction and maintenance costs down.
Habitat and its partners have done it. They have created an attractive, solar-powered, energy-efficient house that is affordable. It's possible that Lakiya Culley will never see a power bill, which could save her $72,000 over the life of her loan.
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