Category: net zero energy

Testimony about one of our strawbale homes in the snow

Attached are some photos taken this AM of the house - 3-4" of snow which is pretty good for Campo. Low 20's outside at night. Interior drops to 72 when the woodstove is cold or overnight, and the whole house heats quite uniformly. We haven't used the mini-split heater. I know I harp on this, but such performance is remarkable. This house is just so damn easy to live in

Want to visit a strawbale house, touch clay plaster, or sit on a cob bench? Green Homes Tour 10/21/18

Interested in seeing some of our work in person? Here’s your chance: three projects we worked on will be open to the public on the Green Homes Tour on Sunday, Oct 21, 2018, from 10 am – 4 pm. The Tour is an annual event hosted by the San Diego chapter of the Green Building …

Fallgren Strawbale Home will be featured on SDGBC’s Green Homes Tour Oct 2018

The Fallgren strawbale home, recently certified a Net Zero Energy Building through the Living Building Challenge, will be featured on this year’s Green Homes Tour! The tour is Sunday, October 21, 2018 from 10 am – 4 pm at locations all over the county. More info and registration can be found here. *** Update: There are …

Our new net zero strawbale article is published

Our newest article on high-performance strawbale building is out in this month’s Home Power magazine! The article is all about our recent strawbale project that achieved Net Zero Energy Building certification through the Living Building Challenge. This home will be part of the USGBC’s Green Homes Tour on Oct 21, 2018. Here’s a link to …

video from the Excellence in Energy Leadership award 2018

We were honored to receive an Excellence in Energy Leadership award from SDG&E in recognition of our recent Net Zero strawbale project, the Fallgren Home. As part of the award, they made this short video that promotes the project (as well as SDG&E). There is plenty wrong with our current energy system and it’s easy …

Trying to building your dream natural home? Make your Guest House your Best House

The idea of living in a high-performance, natural home has been calling to you but you… … haven’t found build-able land where you want to live. … can’t cover the cost of buying land and building a house. … don’t want the hassle and expense of selling and moving. … can’t afford to live in one …

Can construction really be “regenerative”?

At its most basic, construction requires taking a lot of stuff from somewhere and using it to build. It is an inherently destructive and consumptive process: no stuff = no building. Because of this, it is has been hard to imagine truly regenerative construction: building in a way that not only does less harm to our …

Fallgren Strawbale Home receives Net Zero Energy certification through Living Building Challenge

On Jan 3, 2018, the Fallgren Home in Campo, CA, became the second building in Southern California to be awarded “Net Zero Energy Building” status through the Living Building Challenge. This third-party certification is based on actual performance data and verifies that the building uses less energy than it produces annually, as well as meets …