We were very fortunate to be asked to participate and lend our SeriousWindows to two special projects of ABC’s Extreme Makover: Home Edition. Led by partners G&M Contracting, Burch Builders Group, and thousands of volunteers, the new construction of the Fishing School community center and the Tripp Family home, both located in under-served neighborhoods of Washington, D.C., was completed in just 7 days.

What makes these two projects exceptionally special is that both were built to be as near net-zero energy as possible. Energy measures included SIPS panels provided by Winter Panel, solar electric systems from Aurora Energy, insulated Concrete Foundation forms from Leep Green, and super-insulating high R-value windows – which is why we were asked to contribute SeriousWindows.

The projects needed windows of R-6.0 and high air infiltration requirements for maximum air tightness. R-value measures the insulation value of a window (the inverse of U-value); the higher the R-value, the better. To put into perspective, a typical dual pane low-E window is an R-value of R-2.0, while ENERGY STAR® 2010 standards for windows require a minimum R-value of R-3.3.

The show airs on February 14, 8PM EST, on ABC.  Check Extreme Makeover Home Edition online.

See our pictures from the demolition and construction of the Fishing School and Tripp Family home.  More photos here and here.

More information on Near Net-Zero Energy goals of the projects and our press coverage.

Watch Clean Skies video coverage of the work taking place last August.

Reading @Get Serious Blog: Watch Extreme Makeover on ABC go Extreme Net-Zero Energy February 14 Like this? Tweet it to your followers!

This entry was posted on Friday, February 5th, 2010 at 5:16 pm and is filed under Announcements, Energy Policy, Green Building Standards, SeriousWindows. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.