“There’s no cookie-cutter way to build a sustainable home; there are a million ways to do it,” Colorado Renewable Energy Society’s Phil Von Hake said during a preview of one house you’ll see on the Denver Tour of Solar Homes Saturday, Oct. 3. …Fifteen homes in all, each taking a different route, with chances to talk to homeowners who have been there and done that.

Colorado Renewable Energy Society’s Phil Von Hake joins solar homeowner Heather Isely and her sons Charlie, 6 and Masala, 13, beside their solar home in Hilltop.

Colorado has always led the way in ‘going solar’ (there are tours all over the state Saturday—Fort Collins, Estes Park, Durango, Glenwood, Colorado Springs, Grand Junction, to name a few); but all of this is still new enough that people who take on these projects are pioneers…trying new materials, working with contractors that may never have built solar before.. more »