Maryland home achieves net-zero goal

Marcie Meditch just wanted to show it could be done. And there on a Bethesda neighborhood’s tree-guarded corner stands her otherwise unassuming evidence. It’s a white four-bedroom house that resembles any other, but peel back the nontoxic drywall, and you’ll discover one of the region’s few examples of what could be architecture’s next archetype.

The new development comes down to a mathematical equation: net-zero. These buildings produce as much energy, in the course of a year, as they consume. They often remain on the power grid, absorbing energy when they need it and returning excess energy when they produce too much. By year’s end, the buildings presumably have zeroed themselves off the grid. Which, by definition, means it will take Meditch a year’s worth of tracking the Bethesda home’s electric meters to determine whether such a project is feasible — and whether net-zero is more than some one-hit wonder.

The crusade is catching on. An American Institute of Architects committee wants new construction by 2030 to meet net-zero standards. The even more ambitious U.S. Department of Energy aims to slap that standard on half the existing commercial building stock by 2040 and the rest by 2050. No one knows whether that timeline allows too many or too few years for net-zero to become the norm, but it’s likely the goals alone will be enough to take architecture, engineering, construction and invention to new heights. “The codes are changing,” said Meditch, who formed Meditch Murphey Architects Inc. with husband John Murphey. “That’s the goal, that this is the standard practice and we don’t need an incentive anymore.”

Any architects in need of net-zero design inspiration should probably just pick up a copy of their parents’ building code manuals. For all the futuristic technology driving this trend — daylight and motion sensors, geothermal heat pumps, advanced ventilation controls, on-site alternative energy generators — it’s amusing to see how much net-zero ends up navigating us back to those olden days before air conditioning was indispensable. Net-zero thinking has led to such brainstorms as opposing windows and doors for natural cross-ventilation. Placing windows in directions that face the sun. Outdoor awnings to protect a family room from hot solar glares. Right-sizing a home so it’s not bigger than necessary. While the latter in particular may induce gasps from today’s indulgent homebuyers, it’s yet another example of how energy conservation has increasingly become an homage to bygone eras, minus the lead paint and asbestos (we’re slowly getting there, Native Americans).

Still, the shift to net-zero is not without its unanswered questions. What are the sacrifices in everyday convenience for annual conservation? How can building owners make tenants and operators actually incorporate these smart designs that exist otherwise merely on paper and inside computerized models?

And there’s a developer’s favorite issue: price.

Read the full story in the Washington Business Journal.