This is the first net-zero affordable housing project in Colorado's high country. It certainly won't be the last.
Despite the extra building cost, a 27-unit affordable housing community near Basalt is embracing a "net-zero" technique.
Jeremy Duncan enjoys scrolling through apps and websites regularly to check his family’s energy consumption at his home in Basalt.
“Holy Cross shows you how much you are saving, and SolarEdge has a feature where you can look at solar panels and see which panels are used most,” Duncan said. “You can break it down by month. I like that stuff.”
In addition to checking how much energy his family of four uses, Duncan’s local utility, Holy Cross Energy, sends updates about their energy consumption along with its impact on the environment. The utility provides perspective by quantifying the CO2 emissions the family has kept from escaping into the atmosphere along with the number of trees they’ve theoretically planted.