BrightBuilt Barn on Track for Platinum

When we last brought news of BrightBuilt Barn in September, it was only partially constructed.  Now it's all built and looks quite good.  Its trademark feature is the exterior LED lightskirt, which was designed to change color depending on the home's energy use.  GREEN means the BrightBuilt Barn is generating more energy than it consumes; YELLOW indicates a borderline condition; and RED means the energy usage is higher than required to meet the yearly net energy goal.  And like the lightskirt, everything about this home has been planned with meticulous care to create a livable, sustainable, replicable, flexible, and educational net-zero energy home.

BrightBuilt Barn is the result of a collaboration between Bensonwood Homes (fabricator / installer), Thompson Architects (architect), Gibson Design Build (site contractor), and several other experts.  The 700 sf home will be monitored and energy use statistics will be published at BrightBuilt Barn. 

Located in Rockland, Maine, BrightBuilt is on track to receive LEED Platinum certification.  But what's more, since it can be almost entirely prefabricated off-site, BrightBuilts will be replicated and proliferated all over the country.  So let's expect to see more of these in various places.

Update 1/15/08: The NY Times reports that the original BrightBuilt Barn cost about $300k to construct, but a base model is being offered across the country at $200k. 

Image credits: Naomi C. O. Beal.