It was 20 degrees out last Thursday, but 74 indoors with no heat running, in a 3-bedroom passive solar design in Englewood’s ‘Evanston-Broadway’ neighborhood centered between the Swedish and Porter Hospital complexes. “I get plenty of solar,” said architect Bence Kovacs…despite the fact that the house he designed for himself at 3055 S. Ogden is on a north-south street with lots of trees to block the sun.

Keller Williams agent Larry Champine (left) joins his client, Hungarian-born architect Bence Kovacs, beside the passive solar home Kovacs created in old Englewood, between Swedish Medical Center and the University of Denver.

Sure enough, at 3 p.m. the low winter sun was still peeking over the top of the 2-story house next door, filling a family room that has massive concrete floors (with radiant back-up heat) to absorb the solar gain. Kovacs, who works for Fentress Architects on projects surrounding the new airport for San Jose, Calif., and the new city hall for North Las Vegas, took a totally ‘green’ approach indoors: engineered ‘paralam’ beams, OSB-type flooring, and Xeriscaped yard for low water use. more »

“There’s no cookie-cutter way to build a sustainable home; there are a million ways to do it,” Colorado Renewable Energy Society’s Phil Von Hake said during a preview of one house you’ll see on the Denver Tour of Solar Homes Saturday, Oct. 3. …Fifteen homes in all, each taking a different route, with chances to talk to homeowners who have been there and done that.

Colorado Renewable Energy Society’s Phil Von Hake joins solar homeowner Heather Isely and her sons Charlie, 6 and Masala, 13, beside their solar home in Hilltop.

Colorado has always led the way in ‘going solar’ (there are tours all over the state Saturday—Fort Collins, Estes Park, Durango, Glenwood, Colorado Springs, Grand Junction, to name a few); but all of this is still new enough that people who take on these projects are pioneers…trying new materials, working with contractors that may never have built solar before.. more »

By Mark Samuelson

Five new, luxury townhomes opening on a site overlooking Sloans Lake will have super-low energy bills and a LEED Gold Standard certification…along with something that’s equally difficult to find in Denver’s popular Highlands area: a very low cost-per-square-foot.

RE/MAX Professionals agent Ben Melton shows off LEED certified townhomes near Sloan’s Lake, each with photovoltaic panels. Each has a cost-per-foot slightly above $200.

According to RE/MAX Professionals broker Ben Melton, exclusive agent for the project, 3-bedroom, 3-bath townhomes at 1544 Zenobia in Denver are priced from $350,000 to $375,000…costs per square foot that are just beyond $200. “They’ll be one of the best values in the entire Highlands area, not counting their energy performance and cutting edge solar electric systems,” Melton said. more »