Grapevine

Take a look inside a $1.1 million 'zero emissions' home

Courtesy: Wojciechowski Family

Morgan Wojciechowski and her husband Casey. Courtesy: Wojciechowski Family

Greg Iacurci: What does it mean for your home to be considered 'zero emissions'? Morgan Wojciechowski: It's a very, very, very highly efficient home that's all-electric. Those are kind of the first two bullet points of the White House definition. The third part is we are part of the green energy program with [our power provider] Dominion. Not only am I producing solar [energy] and any excess is going back onto the grid, but the power from the grid coming into my home is clean and sustainable. It's about $10 extra a month for me to get that clean energy. GI: How much did your house cost to build? MW: Like $1.1 million. GI: And how big is the house? MW: 5,800 square feet. It's a large home. But mine is not what everybody's doing. My home was my personal project because I believe in sustainability and wanted to do it in a home that would be my forever home. But one that's more replicable would be like what [Healthy Communities] builds at Walnut Farm, which is like 1,500 square feet. We're selling it for $433,000. GI: Can you break down your home's estimated savings? MW: Our utility bills are projected to be about $917 a year with [solar] panels, or around $80 a month. The annual savings are $7,226 [relative to an average U.S. home, according to rater TopBuild Home Services]. That's just from the efficiency of the home with solar. If you took the solar production away, I would be saving $5,431 annually. The solar offsets it.

Courtesy: Wojciechowski Family