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Empowerhouse: A Sustainable Housing Alternative
To help curb the effects of global climate change, more homeowners are building new or remodeling existing homes to reduce their carbon footprint. Buildings, both commercial and residential, account for 39 percent of carbon dioxide emissions in the United States. Transitioning our existing building stock toward net-zero or carbon-zero homes is an important part of creating a post-carbon economy.
A sustainable home also makes economic sense. Energy-efficient, high-performance homes in the Washington DC area, for example, sell for 3.5 percent more than homes without sustainability features. Savings on monthly utility bills help pay for sustainable upgrades over time, which is why leading home builders and remodelers recently surveyed by Dodge Data and Analytics expect that almost two out of every three homes they build will be “green” by the year 2020.
Moreover, sustainable home design and construction is broadening beyond high-end, single-family homes to introduce more affordable alternatives, even in communities with low-income residents. One initiative bridging the divide is the U.S. Department of Energy’s Solar Decathlon. For two decades, this competition has challenged groups of college and university students from around the world to design, build, and operate attractive, energy-efficient, solar-powered houses. The competition has resulted in a variety of sustainable housing alternatives, some of which were designed specifically for low-income residents.
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One of them is Empowerhouse, which was designed and built by students from Parsons School of Design and Milano School of International Affairs, Management, and Urban Policy at The New School
Stevens Institute of Technology for the 2011 Solar Decathlon competition. Empowerhouse was exhibited on the National Mall of Washington DC along with other contenders in the competition. Empowerhouse then relocated to Washington DC´s Deanwood neighborhood where it was transformed into a duplex for two families. Collaborators on the innovative, energy-efficient duplex also included Habitat for Humanity, and Washington, D.C. Department of Housing and Community Development.
Empowerhouse: A Public Model for Sustainability
The design of Empowerhouse grew out of a community-based approach to building affordable, net-zero housing. While many of the homes in the Solar Decathlon competition come with a multimillion-dollar price tag, the Empowerhouse design team prioritized creating a sustainable home priced for working-class families. Each unit in the duplex sold for $220,000, making Empowerhouse a reasonably priced housing alternative that also allows the homeowners to generate major savings on energy bills.
Lakiya Culley lives in and owns one of the units. A working mother with three children, Culley told a local news station that she found the experience of owning an Empowerhouse unit “surreal when I stepped into the finished product… I was amazed. It was more than I could even imagine.” Culley participated in a home-ownership program that allowed her to purchase the unit for $220,000, according to Teresa Hamm, senior project manager, Habitat for Humanity of Washington, D.C.
“It changes our lives significantly,” said Culley, who works as a secretary for the State Department, of owning a sustainable home. Added Joel Towers, executive dean, Parsons School of Design, the Empowerhouse “fulfills a longstanding vision of our team to create a house that would endure in a meaningful way after the Solar Decathlon was over.”
Net Zero, Synergistic Components
Each 900-square-foot unit in the duplex was carefully designed to limit square footage, in order to reduce the structure’s overall energy demands. A 4.2 kilowatt (kW) solar-photovoltaic system allows the building to function as a Net Zero home, producing as much or more electricity than it uses during a year. The solar array creates energy for heating and cooling—a major achievement given the DC area’s large temperature fluctuations throughout the year. The solar PV system also lights the home, powers the electrical appliances, and heats the water, thus eliminating electricity bills for the families living in the duplex.
That’s not all. The house is equipped with a rain garden that collects and filters storm-water from the roof for use in the gardens. This system minimizes the amount of potable city water used for irrigation, as well as reducing water into the public sewer system. Homeowners can grow fruits and vegetables in the planters, enabling them to enjoy a healthier diet and save money on buying produce.
Energy Saving Products for the Home
Shop home improvement products that help save and conserve energy (power) in your home.
Stiebel Eltron Accelera 220 E Heat Pump Water Heater
QuickBOLT QB2 with Microflashing Multi Roof Mount Solar Panel Fastener Kit
AlorAir Sentinel HD55 Blue 113 Pint Commercial-Residential Dehumidifier
Stiebel Eltron CON 300-2 Premium Wall-Mounted Convection Heater - 202030
An underground cistern collects excess rainwater that can be used for irrigation, or water the gardens, during droughts and dry months. Off-street parking areas have permeable pavers that reduce stormwater runoff and maximize water infiltration into the soil.
Combined, these synergistic, sustainable-design strategies mean Empowerhouse requires less than 4.75 kBtu of energy per square foot per year. This achievement reduces energy demand by up to 80 percent. Designed for transportation and replicability, with details that ensure easy construction for volunteer labor, Empowerhouse is a replicable model for affordable, sustainable homeownership that aims to change the way affordable housing is built in America.
Tobias Roberts
Tobias runs an agroecology farm and a natural building collective in the mountains of El Salvador. He specializes in earthen construction methods and uses permaculture design methods to integrate structures into the sustainability of the landscape.
