{"id":46,"date":"2022-12-13T15:12:08","date_gmt":"2022-12-13T21:12:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.arch.tamu.edu\/solartexas\/?p=46"},"modified":"2022-12-13T15:12:10","modified_gmt":"2022-12-13T21:12:10","slug":"designing-a-cost-effective-net-zero-home","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.arch.tamu.edu\/solartexas\/news\/2022\/12\/designing-a-cost-effective-net-zero-home\/","title":{"rendered":"Designing a Cost-effective, Net Zero Home"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Texas A&amp;M University&#8217;s goal is to design\/build a safe, attainable, high-performance, carbon-neutral, net-zero, energy-generating workforce house while fostering community development, lifelong learning, health, wellness, and financial stability for &#8220;economically vulnerable&#8221; classes that break their cycle of poverty and amplifies the quality of life, health, and well-being.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Texas Solar team&#8217;s Life Cycle Analysis (LCA) of the most recently constructed Habitat for Humanity projects in the area was used as a baseline for comparison to deliver a scalable prototype for the organization that optimizes energy efficiency and resource sustainability.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The highlighted components of the Solar Texas design include:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul><li>To break the cycle of poverty for the target audience<\/li><li>To reduce the region&#8217;s dependence on nonrenewable natural resources<\/li><li>To leverage knowledge from the region&#8217;s vernacular architecture by aligning passive strategies with integrative and active design solutions<\/li><li>To balance natural and artificial light with adaptive and controllable system design approaches<\/li><li>To integrate leading-edge research that improves the built environment<\/li><li>To develop new opportunities for academic and industry partnerships<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Solar Texas is making more than a building. We are making architecture that provides shelter and elevates the homeowner&#8217;s spirit of place. The building site is in the City of College Station. The design achieves net-zero status first by using passive design strategies to drive down energy loads via site orientation, a combination of overhangs and shading devices designed to minimize solar heat gain and maximize the use of natural daylight. Occupant experience is an essential tenet for the Solar Texas house.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote\"><p>Solar Texas is making more than a building. We are making architecture that provides shelter and elevates the homeowner&#8217;s spirit of place. <\/p><cite>Gregory Luhan, Ph.D., FAIA<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>The house serves as a private retreat filled with natural lighting. All surfaces and areas have equal illumination through the south-facing windows and north-facing roof eyelets. Architecturally, spaces flow between living, dining, and kitchen areas, with a centralized water and utility core. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The house has three bedrooms and two bathrooms, with one of the bathrooms serving as a centrally located FEMA compliant room. The building faces southward to optimize natural lighting in the public space. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The building has been pushed to the site&#8217;s north end to maximize site utilization. Solar Texas&#8217;s integrated design approach delivers long-term and resilient urban responses. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>By designing with the end in mind, we specified innovations that would allow for a net-zero energy building that accommodates a long-term affordable home for a single-family. Despite the anticipated higher upfront cost, these innovative strategies will save the family money over the long term. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Solar Texas will monitor quality control on the site to ensure that the house is &#8220;built tight and ventilated right.&#8221; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Texas A&amp;M University&#8217;s goal is to design\/build a safe, attainable, high-performance, carbon-neutral, net-zero, energy-generating workforce house while fostering community development, lifelong learning, health, wellness, and financial stability for &#8220;economically vulnerable&#8221; classes that break their cycle of poverty and &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":80,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.arch.tamu.edu\/solartexas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.arch.tamu.edu\/solartexas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.arch.tamu.edu\/solartexas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.arch.tamu.edu\/solartexas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/30"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.arch.tamu.edu\/solartexas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.arch.tamu.edu\/solartexas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":135,"href":"https:\/\/www.arch.tamu.edu\/solartexas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46\/revisions\/135"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.arch.tamu.edu\/solartexas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/80"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.arch.tamu.edu\/solartexas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.arch.tamu.edu\/solartexas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=46"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.arch.tamu.edu\/solartexas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}