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Green Building News

Ten Students Build Arizona’s First NZEH

The home’s net-zero-energy performance is also a first for the project’s principal collaborator, Habitat for Humanity

Hands on. This 1,200-sq.-ft. net-zero-energy home was built in Chino Valley, Arizona, by students in the Yavapai College Residential Building Technology program, in collaboration with the Habitat for Humanity affiliate in Prescott. Construction began October 25, 2008. Click here for more photos of the project.
Image Credit: Yavapai College

One of the surest ways to generate interest in net-zero-energy homes – and the construction techniques and materials used to build them – is to put one in the ground for a high-profile client and then invite the public for a look.

That’s what 10 students in the Yavapai College Residential Building Technology program did a couple weeks ago in Chino Valley, Arizona, where the 1,200-sq.-ft. NZEH they built for the Prescott affiliate of Habitat for Humanity went on public display.

In addition to its energy efficiency and relatively low cost (one estimate put its value at $125,000), the house has the distinction of being first in a number of categories: it not only is the first NZEH constructed by students in Yavapai’s RBT program, but also the first such home built for Habitat’s Prescott affiliate, and the first in the state of Arizona, according to a story published by Prescott’s Daily Courier.

The house features a Styrofoam-insulated slab, 2 in. rigid insulation in the walls, high-performance windows, a heat pump, balanced fresh-air ventilation, a solar-powered hot water heater, a PV system, and Energy Star appliances and lighting.

Robert Bolding, owner of a Prescott-based home inspection company who works as a volunteer building Habitat homes, told the Courier he came to examine the home’s construction because he may have to inspect more like it in the future.

Bolding, who also works as a general contractor, added that he wants to understand more about the cost effectiveness of green construction.

“I think this technology is moving from the East Coast to the West Coast,” he told the paper. “Arizona residents may not be using as much solar energy as they could be because electricity is a lot cheaper here.”

2 Comments

  1. jmbollman | | #1

    2005 Habitat for Humanity Zero Energy Home.
    "...the house has the distinction of being first in a number of categories... the first such home built for Habitat..."

    Actually, Catawba Valley Habitat for Humanity built a ZEH in Hickory, N.C. in 2005.

    http://www.theapp.appstate.edu/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=341&Itemid=43

  2. GBA Editor
    Richard Defendorf | | #2

    Re NZE homes for Habitat
    My fault. And thank you for the comment. I should have identified this as the first for Habitat's Prescott affiliate.

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