When I first mentioned the Mendoza Laneway House, it was one of the first laneway homes in Vancouver under the city’s EcoDensity program. The company behind that efficient SIPs home, Lanefab, and its partners, designer Bryn Davidson and builder Mat Turner, have been busy and recently completed the first Net-Zero Solar Laneway House on a corner lot at 57th and Vivian. It’s beautiful inside and out.
This is a rustic-modern retreat in the Alpine Meadows area near Lake Tahoe, California. The owner, Todd Greenhalgh, wanted solar power and alpine views and CCS Architecture delivered just that. The south-facing roof has 600 square feet of solar and all the main rooms hug the south wall to hold a view of the surrounding Sierra Nevada mountains.
Letting the sun’s rays reach your home’s interior rooms, or down to lower level, is a challenge on any project, and virtually impossible without cutting a large hole in your roof. But now, Solectric offers an electronic skylight that promises the next best thing — interior lighting that is powered by the sun and can be rendered at the same color temperature.
Carolyn and Kyle Cave, both university professors in Hadley, Massachusetts, built this super-insulated home to minimize energy consumption. Then they dropped a 20kW solar PV array on the roof and now use energy from the sun to generate a surplus that also powers this tiny little Wheego LiFe electric vehicle. I was able to ask Carolyn Cave a few questions about their solar-powered situation, and this is a portion of that response:
During Greenbuild in Toronto, CertainTeed Corporation introduced a new solar photovoltaic system called the Apollo Solar Roofing System. Apollo skips the rack and mount for a seamless profile that integrates with standard roof shingles. Each 12-pound module has 14 high-efficiency, polycrystalline silicon solar cells that soak up the sun and convert it to energy to power the underlying home.
Project Profiles
