When we met Corbin, he asked us to build him a home that was about as efficient as any ever constructed in Leavenworth. While he didn’t want to go for full Passive House certification, this home came close. And with its massive rooftop living area, complete with bed and outdoor shower, it turned out to be one of the coolest, most comfortable dwellings we’ve ever built.
Shortly after completing his dream home, Corbin found his plans unexpectedly changing. He moved away from Leavenworth and reluctantly put his home on the market. It is currently listed at $384,900.
Here’s what the listing states:
“Amazing custom Passive SIPS Green built home is just steps to the heart of Leavenworth, yet feels miles away. The requirements of this type of building gives you one of the most efficient homes of our time! Quality built by TC Legend Homes, the premiere builder of this kind of exceptional home. This home boast a sleek and modern look with amazing views. Concrete polished floors, rich dark wood floors in upper level, soaring ceilings, top appliances, concrete countertops, stone/tile showers, and extraordinary upper entertainment deck with its own shower and sleeping area. European ductless split heat/AC provide you with the little heat you need due to the passive solar gain & recovery ventilator. Triple pane windows. Beautiful yard to enjoy the plentiful wildlife. 1 car garage with tons of storage. ”
There’s nothing we love more than building overachieving homes. Our latest project will not only produce enough solar electricity to meet its own energy needs, but it will produce surplus power to charge two electric cars: a Tesla Model S and a Nissan Leaf.
Nicknamed the Power House, it is the first of its kind in Whatcom County and one of few such homes in the world.
Perhaps more remarkable than the home’s efficiency is its modest price tag. Shared by two couples and three children, the 3,000-square-foot custom home will cost under $110 per square foot to build, significantly less than most other residential construction projects in Bellingham.
With its airtight shell, structural insulated panel (SIP) construction, numerous south-facing windows, highly efficient heat pump, and approximately 10,000-watt solar panel array (built by Bellingham’s own iTek Energy), this one-of-a-kind house has no electrical bills and costs nothing to heat. No oil, natural gas, or other fuels are used.
The home sends power to the city’s electrical grid when the sun is out and draws it during the night or on cloudy days. (Contrary to popular belief, the Pacific Northwest is an excellent place for solar.) Averaged over the entire year, the panels produce more power than the house uses, with enough of a surplus to power the two electric cars through on-site charging stations.
The house will qualify for a one-time federal tax credit of approximately $10,500 and Washington State solar production credits of approximately $5,000 a year until 2020.
The owners are also saving money by teaming up with friends. The Power House is being built under a unique co-ownership agreement between the owners of TC Legend Homes, Ted Clifton and Rachel Lee, and their longtime friend Eric Murphy.
The house features two residences, each with its own private entrance, connected by a 700-square-foot common area.
Eric Murphy, a professional mountaineering guide who leads trips around the world, says he is especially enthused by the climbing wall and home brewing area that will be integrated into the home’s shared space.
The house has a system to harvest rainwater from the roof into a 3,000-gallon cistern, which also helps to trim the home’s utility bills.
The Cliftons will be irrigating their eighth-acre vegetable garden using only water they collect.
The home will show that cutting-edge energy efficiency can actually be affordable. By eliminating entire categories of expenses, like your home heating bill, your electrical bill, and now even your gasoline bill for your cars, then you can really see how this idea can pay off. And if one house can be shared by two families, you come out even further ahead.
Bellingham’s first positive-energy house will be completed early this spring.
We recently took home the grand prize in the Affordable category at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Housing Innovation Awards ceremony in St. Louis.
This prestigious national prize was awarded for a custom net-zero-energy home we built in Bellingham for homeowners Kristina and Mike Heintz. The 1,055-square-foot home sports high-efficiency appliances, a balcony, a greenhouse, a patio, a loft, tongue-and-groove pine ceilings, and solar photovoltaic panels—all for $151,908 or $144 per square foot (not counting the land).
A 3.2-kW PV system is all it takes to power the home, thanks to a highly insulated building envelope and high-performance equipment.
More than simply winning us an award, the Heintz house exemplifies what we want to do in our company. The soon-to-retire homeowners wanted an affordable home with zero energy bills and we were able to achieve that. Learn more
About the US Department of Energy Challenge Home Awards
DOE Challenge Home builders are in the top 1% of builders in the country meeting the extraordinary levels of excellence and quality specified by the U.S. Department of Energy. Every DOE Challenge Home starts with ENERGY STAR for Homes Version 3 for an energy-efficient home built on a solid foundation of building science research. Then, even more advanced technologies are designed in for a home that goes above and beyond current code to give the superior quality construction, HVAC, appliances, indoor air quality, safety, durability, comfort, and solar-ready components along with ultra-low or no utility bills. This provides homeowners with a quality home that will last for generations to come.
Our Challenge Home Awards
2014: Housing Innovation Award, Affordable Category (Grand Winner) Heintz Net-Zero-Energy House Read the case study
2013: Housing Innovation Award, Affordable Category Ballard Net-Zero-Energy House Read the case study
It’s a wrap! The 2014 NW Green Home Tour took place last Saturday, April 26, and by all accounts, it was a big success. Our heartfelt and enthusiastic thanks to everyone who stopped by this year’s site, which was still under construction.
Be sure to check out the tour photo album, which is growing every day. If you took photos of your own, we’d love it if you could upload them to the album as well.
From all of us involved, thank you again for your enthusiasm and curiosity about green building. Over the past four years, many visitors have reported that they’ve applied what they learned on the tour to their own homes and projects or passed along information to friends and neighbors. We hope you’ll do the same.
Here’s a description of our project:
After 2+ years of looking at hundreds of houses, putting down multiple offers on several properties, and just not being able to find the exact house that they wanted, the couple decided to build their own house. With two architects in the family (one of whom did the actual design for the house), it probably wasn’t very surprising.
With the couple both being in technology, they wanted to see their house built with the most advanced building products, but once they received a couple of quotes, wasn’t sure how it was going to fit their budget. After teaming up with Ted Clifton from TC Legend Homes, they found that it was actually more cost effective as well as more performant to go with these new building materials. Structural Insulated Panels (SIPs) were used for the walls and the roof, and Insulating Concrete Forms (ICF) were used for the foundation, making sure the house was better insulated than a traditional stick frame home. Triple pane windows, solar panels, energy efficient heating unit, and radiant heat flooring ensured that the house would stay nice and toasty, while being a net zero house, and the couple spending no money overall on heating/electric. There is no gas in the entire house, all of the appliances using electricity, including the energy efficient induction cooktop. Once the couple purchases an electric car, the car charging port in the garage will ensure that the couple will be dependent exclusively on renewable resources.
In line with the hi tech house concept, the entire house will be using the latest in home automation to ensure it is never wasteful. Heating, cooling, and the LED lights will be controllable through wifi to ensure maximum efficiency. Even the master shower will have a feature where the water will not turn on, until the desired temperature is met to save the cost of running the water needlessly. The couple is looking forward to writing their own apps to help automate the house.
With a little one in the house, grandparents and other visitors are always coming to stay. A separate mother in law legal ADU was added to the house, with a separate heating controls, ensuring a comfortable place for extended visitors to live.
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