For 40 years, the Denver-Boulder area has been venturing some of the country’s most interesting solar energy designs (in 1980, long before other states were talking much about them, we had a solar tour of 12 homes that drew 100,000 visitors).
With all of that novel housing stock accumulated over the years to draw from, Denver is a very interesting place today to see solar architecture – something that the Colorado Renewable Energy Society offers a chance to do every fall, including this coming Saturday, when CRES holds a self-guided tour of 16 homes.
The Denver Area Sustainable Living Tour offers an opportunity to view a wide variety of low-energy homes, said CRES Past President Steve Sargent. “This is a good tour for ideas on what to incorporate in your own house,” he added, noting that in addition to getting inside homes, you’ll be able to talk to owners, solar designers, do-it-yourselfers and contractors.
Included will be a look inside a Zero-Energy house that KB Home created near Morrison at Bear Creek Meadows – designed with a mix of energy-efficiency measures and nine kilowatts of photovoltaic panels that potentially yields no gas or electric bill at all. You can meet both solar contractors (electric and hot water) and the rater that measured its super-low 40 HERS rating; plus see real-time monitoring of how much energy the panels deliver.
Buy that $10 ticket for the tour in advance (CRES’s website at COGreenHomesTour.org/Denver has a link where you can buy online) and you can include a free session Thursday evening, 7 p.m., 3245 S. Eliot St., titled “Going Green Without Breaking the Bank.”
Meanwhile, the American Solar Energy Society has a tour set for the following Saturday, covering Golden-area homes. That one sets forth from the American Mountaineering Center, 710 10th Street, in Golden, Saturday, Oct. 6, where you’ll get a map to the homes. Tickets for adults are $5.
Mark Samuelson writes on real estate and business; you can email him at mark@samuelsonassoc.com. You can see all of Mark Samuelson’s columns online at DenverPost.com/realestate.
if you go …
WHERE: Self-guided tours of Denver area solar homes. This Saturday check-in Arapahoe Community College, 5900 S. Santa Fe Drive, Littleton. Tour of Golden homes Oct. 6 starts from American Mountaineering Center in Golden
TICKETS: $10
WHEN: Saturday, 9 a.m.-4 p.m.; Golden tour Sat., Oct. 6
WEB: COGreenHomesTour.org/Denver or GoldenSolarTour.org
