Here are a few photos from an open-house I attended this morning. The house is the Redfern House and is on track to be LEED certified with a 'Gold' rating. An added bonus for this project (in my book) is that it is built in the city of Portland (off of Ocean Avenue) where as most LEED homes built in this state are in rural areas and the gains in sustainability of the house are erased due to long commutes and related expenses.
These sliding pieces move like barn doors and act to cool the house by covering the windows/patio doors in the summer and move to let more sun into the house in the winter for heat.
A small footprint by today's standards, but still a perfectly large house with the kitchen/dining room and living room downstairs and bedrooms upstairs.
From their site:
The Redfern House is a 3 bedroom, 2.5 bath home of roughly 1760 square feet. It will feature thoughtful spaces and attractive finishes, making it extremely comfortable and livable. And it has been designed and built to be healthy, extremely efficient, highly durable, and ecologically responsible.
The house uses no fossil fuels and even has a no-turf yard (think of all the pesticides used on the average yard and the costs and environmental impacts of mowing every few weeks in the summer).
The house is connected to the electrical grid, and has two power meters, as seen below. One measures the electricity coming in and one measures the electricity going out. Most of the year the house will produce more electricity than it takes in so the power company will pay (issue credits) to the owners for their power put into the grid. I couldn't get a good view of the solar panels but they are on the roof of the house, by the way.
Public tours will also be offered by the architect Chris Briley and ReVision Energy on Thursday, June 16th at 5:30 and 6:15pm. RSVP by sending an email to info@theredfernhouse.com
