OOPS! You're in the wrong website!

BrightBuilt Barn has moved its website, but the search engines haven't caught up yet. This website hasn't been updated for quite a while.

Here's our new, up to date website:

www.brightbuiltbarn.com

Hope to see you there!

Keith

BrightBuilt Barn's First Year Performance

BrightBuilt Barn is now one year old.

The solar systems were turned on just one year ago - time to review its performance to date.

I'm happy to report that it 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.

On an objective plane, here are the numbers. In its first year, BBB produced 6345 kilowatt hours of electricity, and used 1251 kwh, leaving a surplus of 5094 kwh.

In other words, BBB produced five times as much electricity as it used. My little BBB could power itself and four other homes just like it.

According to the US Department of Energy, the average American home uses 936 kwh of electricity per month. So, the average home in the US uses as much electricity in 5 weeks as the Barn did in its first full year. Conversely, BBB produces enough electricity to power itself and just under half the yearly electricity use of the average home.

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.

So, Happy Birthday, BBB! And congratulations on a highly successful first year!

Maine Boats, Homes and Harbors Show

The BrightBuilt Barn will have a booth at this weekend's Maine Boats, Homes and Harbors show in Rockland, Maine. We'll be there Friday through Sunday in Tent I, and will be offering tours of the BrightBuilt Barn Saturday afternoon. Stop by and say hello!

BrightBuilt Monitoring

The May/June Residential Architect included a piece on the BrightBuilt Barn.  For those readers who have found their way here, monitoring information on the barn is currently house on our website at www.brightbuiltbarn.com

Another Tight One

Check out this article in the latest Journal of Light Construction, an excellent magazine for Home Builders and a source of great info for all residential architects and consultants as well. It is written by a local builder of all things sustainable and good, Dan Kolbert, and describes a recent project we completed together in Falmouth, Maine for our excellent clients, Stew MacLehose and Kathy Hayden. Kolbert is quickly becoming one of the top sustainable home builders in the region. He already has a LEED Gold and a LEED Platinum under his belt. Time to loosen that belt another notch, Dan...

This project is on track for LEED Platinum Certification. It features cellulose-filled, double stud walls, triple glazed windows and an exceptionally tight envelope in the range of BrightBuilt and Passivehouse (0.77 ACH5o). It has solar hot water and is slated to get some PV on the roof soon too.

We will soon make available live energy data on this project as well, in the same format as our BrightBuilt data, through our friends at Powerdash.

Dan Kolbert's website:

http://www.kolbertbuilding.com/

Details of the superinsulated structure:

DSIRE

This is a terrific website that lists all state incentive programs and policies that promote renewable energy and energy efficiency.

http://www.dsireusa.org/

Another LEED Platinum from KTA

Kaplan Thompson Architects, the team that designed BrightBuilt Barn, have recently been notified that their Metro Green project in Arlington, Virginia has been awarded LEED Platinum, the first LEED Platinum home in the state of Virginia.

Sited only 5 miles from the center of Washington DC, the structure has a whole wish list of green features, including a green roof and rainwater capture, in addition to solar electric energy and super-low heating costs.

Here's the link to a brief article about this home:

http://www.jetsongreen.com/2009/06/metro-green-home-leed-platinum-virginia.html

And here's the website of the builder:

http://www.metrogreenhome.com/

For only $1.175 million, this green dream home can be yours.