1. GE recently introduced a Net-Zero Energy Home, which uses a bunch of green gizmos to bring its net energy usage down to zero.  Among the gadgets employed are ground source heat pumps, photovoltaics, high efficiency appliances and battery storage.  Interesting, for the 10% extra cost of the house, an average homeowner could acheive a lot of energy savings with some simple design adjustments, but it might take a while for the average technology-addicted homeowner to warm up to that idea.  To get started, try greening your home.
2. Treehugger pointed out back in July that the U.S. has enough empty houses to hold all of Britain.  Holy homeless housing solution, Batman!
3. David Gottfried’s Sage House is almost off the LEED scale.  And it looks nice too.
4. Ooooh, let’s talk about manufactured housing in the U.S., and how we might not only put it to use during this economic downturn, but also how we can make it better.
5. Finally, TH takes a look at some new, smaller-footprint, green homes in Seattle, by none other than Dwell Development, LLC.

images courtesy Treehugger and Dwell Development, LLC

Image courtesy of Treehugger

The Beddington Zero Energy Development – BedZED for short – is now seven years old in England and a report has been drafted that describes how much its residents have reduced their carbon footprints.  I won’t get too far into the report, as Treehugger does a great job of that already, but I think it’s interesting that this development goes so far above and beyond other housing to reduce energy but the average resident’s carbon footprint is still an average of 8.9 – 9.9 tonnes.  To be truly sustainable on a global level, that number should come down to 1!  So we really have a long way to go before we are building homes that contribute more effectively to a carbon-free lifestyle.