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New England Solar Homes is a solar home design company founded in 1995 devoted to the design of high performance environmentally responsive homes appointed in a number of popular regional styles. Our super-insulated passive/ active solar houses are known as much for their finely crafted daylit interiors as for their energy self-reliance and advanced green building practices.
For solar home customers who want to go beyond our basic custom builder's set, we offer green material specifications of the most tried and true, readily available, recycled content healthy materials, paints and finishes. In addition to custom design we offer standard house plans which can be purchased as is, or modified for your unique site.
While currently not providers of solar equipment, we have included in our Green Resources area, a list of solar companies in the New England states as well as other solar resource links like the Solar Energy Industries Association (www.seia.org) where solar providers nearest you can be located. One of our primary services as an architect is to provide guidance in the sizing and integration of the best solar technologies as well as other state-of-the-art energy systems, including radiant floor systems that can be designed to work elegantly with solar hot water heating systems.
While it is true that the architectural character of your home and it's passive solar/ low energy configuration is our highest priority, there's certainly no better time than now to consider active systems (solar electric and hot water) as more states make it easier to install grid-tied systems. Recent news suggests that above market power credits are in the offing for residential green (PV & wind) power providers as green power markets mature around the country. |
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 New England Solar Homes came into existence at the 1995 Eco-Expo in Boston with an exhibit of the Solar Farmhouse concept house, which introduced a number of surprising innovations within this friendly vernacular form - a plan that can be configured to allow multiple street approaches, solving the curb appeal dilemma of the solar house moving into a conventional sub-division, as well as the multiple south facing roof areas for expanded solar energy generation. In recognition for the market transformation theme of the Solar Farmhouse and it's exemplary energy and green building features, NE Solar Homes received top honors from the Northeast Sustainable Energy Association at the "Building Energy '96" conference.
As a result of the 1996 conference, The Solonial, a stripped down version of the Solar Farmhouse, was subsequently built in 1997, in Lexington, MA as a clear demonstration of the common sense wisdom of south orientation and 10 inch thick cellulose walls (R35). The owner discovered in the first summer of operation the immediate financial rewards of the super-insulated exterior envelope - the ability to air-condition a 2400 square foot home with one ton capacity A/C unit. Go to our current models area and view the full description of these homes and their complete list of architectural and technical features.
See Standard Plans for full description. |
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