DENVER, CO (August 19, 2013) – Thrive Home Builders, Denver’s leader in the design and construction of energy efficient homes, has again received national recognition as the first and only Certified Department of Energy (DOE) Challenge Home in Colorado for its Zero Energy home in Conservatory Green neighborhood. Complimenting Thrive Home Builders unmatched level of home performance and advanced building science, the DOE Challenge Home requires outstanding levels of energy savings, comfort, health, enhanced durability and ultimately, a home that is zero net-energy ready.
Even more exciting than the Challenge Home designation, Thrive Home Builders was just named winner of the first U.S. Department of Energy’s Challenge Home Builder Awards, part of the Housing Innovation Awards. The award recognizes the very best in innovation and leadership in paving the way for the rest of the U.S. housing industry to provide zero ready homes that are better for our nation, our communities and homeowners. A single DOE National Grand Award Winner in each of four categories will be announced in October at the Housing Innovations Award Ceremony.
Thrive Home Builders Zero Energy home in Central Park is built to be so energy efficient that simply adding solar electric panels can offset annual energy consumption by producing more energy than it uses. It sounds like a home of the future that might only be available someday, right? It’s not. This is not a concept home, a demonstration home, or an experiment. Rather, this home represents the only production-built series of homes to offer Zero Energy on all single family plans. It’s true. The challenge Thrive Home Builders has mastered is building Zero Energy homes that are affordable and available to the home-buying public. This home and the homes it represents are priced competitively with other homes in the market. Even better, the energy savings increases every time the power company increases their rates.
All Thrive Home Builders homes surpass the highest required levels of energy-efficiency, but don’t take Thrive Home Builders word for it. The energy efficiency of all Thrive Home Builders homes is verified by an independent third-party. This home has earned a HERS score of three. HERS stands for Home Efficiency Rating System, which is a nationally recognized scoring system for measuring a home’s energy efficiency. Think of it as an MPG rating for homes, but with this index, the lower the number, the better the energy efficiency and the higher the savings. The HERS score gives prospective buyers a means to compare the energy efficiency of different homes. Thrive Home Builders Zero Energy home, when compared to a 10-year old home of the same size and built to code, can save a homeowner $307 A MONTH in energy costs.
Thrive Home Builders has long been dedicated to revolutionizing residential homebuilding, and they are no stranger to making Colorado history. In 2009, Thrive Home Builders became Colorado’s first production builder to equip homes with solar panels as a standard feature. In 2010, they were the first to build with Colorado Beetle Kill Lumber. In 2011, Thrive Home Builders became the first production builder to offer a Zero Energy option on all single family homes in Central Park . In 2012, Thrive Home Builders was awarded the coveted Green Home of the Year by Green Builder Magazine for setting an incomparable standard of excellence with their major achievements in home building including their Zero Energy home in Central Park . Thrive Home Builders also earned the Denver Homebuilders Association’s Mame Award for Green Home of the year.
Thrive Home Builders has demonstrated that zero energy homes are beautiful and affordable. Thrive Home Builders at Central Park is the only place we know of where everyday homebuyers can see and purchase a home that is truly state of the art building science. Whether compared to resale homes or new homes built to code, Thrive Home Builders focus on energy-efficiency has been shown to result in a home that operates more efficiently and significantly reduces the cost of utilities, month after month.
