Credit: Photo by Naomi C.O. Beal
Bright Built Barn
Rockport, Maine
What’s to love: A prefab house that tells you how much energy it’s using.
When Kaplan Thompson Architects received a simple commission for an outbuilding, they had little idea that it would turn into a much more important endeavor. The client had a lofty goal to create a high-performance structure that also could serve as a demonstration project to help educate the industry about net-zero houses.
Collaborating with prefab manufacturer Bensonwood Homes and a variety of green engineers, Kaplan Thompson came up with the BrightBuilt Barn, a 756-square-foot single-level outbuilding on the clients’ property in Rockport, Maine. The 90% prefabricated structure features a continuous R-40 shell and has 2x6 exterior walls, blown-in cellulose insulation, timber-frame structural insulated panels, and triple-glazed windows. Instead of a furnace, the barn has an air-to-air heat pump (which operates at temperatures as low as 0 degrees F), a 5-kilowatt photovoltaic system, solar hot water, and a heat recovery ventilator.
A real-time energy feedback system allows owners to see their current energy usage levels. LED lights installed around the base of and inside the structure are programmed to glow in three colors: green when the building is using less energy than is being produced, yellow when it’s borderline, and red when it exceeds net-zero goals.
Architect: Kaplan Thompson Architects, Portland, Maine
Builder: Bensonwood Homes, Walpole, N.H.
From the May 2009 online exclusive, “6 Prefab Houses That Could Change Home Building”