An Eco Luxury, Net Zero & LEED Platinum Home Under Construction in Montecito, CA

Here is an update on the Eco Luxury House we are building at Butterfly Beach in Montecito, Ca. We collaborated with our friend and colleague Michelle Kaufman on the design of this home. Early on in the process we had intended this house to be a modular or prefab home because at that time we had the belief that this was the most proactive way for us to be as green as possible utilizing Michelle's five eco principles . This was not necessarily the case, and in the end we are actually building a custom home built on site that is as green or greener than our original prefab plan. In fact we are right on track to be the first LEED For Homes PLATINUM CERTIFIED home in Montecito and also hope to achieve and annual Net Zero Energy Equalibrium.  I know that Michelle is thrilled that we are determined to figure out how to make the most sustainable project as is possible now. It is the positive result of what turned into a somewhat unfortunate experience.

There is a sad tale with a happy ending that took us in our current direction. As many people know Michelle Kaufmann's company MKD Homes Closed it's doors in June of 2009.  We were slated to begin the prefabrication process of the original design for this house just as the factory and Michelle Kaufmann closed theirs doors. This was a terrible consequence of the poor economy last year. After we stopped reeling from this unfortunate news, we reorganized our process (at a cost of 4 months and substantial redesign expenditures) and became even more determined to build a sustainable home. In the end, we are building a very high end, high quality, custom, sustainable home. We are happy that Michelle reorganized is practicing architecture and design is still a champion of sustainable and even eco luxury design. Here's the new Michelle Kaufmann Studio.  Also, MKD Homes are now offered by  MKdesigns by blu homes which we think is fantastic that all of Michelle's intellectual collateral will continue on.  We wish Michelle and blu homes smooth sailing ahead!

Here's a Link to Our "Net Zero' Post

Here's a Link to Michelle Kaufmann's Blog Post aout this Eco Luxury House

See Also The New York Time: The Rise of 'Green' Modular Homes by Francesca Lyman

This Eco Luxury Home Will Produce As Much Energy As It Consumes...Making It Net Zero

Maienza-Wilson's current project, in addition to being slated for LEED for Homes Platinum certification is a Montecito, California beach house that will also be a net zero energy home.  The concept of net zero is that a home generates the same amount of energy that it consumes on an annual basis. This is accomplished with the right combination of very efficient mechanical systems, lighting, building materials and appliance choices matched with properly sized solar systems to achieve an annual + net zero energy equilibrium. 

The project team worked with David Knight and his team at Monterey Energy Group to create a beautiful home that will also have a light touch on the earth.  

On the production side, the butterfly roof will hide 40 south facing solar photovoltaic panels, producing over 12,800 kWh (kilowatt hours) per year.

On the consumption side, spray-in foam insulation, high-performance windows and doors, an air to water heat pump for super efficient space conditioning and water heating, radiant floors, Energy Star appliances, and LED lights will make the home highly efficient so that the solar panels can provide all the power needed to run the home.

By being tied to the electric power grid, the home can actually feed power into the grid on bright, sunny days when it’s producing more than it needs to run the home and draw power at night and on rainy days when it needs more energy than it’s producing.  By balancing the supply and demand of energy over time, the result is a net zero energy home.

Guest Post by:

Patsy Stadelman, AICP 

Patsy is a Land Use Planner for Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck LLP (http://bhfs.com/) in Santa Barbara, California and is on the Board of Directors for the California - Central Coast Section of the American Planning Association.

Construction Progress - Eco Luxury Home in Montecito ...Is Slated for LEED for Homes Platinum

The Steel is going up on our LEED for Homes Eco Luxry Project in Montecito, CA. 

This is a very exciting time to be "out of the dirt", especially before the really rainy season here in California.

Luxury Green: Maienza- Wilson Latest Project in Montecito

Please Check out Michelle Kaufmann's Blog about our latest project in Montecito.

"First Home in Montecito slated to be LEED Platinum begins Construction".

We are placing a huge cistern in the underground here that will allow us to store captured site water runoff as well as rain water harvesting from the roof structure. We will use stored and filtered water for irrigation. Below you can see that the pool was poured first as the pool structure will become part of the foundation for the decking around the house and pool cabana. The cistern is buried under ground just to the right of the pool in the photo below.

Luxury Architecture- Sustainable & Green in Montecito, CA

We are currently under construction in Montecito on this home that we collaboratively designed with the MKD Michelle Kaufmann Designs This home originally was intended to the be a modular house, sustainable and as green as they get. We have converted the project to be a custom built, site built, sustainable house and a LEED for HOMES project where we are setting our goal at Platinum LEED Certification. We will be posting about this house, this project and the LEED certification process as we progress through the project. We just wanted to introduce you to the project now, after all it's Green Week on NBC. In the Luxury Real Estate market in Santa Barbara and Montecito this will be a first.

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