For a second straight year, Denver-based New Town Builders has won a top award from the U.S. Department of Energy for innovation and energy efficiency.
The homebuilder was named the grand award winner among production builders nationwide in the DOE’s annual Housing Innovation Awards.
. Net zero is defined as a home that produces at least as much energy as it consumes.
Those savings are achieved primarily from rooftop solar panels, low-energy appliances, extra insulation and construction techniques that reduce energy loss.
The DOE innovation awards “recognize forward-thinking contractors and builders for delivering extraordinary energy efficiency while ensuring superior comfort, health and durability in new and existing homes,” said David Danielson, the department’s assistant secretary for energy efficiency and renewable energy.
“It was really a pleasant surprise to get the award two years in a row,” said New Town CEO Gene Myers.
New Town was Colorado’s first production builder to equip homes with solar panels as a standard feature and was among the first production builders to offer a net-zero energy option on all single-family homes in Denver. .
The company is primarily building in Stapleton, with other developments in Westminster and Wheat Ridge.
Myers said that because of uncertain prospects for solar-panel rebates and tax credits, the builder is putting a greater emphasis on energy conservation from building materials and construction techniques.
Net-zero energy homes can produce utility-bill savings of as much $300 a month compared with typical resale homes, Myers said, equivalent to $100,000 in reduced costs over the course of a 30-year mortgage.
The DOE housing-innovation awards take into account builders’ performance in water conservation and indoor air quality, as well as energy efficiency.
Steve Raabe: 303-954-1948, sraabe@denverpost.com or twitter.com/steveraabedp
