Contractor ThirdWall, Inc. received the 2013 Wintergreen Award for Excellence for the NIST Net Zero Residential Test Facility in the category of “Environmental Benefit” from the U.S. Green Building Council’s Maryland Chapter.
The test facility which was built to resemble a typical suburban Maryland single-family home was designed to produce as much energy as it consumes over the course of a year and will serve as a test bed for new home-scale energy technologies.
The 2,700 square foot house plus basement and detached two car garage features an air tight insulated building envelope, photovoltaic and solar thermal power, geothermal loops as well as energy-saving appliances and state of the art control systems.
The Project achieved LEED Platinum Certification (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) through the USGBC, and Energy Star V3 Certification. “This was a challenging and exciting project from beginning to end. We are very proud to have achieved the governments ‘Buy America’, QC and design objectives in the highest sustainable means,” says Jerry Therrien, Principal of ThirdWall, Inc.