Five new, luxury townhomes opening on a site overlooking Sloans Lake will have super-low energy bills and a LEED Gold Standard certification…along with something that’s equally difficult to find in Denver’s popular Highlands area: a very low cost-per-square-foot.

RE/MAX Professionals agent Ben Melton shows off LEED certified townhomes near Sloan’s Lake, each with photovoltaic panels. Each has a cost-per-foot slightly above $200.

According to RE/MAX Professionals broker Ben Melton, exclusive agent for the project, 3-bedroom, 3-bath townhomes at 1544 Zenobia in Denver are priced from $350,000 to $375,000…costs per square foot that are just beyond $200. “They’ll be one of the best values in the entire Highlands area, not counting their energy performance and cutting edge solar electric systems,” Melton said.

Each is being provided 2 kilowatts of solar photovoltaic panels on the roof that will return a high percentage of the home’s electrical demand…actually running the electric meter backward during some periods. The homes are super-insulated and are being provided 90% efficient gas furnaces, low-voltage lighting, rooftop gardens, and very high performing Marvin windows…features that will help earn the Gold Certification, one of the highest available under the highly respected LEED program created by the U.S. Green Building Council.

Melton notes that the five homes will also be spacious and lavishly appointed with Kohler fixtures and stainless GE appliances. Master suites, positioned for views of downtown, the lake, or the mountains from various homes, show Jacuzzi tubs and separate showers.

The solar panels and super efficient energy features also make purchasers eligible for rebates for tax credits, and for rebates from Xcel Energy that are reflected in the low purchase price. Each home, Melton adds, is walking distance from King Soopers shopping and from the popular city trail system that surrounds scenic Sloans Lake.

“This is a very advanced design with a high rate of energy performance,” noted Leeann Iacino, President of RE/MAX Professionals. “It’s a good example of our company’s concern with our clients’ energy performance, at a time when everybody is concerned about rising costs.”

The townhomes at 1544 Zenobia Street are now open for preview, Melton said, and tours can be arranged by appointment. Melton, who works from RE/MAX Professionals headquarters office at 9200 E. Panorama Circle, Suite 140, off I-25 at Dry Creek Road, can be reached at 303-880-8783. Or visit RE/MAX Professionals on the web at PrestigiousDenverHomes.com.
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Can you build a house even greener than ‘net-zero energy?’ President Obama’s pick to serve as ambassador to Finland has done just that; and you can tour it Sunday in Boulder’s Mapleton Hill neighborhood, 1-4 p.m., just north of Pearl on Fifth.

Bruce Oreck, appointed ambassador to Finland, created the ‘Next West House’ in Boulder, on view Sunday, Aug. 9, 429 Spruce Street, 1-4 p.m.

Boulder developer and environmentalist Bruce Oreck created his ‘Next West House’ to be ‘net-zero carbon’—so efficient that it not only makes more energy than it uses, but recovers enough to compensate for what was used to build the house and its materials. Oreck calls it “the greenest home in North America”…and received a Platinum LEED certification for it—highest possible rating.

When you tour, you’ll have a hard time seeing the systems that allow a home to be that sustainable. The first is 10 kilowatts of solar panels…three times as much generating power as builders provide with typical solar demonstration systems. Next West has one array tucked so tight to the roof you’ll have to look twice to see it; others are hidden on top of the porch and on a second roof pitch further back.

Also hard to see is a 450-foot ground-loop heat pump that recovers warmth from deep in the bedrock during winter (and cools the home during summer)…and within the farm house-style architecture, the heaviest insulation package you’ve probably ever visited: walls to R-50, ceilings between R-75 and R-90. Next West is so conserving that Oreck can heat the entire house in winter with no more than an alcohol furnace smaller than a camp stove. The solar panels provide all of the input; batteries store energy during non-sun periods.

You’ll also view a gray water tank that recovers water from sinks and showers to save the 30% of household use that goes to run toilets; LED (light emitting diode) bulbs that are more efficient and natural looking than compact fluorescents and last 20 years; a magnetic induction cooktop that wastes little heat (and saves on cooling); and a garage plug-in for a modified hybrid or all-electric car.

Oreck notes his ambassadorial appointment is a perfect match to his building work; one study rates Finland as the very greenest nation on the planet. 429 Spruce Street showcases a spectacular lot——steps from Pearl Street; a memorable view of the Flatirons; with an agricultural ditch dating from 1862 that runs from Boulder Canyon behind the house, providing water for the third-acre site. Joel Ripmaster with Colorado Landmark is listing agent, 303-443-3377.

