My Net Zero Home Got Me Through a Wisconsin Winter — Here’s What I Learned By Amber Westerman Is it really possible to get through a Wisconsin winter on solar electricity alone? We had a 10-day cold snap last February and it got down to minus 17 degrees F. My air-source heat pump (mini-split) was working hard — and consuming lots of power. When I set out to build a net-zero house (and afford it), I knew my design had to…
If you haven’t seen Heart of a Building episodes, you might not have a great idea about our work or why we work hard to bring you the projects we do. We allow people to share their “why” and their heart-centered reasons for taking such care of their homes, offices, and buildings by telling these stories. And we hope that those watching are moved to learn how to make these changes. Most of all, we want to recognize the challenging…
Heart of a Building founder and host, Paul Kriescher spoke with Russell Pope for Panasonic’s Tech Talk about what you can do to boost sustainability, energy efficiency in your home! We are thrilled to be working with Panasonic and their team as we highlight more and more homes and buildings in our videos!
Robby Schwarz of Denver, Colorado, Heart of a Building’s first contest winner Robby Schwarz of Denver, Colorado, Heart of a Building’s first contest winner Christian Frank of Foxfield, ColoradoHeart of a Building’s April contest winner
While we like to make a big deal out of building projects on the leading edge of environmentally sound techniques, we also want to make a big deal about the little things. It is those little things that can end up making a big difference. We’ve compiled a list of 10 Easy Things You Can Do to Increase Your Home’s Energy-Efficiency you can take to make your home more environmentally sound
Get creative when it comes to wrapping paper. Yes, it’s so festive, but it is also wasteful, especially when you consider that premium gift wrap – which often includes plastic, dyes, and foils – might not be able to be recycled. If you’re a giver, look for wrapping paper that is recycled (or post-consumer) or reuse where you can, such as giving the gift in a reusable bag. Use the newspaper and decorate your own gift with markers or crayons.…
Thrive Vitality Homes, Denver, Colorado | Each Vitality home features luxurious architecture combined with Thrive’s trademark Zero Energy construction, LEED certification, and a focus on cleaner indoor air. Vitality Thrive Homes are production built, single-family homes, which deliver zero-energy and zero-emission housing available to hundreds of home buyers every year in the Denver Metro area. Thrive’s decades-long vision was to optimize the health of the buyer. They did this by enhancing indoor air quality, comfort, and eliminating the home’s carbon…
Nantes Public Library, Gilcrest, Colorado | Nantes Public Library is a near passive house-compliant public building. The building design brought outstanding daylighting and comfort for occupants while delivering low utility bills [for the taxpayers of the district]. It has become the gem of the High Plains Library District. The project has merged people who had both conservative and progressive viewpoints to work together to create a building that is an example of being in ever greater harmony with Nature. Project…
L’Avenir Luxury Townhomes, Ft. Collins, Colorado | The L’Avenir townhomes, a 4-unit rowhome nestled next to Old Town Ft. Collins, Colorado, embodies a lifetime of design work and learning from the wife and husband team of Laurie and Bob Davis of Davis/Davis Architects. They deliver homes with an exceptionally light footprint on the Earth. Project Highlights Net zero-energy/zero-emissions 1-foot thick walls with extensive air-sealing, filled wall cavities, and exterior insulation Ground-source heat pump for heating and cooling with radiant delivery…
Heart of the Building just wrapped up our next three episodes. When you sit down to watch, we ask that you make sure the volume UP! The background music was written and produced by local musician Rich Moore. Back in the day – which was about, let’s say, starting 25 years ago, Rich worked with Heart of a Building founder Paul Kriescher. “Building science wasn’t my first passion, but I did enjoy the logic and creative problem-solving it required.” notes…
Paul Kriescher, Executive Producer/Host
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