KCLT – Cascade Joinery Partnership

Quality, sustainable, and permanently affordable homes

Greg Robinson, AIA, LEED, AP

The Kulshan Community Land Trust (KCLT) actively seeks opportunities to build community by holding land in trust for permanently affordable homeownership. In Whatcom County their goal is to provide housing for 100 or more homeowners by 2013. As a KCLT business partner Cascade Joinery has contributed financially over the years to this worthy cause. However as architects and builders we prefer to contribute our talents more directly and thus actively seek opportunities to influence the shape of our community by doing what we do best; designing and building.  KCLT has provided us that opportunity. Currently we are engaged in the design and construction of a new home for KCLT in Bellingham.

When we approached KCLT about this project they showed us a small, 40 x 112 foot, infill lot in the Birchwood neighborhood they had just purchased. They asked if we could design and build a 3 bedroom home under 1200 square feet and gave us a construction budget significantly lower than most of our custom home clients. The primary goal of the project was clearly to provide affordable housing for the Bellingham community.  

In discussions with KCLT we decided not to stop there. The question was raised, “What if we could design and build the home to achieve an annual balance of energy consumption and on-site energy production resulting in net-zero energy use and cost to the homeowner over the course of a year?” This would contribute significantly to the long term affordability of the home as well. Also we said, “Let’s adhere to the green building standards of the USGBC LEED for Homes program, DOE Energy Star Homes, and Whatcom County Built Green program and of course lets make sure the home is as comfortable and beautiful as you’d expect any Cascade Joinery home to be.

These are lofty, challenging, and sometimes competing goals for sure. Easier to just build conventionally and dismiss net-zero energy use and sustainable design and construction methods as too expensive for affordable housing. The trouble with this approach is that the result will be more of what we already see around us. It  will not help us to realize our dream of  permanently affordable homes that produce as much energy as they consume, provide healthy indoor environments for their owners, use the planets resources responsibly, and are a source of pride and beauty for years to come. Cascade Joinery and KCLT are members of the same community. Together we hope to make this vision a reality by accepting the challenge and seeking solutions.

What does it take to design a net-zero home? Net-zero energy use is achieved through the combination of homeowner conservation, passive design, energy efficient construction, and on-site production of renewable energy.

Homeowner conservation is the cheapest form of energy. As simple as closing the refrigerator door and turning out the lights. Education and providing the tools to monitor real time energy usage is the first step toward achieving net-zero energy usage.

Passive design measures are low cost solutions to take advantage of the energy the sun freely gives us. They include designing smaller homes that use less energy from the start, and proper building orientation. Computer modeling during design helps determine the optimal amount, size, and location of glazing, thermal mass, and shading devices in order to maximize and store solar heat gain, minimize heat loss, and prevent overheating.

Energy efficient construction will get you closer to net zero energy use than any other thing you can do. A highly insulated, tightly sealed envelope with maximum efficiency appliances and lighting is critical in order to approach net-zero energy use.

Renewable Energy is the final step toward net zero energy-use after conservation, passive design, and energy efficiency construction measures have been exhausted. The remaining energy requirements of the home are then met with renewable energy such as solar panels or wind generators. Here in the northwest producing solar energy with photovoltaic panels is made possible by net-metering. Net-metering means the surplus of power that your photovoltaic system will produce during the summer is sold back to the power company and those credits are applied to you during the winter months when your system will produce less and you are purchasing power from your utility.

Will aggressively pursuing these steps get us to a home with net-zero energy usage and can we get there within the constraint of affordable housing budgets? Stay tuned and we will see. Design is almost complete and construction is scheduled to begin this fall.