As we break ground this spring on the new Sunnyland Elementary and look forward to welcoming students, staff and our community into our new school in fall 2022, we are excited to share a grassroots initiative to solarize our new school.
Sunnyland parent Ted Clifton, who is also a member of the Sunnyland Educational Specifications/Design Advisory Committee, has inspired this project with a generous matching challenge gift of $10,000 to the Bellingham Public Schools Foundation (BPSF) to establish a new fund to provide solar panels at Sunnyland. That means the first $10,000 dollars of community giving will be matched dollar for dollar.
Anyone can donate to the new Solarize Sunnyland fund at the BPSF.
This project was inspired by Dawson Construction’s donation to the new Sehome High School, which allowed the school to install solar panels.
This is a meaningful opportunity to invest in Sunnyland and our planet! We are excited the money we save in electric and power will be put back into the classroom for kids, teachers and supplies.
All new schools and buildings in our district, including the new Sunnyland, are now built “solar ready,” which means donations collected to benefit this project will go directly into installing, operating and purchasing new panels. Sunnyland has capacity for 100-kilowatt array. Our district is excited to learn from this project, and it may influence bond planning in the future as we look to build other replacement schools with a focus on sustainability.
Thank you, Sunnyland community for your consideration to donate.
July 2020. The Department of Energy announces that TC Legend Homes wins a Housing Innovation Award in the sub 3000 square feet (sf) custom-home category. The house is located in Everson, Washington State.
Facing directly towards the sun, the huge south roof collects enough solar power to run the house all year and power an electric car. This house represents the future of Pacific Northwest (PNW) housing. The new homeowner is delighted:
“I am astonished almost every day with how well this house works for us. Of course, it was designed for us but even so, it is a very efficient, real world design. We wanted a house that would run the (electric) meter backwards. If there is a better way to do it; build a house that powers itself, why wouldn’t you…?” – John Trax.
The house is made from SIPs (structural insulated panels). Factory made, the foam sandwich panels arrive on-site with doors and windows already cut-out & assemble fast, a bit like Legos. Triple pane windows and cutting edge mechanical systems enable this home to classify as ‘Net Positive,’ which means it makes all its own power, and excess, over the year.
The competition received hundreds of entries from all over the USA. An exhaustive assessment by the Department of Energy considered a range of factors other than the house energy systems. From wetlands and stormwater conservation, to cutting edge centrally ducted air conditioning and Alexa-controlled lighting and blinds; many aspects of this modest and modern ‘Superhouse’ led to the to the US government award.
“Housing Innovation Award winners such as TC Legend Homes are leading a major housing industry transformation to zero energy homes. This level of performance is the home of the future because it improves the way Americans live by substantially reducing or eliminating utility bills, ensuring engineered comfort way beyond traditional homes, protecting health with a comprehensive package of indoor air quality measures, and helping maximize the largest investment of a lifetime,” – Sam Rashkin, Chief Architect at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Building Technologies Office.
About the US Department of Energy Housing Innovation Awards:
Department of Energy plans to eliminate energy use from American housing. The Housing Innovation Award is a strategy to focus industry and public attention on the reality that energy efficient housing is readily available now.
If there were absolutely no fossil fuels used in the production, or running of this home, it would be a Zero Carbon Embodied Energy building, which is where the Housing Innovation Awards are taking us all.
About TC Legend Homes:
TC Legend Homes is a design-build company based in Bellingham, WA. Designing and building about (5) net-positive SIPs homes a year. Constantly innovating, the company is making significant advances, refining the model for affordable Net-Zero housing in the Pacific Northwest (PNW). The company goal is to research, design and build the standard affordable Net-Zero home for the PNW, ready for volume-construction.
Further details:
Built Green 5 star certified,
HER rating of -19 (with P.V.)
Department of Energy certified Zero Energy Ready Home.
Recent Comments