NET ZERO CUSTOM HOME BUILDERS IN ITHACA, NY : THE FUTURE OF HOME OWNERSHIP

These days, sustainable energy is becoming much more of a necessity than in years past.While we’ve always been reliant on fossil fuels to power our modern lifestyle, there has been a significant push to start eliminating wasteful processes and use renewable resources.One of the most abundant and reliable resources at our disposal is the sun. Solar energy has become the cornerstone of the “green” movement, and it will continue to grow and dominate the industry for decades to come. As homeowners, you can already benefit from solar power by installing panels on your roof. But if your house is an older home it was not designed with the sun in mind or solar panels.

But what if it was designed with solar panels in mind.

“Net zero” homes are designed with solar panels in mind. Imagine living in a house that is designed with more insulation, sealing all areas that typically have air leakage, triple pane windows and utilizing the latest mechanical systems to create a comfortable quit house. In New York State the house will be connected to the electric power company but the energy will be supplied by solar panels. The house is designed so that over a one year period there are enough credits created ( the meter runs backward’s when you are creating more energy than your home is using) to offset the colder months and therefore have no cost to the owner.

How Does it Work?

We look at the design of the building and increase the insulation in the walls, basement and roof until we come to a good balance between the cost of those increases with the cost of the solar panels. Higher insulation levels lower cost of the panels. The balance of these two things gets us to a house that has no cost for all the energy that the house needs to run it’s systems because the solar panels create enough electricity to pay the electric bill. You are connected to the utility company so you will not need to worry about not having electricity on those cloudy days or at night. As part of any “net zero” house design we like to orient the house so that we have a south facing wall with most of the glass in the house on that wall to create solar gain that helps heat the house and make it bright and pleasing. The south windows are shaded so that direct sunlight does not come in the windows in the summer keeping the house cooler.

When it comes to sustainable energy, net-zero custom-built homes are paving the way for the future and Starland Builders, LLC want to be part of that future, how about you?