Middletown, CT – – Consulting Engineering Services (CES) is a MEP engineering firm that is wholeheartedly committed to sustainable design and has a very strong “practice what you preach” mentality. In December 2008, President and CEO of CES, George V. Keithan, Jr. decided to commit to fostering an entirely new life-style and design the first Net Zero Energy Home in the State of Connecticut, which coincidentally will be his family’s private residence. With the hard work of CES employees designing the MEP systems, J. W. Huber Architect LLC and Essex Squared LLC and numerous contractors, the home was completed in November and the Keithan family was able to spend their first Thanksgiving and start their new greener life-style in the very first Net Zero Energy Home in Connecticut.
The modest New England farm house style home sits at the end of an 800-foot driveway on a secluded 14 acre lot in Killingworth, CT. Accompanying this home is a post and beam barn, chicken coop and detached barn style garage. The property will serve as a working organic vegetable farm and tree farm. The roof of the barn is where the 65 solar photovoltaic panels are installed that will provided all of the electrical power for the residence. On the roof of the main house are 10 solar hot water panels for heating the domestic hot water. Altogether these panels will generate 20,000 kwhr/yr of electricity. The house also has a water-to-water standing column Geothermal HVAC system that will also be used for the domestic water well.
Your browser may not support display of this image. The interior of the home has a soft elegance with its combination of modern technology and understated farmhouse details. When the rooms aren’t being filled with natural light they are lit with LED fixtures and the paint, woodwork, flooring and cabinets were all chosen because they emit low or no VOCs (volatile organic compounds). Many of the finishing details throughout the home come from recycled materials; reused countertops from old homes, an old barn door installed on a slider to hide the LED television, recycled doors for the interior rooms and recycled slate for the window sills.
Paperwork has been submitted to register this residence as LEED for Homes Platinum certified- the highest of the nationally accepted benchmarks developed by the U.S. Green Building Council and it has met the requirements of the Connecticut Energy Efficiency Fund Net Zero Challenge.
