is North Carolina’s first 100% net zero energy neighborhood.
Why go net zero? The reason is that residential and commercial buildings consume 40% of our nation’s energy and 25% of our fresh water. With one natural disaster after another happening in the US and around the world, every sector of our economy needs to do their part for the environment.
A net zero home produces as much energy as it uses. This is achieved by building an extremely energy efficient home including the building envelope, high quality windows, and high efficiency heating and ventilation to keep energy consumption as low as possible. This combined with active solar allows the home to generate enough energy to fully operate the home. Extremely energy efficient homes will have a HERS score around 20. The addition of the solar enables that HERs score to get to Zero or even negative zero.
I am super excited to explain the benefits of having a net zero energy home and what this means for a 12-home neighborhood like Array.
The average monthly energy usage in North Carolina is 1,079 kwh at a cost of $127.65
- The average annual cost savings of going net zero in North Carolina is $1,531.80. (Array homes will also have no water bill because they are on well and septic)
So, what does saving 1,079 kwh per month mean to one house and 12 houses all together. This is what get’s exciting.
The average annual energy usage of a home is 12,948 kwh. When you go to Net Zero, this saves:
- 2 metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions
This is equivalent to:
- 23,061 vehicle miles traveled
- 10,142 pounds of coal burned
- 1,033 gallons of gasoline
- 1,116,119 smartphones charged
- 1 tons of waste recycled rather than landfilled
Remember these numbers are for 1 house for 1 year!
The Annual Environmental Impact or Savings for Array with 12 net zero energy homes will be:
- 110 metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions avoided
This is equivalent to:
- 276,734 vehicle miles traveled
- 12,390 gallons of gasoline
- 13,394,345 smartphones charged
- 5 tons of waste recycled instead of landfilled
This is for 12 houses in 1 year. The environmental benefits are huge for Array over the lifetime of 12 net zero energy homes.
I have to say, I am more than proud to be a part of this project.
For more information about the project visit the Array Website.