If you go…

WHERE: ‘Next West House,’ Platinum LEED certified, ‘net-zero carbon’ design, 3-bed/3,617 sq. ft., billed “greenest home in North America.” 429 Spruce St., Boulder; take Canyon west from Broadway 5 blks to 6th St., right 2 blks to Pearl, left 1 blk to 5th, turn right, 2 blks.

PRICE: $2.895 million
WHEN: Sun., Aug. 9, 1-4 p.m.
PHONE: 303-443-3377 WEB: 429Spruce.com

BOULDER. Work began last week on a solar-powered replacement for the home of 78-year-old Bobra Goldsmith, known as “llama lady,” who lost her house Jan. 7 to a 3,000-acre range fire that tore through the Boulder County ranch where she raises llamas and alpacas.

Gathering at Bobra Goldsmith’s home site: Brett Steury and Mary Coonce of Porchfront Homes, Goldsmith, and Matt Grandsaert and Tim Webb from Integral Engineering. Goldsmith’s llamas won grand awards at the 2009 National Western Stock Show.

“This is going to be very energy efficient, getting a high percentage of its operating power from solar and super energy-efficient construction,” said Mary Coonce, who together with husband Tim Coonce are principals in Boulder-based Porchfront Homes. “We expect to complete construction in late fall.”

Included in the replacement home’s features are 4.73 kilowatts of solar photovoltaic roof panels, a solar domestic hot water system, and passive solar elements to provide natural heating and cooling. The old home, Coonce noted, had been a passive design dating from the 1970s, with nowhere near the energy efficiency the Porchfront design will provide.

Goldsmith has been living in temporary housing on the ranch site off Neva Road and N. 45th Street, close to where Porchfront crews are at work on a new foundation. Her home and possessions were sole casualty of the wind-whipped fire; all 120 of her award winning llamas and alpacas escaped harm and no other homes were destroyed. News of the fire drew wide support for Goldsmith as she recouped from the loss and made plans to rebuild.

Coonce offered special thanks to several organizations who rallied to help in the fire’s wake, including Tim Webb and Matt Grandsaert of Integral Engineering, architect Richard Sanchez, Colorado Mini Excavating, American Pride Co-op, Bird RV, and solar supplier REC, which is providing the PV panels at reduced cost. She added that the Boulder County Land Use Department had been exceptionally helpful in processing her requests for temporary housing and a building permit.

Porchfront Homes, builder of energy efficient custom homes and neighborhoods, is located at 1847 Yarmouth Avenue in Boulder, and can be reached at 303-442-8453, or on the web at www.porchfronthomes.com.

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John Keith of Harvard Communities in front of his model in Stapleton, close to his newest home expected to use practically no energy at all.

Nobody would imagine 2008 to be better for builders than last year, but Harvard Community’s Architect Collection increased its sales over 2007 as Keith added even more attention to his environmental package. That push reaches a climax this month as Harvard nears completion of its latest Near-Zero-Energy Home, with a solar component so great that its carbon footprint will be around 50,000 pounds less-per-year than an average new home.

The buyer of the Near-Zero Energy home is likely to spend no more than a few hundred dollars a year on energy, cooling included, Keith says. But all of Architect Collection homes have energy features that save way beyond what average new houses get, including 2.7 kW of photovoltaic panels that turn sunlight into electricity.

On the Near-Zero Energy house, Harvard beefed up the PV component to 8.5 kW, and added a heat pump and a tank-less water heater that allow all of that solar to power components that generally burn expensive natural gas. Keith also took his typical sealing/insulation package, around twice as good as the average new builder, and more than doubled the tightness (.03 air changes/hour) while thickening the insulation to well better than R-20 on outside walls, R-54 in ceilings.

If you like what you see, you can buy a home and have Harvard create the energy efficiency you want. Remember, Harvard’s standard package is already among the most energy efficient in the nation—around 40% more than typical new homes. Or, you may want Harvard to create your own “Near-Zero Energy” showplace.

Either way, you’ll get this great new Stapleton Central Park neighborhood…and lots of other Harvard design features that have nothing to do with energy, but that are still bringing in sales.

Harvard’s model is at 8747 E. 35th Ave., close to the Near-Zero Energy home. From Quebec in Stapleton, take Martin Luther King east 2 blks to Central Park Blvd, then north 3 blocks to 35th, right.
Sales agent Sheri Ogilvie shows the Architect Collection daily, or by appointment: 303-909-9557.

PRICE: From high $600s, Near Zero Home at $759,000
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