Zero Net Energy Home Unveiled In Clovis California
De Young Properties, a leading energy-efficient homebuilder in the Central Valley, in collaboration with Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E), held a Ribbon Cutting Ceremony on Friday, November 15 to introduce a Zero Net Energy (ZNE) home. The ZNE home is designed to produce as much energy as it consumes each year, which also zeros its energy-related carbon impact on the environment.
The De Young Zero Net Energy Home supports California's Long Term Energy Efficiency Strategic Plan that requires all new residential homes in California to be ZNE by 2020. PG&E and De Young will track this home's energy usage and its impact on the energy grid for the next several years to better evaluate how future homes should be built to increase overall efficiencies and reduce the carbon impact of residential energy use. Ultimately, the information that De Young and PG&E collect will be used in the roadmap to achieve maximum residential energy savings in California.
"We are committed to leading-edge, energy-efficient building technology and believe that this concept home will set the standard of how homes will be built for years to come," said Brandon De Young of De Young Properties. "With PG&E's integral support of this achievement, we know that the data we collect from this home will help pave the way for the future of homebuilding."
"This project demonstrates the innovative spirit and dedication to energy efficiency that has made Californians world leaders in energy efficiency for more than three decades. We are extremely proud to partner with De Young Properties on this effort," said Greg Pruett, Senior Vice President of PG&E. "Joining with developers to provide customers cleaner, more affordable energy service and advancements, such as Zero Net Energy homes, is one of many ways that PG&E supports the communities it has the privilege to serve."
The 2,064 square foot, De Young Zero Net Energy Home is designed to be exceptionally energy-efficient, with features such as an advanced heat pump water heater, cutting-edge LED lighting, ducts in conditioned space and a home energy management system, as well as a rooftop-mounted photovoltaic (PV) solar system. The electricity produced should offset all energy consumed annually by the home, which is accounted for at the "source," meaning the power plant. This also means the home is designed to achieve zero net carbon.
Also, zeroing "source" energy allows the home's natural gas use to be indirectly offset by producing more electricity with the solar system than is needed to offset the home's electricity use. The solar system is purposely sized to overproduce electricity, such that the surplus is equivalent to the amount of energy in the natural gas sent from the source to the home. Ultimately, the excess electricity the ZNE home produces will then be sent back through the grid to be used by other homes or nearby commercial buildings. This advanced building science will result in very low energy bills, making it a very smart decision for financial and environmental reasons.
De Young has a long history of commitment to the environment and enjoys building homes with state-of-the-art features that will benefit the homeowner and the environment long term. In 2010, De Young introduced their De Young Zero Net Electric Home, which is designed to reduce annual electricity usage to zero. This Zero Net Energy Home was the next step in their positive evolution to modernize the home building industry with the focus on offsetting total energy, rather than electricity usage only.
The De Young Zero Net Energy Home will be open to the public beginning Sunday, December 1st at the De Young CountryCourt located at the De Young Welcome Center on the west side of Armstrong, just south of Gettysburg in Clovis. This home will be used as a Model Home for the next several months so that De Young and PG&E can monitor the energy usage.
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