In finance, a good rule of thumb for managing a budget and staying out of debt is “Don’t spend more money than you make.” This same simple premise can also be applied to energy management. Take homes, for example. With efficiency gains, energy conservation, and home energy production through solar power, geothermal power (see one homeowner’s perspective) and other types of renewable energy, it is becoming possible to create or retrofit a home to be energy neutral. ZETA Communities is designing houses that don’t use more energy than they make. Partnering with the U.S. Department of Energy, ZETA’s zero energy homes

provide one of the first nationally scalable solutions to these unsustainable environmental impacts. Using a whole-systems design approach, high performance materials, and an innovative mechanical core, ZETA homes require 40%-60% less energy overall and 65% less energy for heating, cooling, and hot water than a comparable structure (based on data published by ZETA’s partner: U.S. Department of Energy’s Building America program). To achieve net zero energy, ZETA homes use grid-tied photovoltaic systems and other clean energy sources.

The Wall Street Journal has an interactive feature that shows how ZETA’s design features listed below can allow homes to produce as much energy as they consume and create a healthier environment for their inhabitants.

1. Natural Daylighting
Efficient use of windows reduces the need for artificial lighting during daylight hours without causing heating or cooling problems.
2. Solar Panels
Convert energy from the sun into electricity.
3. Automated Controller and Monitor System
Manages heating, cooling, ventilation and thermal storage.
4. Heat Recovery Ventilator (HRV)
Provides controlled and natural ventilation for airtight building envelope.
5. Highly Insulated
Open cell spray foam and cellulose insulation used for walls, floors and roof.
6. High Thermal Performance Windows
Four times more efficient than double-pane windows.
7. Wastewater Heat Recovery System
Preheats shower water.
8. Thermal Storage Basement
High flyash concrete stores daytime heat and provides nighttime cooling.
9. High Efficiency Heat Pump
Uses heat from outdoor air to heat the indoor air.
10. Sustainable Lumber
Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certified lumber throughout our products and on the exterior decks.
11. Zero VOC Paint
Using zero volatile organic compounds (VOC) paints throughout the unit for improved indoor air quality.

The above list should give you a good idea of what the design features aim to achieve. This can be very straight-forward when it comes to the theory and design of a ten-step plan (fans of complex building projects, or planning their budget at http://www.lovemoney.com/ will identity) – however, the implementation can be slightly more complex. For this reason, it’s important to have an example from which we can extrapolate the intended end result in physical form.

ZETA has a demonstration home in Oakland which won the 2009 Green Builder of the Year Award. Such homes may take a while to become mainstream, especially given current housing market conditions. However, many of the features they incorporate into their designs can be worked into an existing home to make it more energy efficient, cheaper to heat and cool, and better for the environment all by largely incorporating common sense, working with nature, and making simple changes. Not that there will be (or should be) a move back toward “primitive” living conditions but by working with nature and using biomimicry instead of battling against it, we can often come out ahead.

- Justin Manger