On Friday, November 7th NESEA hosted a BuildingEnergy Pro Tour in Rhode Island. 46 professionals joined NESEA on tours of two homes in Jamestown and Tiverton, designed to be zero energy and net zero, respectively.

Click here for a photo album of the tour.

We started our tour on Narragansett’s West Bay in Tiverton with Mike Cabral and Stu Flanagan of Newport Renewables. This single family home was designed to achieve net zero status with a 12kW solar array that powers the geothermal heating system and the plug loads for the house. After spending an hour checking out and touring this tight, efficient house and its amazing view, the tour headed to our second site. At the second site, Christian Belden, project manager at Church Community Housing Corporation and builder at Sandywoods, an intentional community, led us through the construction site of one of their two net zero homes in-progress. Following a reception with great snacks provided by National Grid and stimulating conversation from the attending professionals, Christian gave a presentation on what the finished homes would look like and how they were going to be priced competitively with non net zero homes built on spec in the area.

Thank you to Mike and Christian for answering all of our questions and thank you to Sandywoods Center for the Arts for hosting our reception!