The GO Home
Location Belfast, Maine
Architect/Designer/Builder G•O Logic, Belfast
Size 1,300 square feet
With a HERS score of 23 and a LEED for Homes Platinum qualification, Maine’s first certified Passive Home means business. So do its designers. In the bone-chilling climate of coastal Maine, the designers at G•O Logic were intent on building a zero-energy model that would cost the same as a standard home. “At first the Passive House idea seemed unattainable, even absurd,” says architect Matthew O’Malia, a principal of G•O Logic. “But once we got into it, we found that it can be done cost-effectively,” he adds.
Maine winters may be brisk, but they’re also sunny. Triple-glazed, south-facing windows keep the house toasty, and an open plan ensures that shared spaces are the sunniest ones. Per Passive House standards, the building’s shell reduces the space heating load by almost 90 percent (thank you, SIPs); a small solar array on the roof takes care of the rest (last winter’s energy bills were a whopping $30). The GO Home is so tight that the occupants’ body heat, not to mention cooking, provide warmth. “One client, an elderly woman, mentioned last winter that the inside temperature drops to 70 when the sun goes down,” recalls O’Malia. “But she says it gets to 72 again when she bakes cookies.”
“We started out to prove that it could be done,” says O’Malia of the super-eco, cost-effective model home that he and his partner, Alan Gibson, built. Proof positive: The GO Home prototype is a part of Belfast Cohousing and Ecovillage, a 36-unit project with phase two well underway.
Click hereto see the three other homes that made the list.
Posted with permission from Hanley Wood, LLC. Originally posted on Builderonline.com on July 2, 2012 at http://www.builderonline.com/design/green-homes-in-every-color.aspx