2008 Winner Profiles
Design Challenge
First Place
Green Ridge
Lewis and Clark High School, Spokane
Eric Brandon, Nick Linton
Advisor: Rick Biggerstaff
download photo (35 MB)
Imagine transforming a housing development to be completely energy self-sufficient. A Lewis and Clark High School team earned a first-place win in the Design Challenge by conceiving such a neighborhood—and by showing how modifications needed to make a zero-carbon house could pay for themselves over time.
The students called their eco-friendly housing development Green Ridge. They outfitted their zero-carbon house with solar panels for generating electricity, a large water collection system to meet consumption requirements, evacuated tubes for water heating, a four-ton geothermal vertical loop heat system, passive space heating, and recycled building materials.
Then, they looked at the bottom line: $100,000 per house for all of the green energy additions. That figure may sound daunting, but the savings that follow are great. Rebates from the utility company and from state and federal governments would total $13,000 up front. Add another $6,000 annually in utility-bill savings and solar energy rebates, and the owner can pay for the energy additions in about twenty years. After that time, the cost of living in the home drops substantially below what it would cost without the modifications.