This post was contributed by a community member. The views expressed here are the author's own.

Local Voices

Farmington designer offers tours of 'passive house' in Harwinton

Paul and Diane Honig, whose Harwinton home won the Connecticut Energy Efficiency Fund’s 2012 CT Net Zero Energy Challenge, will host an open house Saturday, Oct. 5 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. The event coincides with the American Solar Energy Society’s National Solar Tour and the Northeast Sustainable Energy Association’s annual Green Buildings Open House Tour held annually across the Northeast.

Designed and built by Wolfworks in Avon, the home is the state’s first certified Passive House. The home is built so efficiently that it is able to produce more energy than it uses. The two-story, three-bedroom 2,800-square-foot house has a solar design, a solar water heater and a balanced ventilation system that recovers heat from steady, balanced air flow.

The Honigs, a family of four, have lived in the house for a year and are inviting the public in to see it and hear what it’s like to live there. The open house event is titled “A Year in a Passive House: An owner’s experience.”

Find out what's happening in Farmingtonwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

The home’s features include a simple, open design oriented to the sun; European tilt and turn windows that gain more heat than they lose; thick super insulated walls that create attractive deep windowsills; a solar thermal system built by Paul Honig to provide hot water; and a rooftop solar electric system that produces more energy than the house needs and is able to power an electric car.

A presentation about Passive House design principles and what Net Zero means will be given by designer Jamie Wolf and construction manager Janet Downey, both of Wolfworks, and other members of the project team. Companies and organizations taking part in the open house include Aegis Solar Energy; Energize CT; and Home Energy Technologies.

Find out what's happening in Farmingtonwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

The presentation will be given twice, at 11 a.m. and 1 p.m., and tours of the house in between. The address is 55 Town Line Road, Harwinton, but since GPS systems lead to the wrong place when the actual address is used, visitors should follow directions to Town Line Road in New Hartford.

No reservations are required, but for further information, call 860-676-9238 or e-mail info@homesthatfit.com.

For more information about the home, read “Designing and Building the Harwinton Passive House” and other Wolfworks’ blog posts by visiting http://www.homesthatfit.com; read the Honigs’ blog “Our Connecticut Passive House” at http://connecticutpassivehouse.blogspot.com; or watch a video at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aLJ5n0eAe9o&feature=youtu.be






We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here

The views expressed in this post are the author's own. Want to post on Patch?