A HERS Score of -1!!!!!

More Exciting news from Arn McIntyre of Ferris State University Energy Center (Our Green rater) and Habitat for Humanity of Kent County our "335 Freyling Place Net-Zero Energy Project" just received a preliminary HERS score of -1. This is possibly the new lowest HERs score in the State of Michigan. It's all preliminary but we'll have firm results this fall upon completion:

• Area of conditioned space 2904
• Btu/ sf/ hdd .51
• Peak heat loss design 11.6 kbtu/h
• Shell area: 5677
• ACH 50 4.23
• Total cfm of blower door 400cfm
• Date of blower door test 4/8/11
• Test performed by Arn McIntyre
• Electrical kwh per year 28.6mmbtu/yr
• Fossil btu per year 20.2mmbtu/yr
• Renewable Elec produced per year 33.5mmbtu/yr
• HERS index -1

See the post below for more information on what a HERs score is.

As I mentioned in the post below, I am a firm believer in Kaizen ( A Japanese philosophy), or continuous improvement. I am continually studying the building science of homes to make improvements to them so they are as energy efficient as possible within their budgets. So even though a HERS rating of -1 is the best we have achieved so far our goal are to continually improve upon that score with the ultimate goal of a HERS score of even a larger negative score.

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Wealthy Heights Net-Zero Energy Home

We are proud and excited to be the designer of the Habitat for Humanity of Kent County projected LEED for Homes "Platinum" Net-Zero Energy Homes in Wealthy Heights. This will be Michigan's first Net-zero Energy Habitat home and it will be built as part of the Wealthy Heights Partnership Project. Construction could begin as soon as September or as late as March 2011 depending on the entire neighbor hood improvement plans approval by various authorities. Besides being a projected LEED for Home "Platinum" project the project has goals of reaching Green Built Michigan "Gold" certification, 5+ Energy Star certification, HERs Score of 0, Zero-Step certification, EPA WaterSense Partner and EPA Indoor AirPlus Partner.

This home will have Photovoltaic's and Solar Hots Water System combined with Radiant Floor Heat to help it achieve it's Net-Zero Energy. The home will use several construction methods such as Frost Protected Shallow Foundation for a portion of the House, ICF Construction for the Basement, Advanced Framing for the Walls and SIP panel Construction for the Roof.

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