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The Challenge
“They had lofty goals,” said SALA Architect’s Marc Sloot, architect of the Hanson’s home. With most people when you talk to about Net Zero, “it’s about the house itself. But they came in and said, ‘we want to do our house and our cars’”.
Unlike many renewable energy home building projects, the Hansons wanted to build in an urban neighborhood, close to their jobs and where they’d have access to all the amenities of the city. It would have been easier to build in a suburban or rural setting where there is a greater choice of land parcels ideal for solar positioning and with fewer building codes and requirements to contend with.
With the goal of finding a lot in an urban setting to build a Net Zero home that could produce enough energy to power the house and two electric cars in mind, the Hansons were ready to move forward.
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Their Advice
Having survived the building process and finding themselves now living in their dream home, Mark and Kate have a lot of solid advice for others interested in building their own Net Zero home.
“Get a good team together,” said Mark Hanson. “Find yourself a good architect and a builder. Experience building Net [Zero] homes is not a requirement, but a willingness to learn is. And then build the team out from there.”
“Be ready to plan and spend the time to work out the details in advance,” said Kate Hanson. “And don’t be afraid to say ‘yes’ or ‘no’ or ‘I’m not sure I like that detail’ or ‘I don’t understand how that thing works, can you explain it more to me?’”.
Architect Marc Sloot also had advice for architects and builders on how to engage owners who are building their first Net Zero home.
“You really need to focus on what attributes are going to be meaningful to them,” said Sloot. “It’s important for [the homeowners] to know that it’s still, at the core, about making a beautiful, comfortable home and the Net Zero part of it is making it that much more affordable to live in.”
