Receiving the Leed for Homes Innovative Project Award
Photo courtesy Bright Built Barn blog

The Bright Built Barn recently won the prestigious 2009 LEED for Homes Innovative Project Award from the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC).

The award recognizes projects, developers and home builders who have demonstrated leadership in the residential building marketplace.

Phil Kaplan from Kaplan Thompson Architects and Tedd Benson from Bensonwood went to Phoenix, Arizona to accept the award at GreenBuild, the USGBC Annual Conference, this past December.

A write-up of the event is available on the Bright Built Barn blog.

We also received this report of performance of Bright Built Barn‘s solar systems, one year later:

I’m happy to report that [BrightBuilt Barn] has exceeded all expectations.

On a subjective level, it has been a joy to live and work in – warm in the winter, cool in the summer, light and airy and lovely to look at all year round. I am also delighted to report that I have not had one minute of trouble with any of the systems – high praise indeed from a guy who hates maintenance and repair, and who has had his share of woes while living in a number of conventionally built houses over the years. The solar systems in the Barn are simple, with few moving parts, and highly reliable – so far, they just work.

BrightBuilt Barn Generated a surplus of more than 5000 KW/hrs in 2008-09

ReVision installed the solar hot water and solar power systems in this innovative, net-zero building.

In its first year, the home’s PV system generation a surplus of 5094 kilowatt-hours – or enough energy to power 5 conventional homes for a month.

Building owner Keith Collins goes on to say that “The Barn does, in fact, power my conventionally built main house (over 15 years old and no paragon of energy efficiency) which sits about 100 feet away, and has produced over 60% of that home’s electrical use.”

You can see real-time system performance of the Bright Built Barn online at brightbuiltbarn.com.

Ben Tipton’s house is smaller than many conventional homes, uses sustainable building materials, and has a PV and solar hot water system

Last year we discussed the construction of a sustainable four-person household built by the Tipton family in Woolwich, Maine.

Completed in October 2008, Ben Tipton recently shared data about his home’s energy performance with us.

Over the course of the year, Ben Tipton reports that his Maine solar power system generated about half of his family’s energy needs, and that his current home uses roughly 2800% less propane for heating and hot water than his previous home.

Here are some details:

Thank you to all that helped on our house. Even if you did not pound a nail your support, encouragement and friendship has been felt all along the way. I now have one year of data and the numbers look really good. No place to go from here but down. I have posted them here and on the blog. We could not have done it without all the help.

Here is the final first year tally…..

• Cost per day: $0.93
• Kw created on site: 1415
• Kw sent out to the grid: 700
• Kw purchased from grid: 2614 (wind and eco-friendly hydro power)
• Yearly Cost: $339.86
• Monthly utility Cost: $28.32
• Total Kw used: 3329
• Propane for cooking: 25 gal
• Wood: 1.5 cords sustainably harvested from the land

So what is a net carbon impact this year??? The only thing that wasn’t made on site or in Maine was the 25 gal of propane. Our last house used over 700 gallons propane, 3 cord of wood and 5000kw. I have to say that these number are impressive and have exceeded my expectations. I owe a huge Thank you to all that helped on this project.

Ben

As part of Ben’s and his family’s commitment to sustainability, they continue to look for ways to reduce their energy consumption and sustainably produce what energy they do use.

You can follow Ben’s story on his blog, Simple Living in Maine.
<h3>From our <a href=”http://www.revisionenergy.com/solar-projects/residential/”>Residential Solar Photo Gallery</a>:</h3>

See more installations on our <a href=”http://www.revisionenergy.com/blog/maine-solar-power-projects/”>Solar Projects Map</a>

The Natural Resources Council of Maine reprinted a story from the Lincoln County News about the grid-tied solar electric system we installed for the Jojoba Company on a building called the Butler Barn, in Waldoboro, Maine.

John Maguire writes:

The 60 photovoltaic (pv) solar panels installed on a newly constructed barn at The Jojoba Company in Waldoboro will provide enough energy to supply all of its electric power needs, including heat.

A crew working with Liberty based solar company, ReVision Energy, spent Friday afternoon installing the 13.5 kilowatt system on the large timber frame barn on Robert and Sally Butler’s property off the Friendship Rd. Building contractor Brian Daggett of Washington and his workers put up the barn on which the ReVision Energy group installed the panels.

Read more (PDF Download)