In 2006, Keith Collins approached Kaplan Thompson Architects, about tackling sustainable home construction in the form of a studio/workshop for himself and his wife. This led to the development of the BrightBuilt Barn, a beautiful 700-square-foot home constructed on the Collins property in Rockland, Maine, a climate known for its high heating costs and low temperatures.
But this humble prototype is really much more than energy efficient. In fact, it must be understood as an Open Source format paradigm for building “green” housing.
Being offered in studio, one bedroom and two bedroom designs, this project now gives consumers access to a sustainable and long-term solution for housing.
The barn received LEED for Homes – Platinum certification, and its architect, Kaplan Thomas Architects, is a firm that knows a thing or two about green building, so we need to appreciate the extent to which these cases could and should become dominating standards for industry.
The LEED Platinum certification signifies that the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) acknowledges that the project fulfills the highest possible commitment to the core values of sustainable green building.
The building’s entire envelope hits R-40 insulation standards, in conjunction with high-efficiency windows and an overall low-air infiltration rate that means it doesn’t even require a furnace!
A solar roof array, consisting of 30 individual photovoltaic panels symmetrically arranged above glass solar thermal tubing, acts as a heat sponge, soaking up energy even during cold days. There is also a back-up, air-handling heat pump system, powered by the solar panels, for any operational gaps in the heating system.
Bringing together inter-related disciplines like this results in complimentary architecture, with the solar thermal system combining with energy-efficient insulation to deliver a house that requires only half as much heating oil as the average home in Maine.
Because 90 percent of the building’s structure is fabricated offsite by Bensonwood Woodworking Company, the structural components can be CNC-machined from a tightly integrated 3-D modeling application to within 1/32-inch tolerances. This results in a fabrication process with a significantly lower environmental footprint because the production takes place under controlled conditions.
In fact, Bensonwood boasts less than 10-percent waste, where traditional methods are easily as high as 50 percent. Again, this commitment to achieving a broad-spectrum sustainability profile is expressed in every aspect of the design, from resources that are made from 25-percent recycled materials to paints and sealants which are free of Volatile Organic Compounds (VOC’s).
The live data feed coming from the building’s monitoring systems is fed directly to the web site and aggregated for display via Powerdash chart widgets. This information is also conveyed to the occupants and external building environment via an array of LED lights which change their color based on the building’s net energy use coefficient; glowing green when the house is conserving energy and sending it back to the grid.
According to BrightBuilt data the Barn’s best month yielded a surplus of 727 kilowatt hours, with a monthly average of 550 kilowatt hours. This innovative design is not only able to achieve Net Zero by eliminating its footprint, but also quickly offset its own carbon debt from construction.
Considering 2007 data from government sources, such homes represent not only a means to sustainability for individual families but a way to actively and systematically offset the 936 kilowatt-hour average monthly consumption of American homes which do not live up to this standard.
The outstanding electrical systems alone easily validate the $200,000 ballpark price tag and – let’s face it – the core concept in green building is the sustainability of low impact human systems. What better primary factor than electrical consumption?
This is the sort of home design we should all be living in, and the time to build more of them has arrived.
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