When we first profiled Anchorage Builders in 2010, they were in the construction phase of North Carolina’s first Passive House. We followed up with the project in a subsequent post and were quite impressed with the completed home, both aesthetically and sustainably. Building on this successful experience, Anchorage and architect Jay Fulkerson have recently collaborated on yet another Chapel Hill home designed with Passive House building methods.
Over Thanksgiving break, I enjoyed reading about this small, energy-efficient home in North Carolina built using the Harbinger plan offered by the Tumbleweed Tiny House Company. Built to International Building Code requirements, the plan includes a loft, home office, kitchen, bathroom, living room, and deck — tightly placed in less than 500 square feet! Details are hard to come by, but Tumbleweed sells this plan for $695 and estimates that it costs about $33,000 in materials to build.
This is the Celo Residence, an award-winning guest house adjacent to an organic farm overlooking the South Toe River in Celo, North Carolina. The home received an Honor Award from AIA Ashville and was featured in Fine Homebuilding and most recently in EcoHome Magazine with a Grand Award. Celo Residence was Energy Star certified and received a 75 HERS with projected total energy costs of less than $30 a month.
This ultra-efficient home is repaying owner Scott Shackleton with money from putting excess electricity into the grid. Located on a narrow lot in downtown Raleigh, North Carolina, the shotgun-style home generates nearly two-times the electricity it uses with a 4.7 kW solar array on the roof. That plus about 85% of domestic water is pre-heated with solar thermal, resulting in more energy savings.
This home is officially the first Passive House in North Carolina. It’s also the first Passive House in the country built out of concrete, according to Chris Senior, certified Passive House consultant and owner of Anchorage Building Corp., the builder. Senior said his company was able to keep construction costs “surprisingly reasonable” by fashioning the entire exterior from concrete.
Project Profiles
