VentureLab Blog #1: A Look at Chicago's First Net Zero Home

One of the biggest challenges I dealt with as a student at the University of Illinois was surviving the brutal winters without frostbite and with enough cash left in my bank account by the time spring rolled around. Trying to live through 30 mph winds and sub-zero degree days was not easy when your apartment is held up by walls not much thicker than your spiral notebooks. The only solution I came up with to mitigate my misery was to turn up the thermostat to 85 degrees. While this provided temporary comfort, it also inflicted long term pain when I saw the monthly gas and electric bill for our 600 sq. ft. apartment: $436.
Apparently I never learned my lesson, because since graduating last year I have moved to Chicago, which arguably has even worse winters than Champaign. One day on my way to work, I was skimming through the papers when something caught my eye: a guy in Chicago by the name of Michael Yannell has paid a total of one $29.57 ComEd bill on his house. I paid almost 15 times that per month on my Champaign apartment! As I read on, I discovered that he does not live in a tent like I initially suspected, but in a net zero home.
Net zero homes are designed so that they will produce as much energy as they consume (net zero energy) – and sometimes more. Presently, there are about 100 net zero homes in the U.S., but 2,675 sq. ft. Yannell house is the first of its kind in Chicago. Yannell is a pharmacist at Rush University Medical Center with a passion for green technology, and spends over 40 hours a week researching energy saving appliances.
The roof of the Yannell house folds upward with 48 photovoltaic and solar-thermal panels. This array of panels essentially serves as a stand-alone power plant. It will generate 18,000 kilowatts per year, about 40% more than the house’s projected energy use. The use of solar energy isn’t the only way the Yannell house is able to achieve net zero energy. In the basement, geothermal heating and cooling machines are linked to wells 250 feet below ground. Filters are installed so that used water from washing machines is converted into clean water in toilets. The house is oriented so that it draws the largest amount of natural lighting. Even subtle details are designed with a green aspect – wall tiles are made from recycled green-glass bottles.
So why isn’t every house built this way? Next time we’ll take a look at the challenges of turning a community, city, or nation into a web of net zero homes. As a hint, the Yannell cost $1.6 million. Stay tuned...