To Stan and JoAnne: Please see our website, the Contacts page, and send me message through the website:http://solarteam.org/page.php?id=247

The project costs posted in these responses from LEAFHouse team members include total teaching and administrative costs. The house construction costs were $448,000. For more detailed info on costs, see our website: http://solarteam.org/page.php?id=696.

The cost to build the 800 sf ‘competition model’, with one bedroom and one bath, is $540,000. If it were market-ready, the cost per square foot would be $228. What we call LEAFHouse 1600, the ‘empty nest model’ (two bedrooms, two baths), would come in at $218. These costs will be more or less expensive depending on the real estate market in a particular location; for the Washington DC metro area, they are quite ‘affordable’ in comparison to the price of an average single-family home.

Jay’s questions address the larger issue of ‘who gets to live green?’ He implies that a green home should be affordable by anyone who, say, recycles, practices water conservation, and uses public transportation rather than a gasoline-fueled car. By this standard, homeless people should be able to own such a house, because they have arguably the smallest ecological footprint among us. Jay, I don’t agree with your logic here, and possibly also your politics, but I want you to know that that LEAFHouse team has taken very seriously the issue of how accessible solar energy is to the ordinary citizen.

As well as alluding to the leaf as nature’s universal solar panel, LEAF stands for Leading Everyone to an Abundant Future. This is a future in which people in all sectors of society and parts of the globe can make use of the immense energy of the sun that shines on them, rather than being dependent on access to oil, coal or natural gas. The politicians in our country need to get the message that the solar energy industry needs long-term tax incentives in order to invest in research and development of products that are much lower in cost than they are now. The University of Maryland LEAFHouse team took it upon themselves to lobby Maryland legislators at the state and national level, and hosted Department of Energy Secretary Bodman and Maryland Rep. Steny Hoyer, House Majority Leader, while LEAFHouse was on the National Mall. We wanted to make the point that solar energy can support a comfortable, energy-efficient and beautiful home, and that we expect our politicians to change the rules so that more and more such homes can be created.

1) $550,000, as built

2) Only if he or she has half a million dollars to spend. The house is a one-off custom-built house, one of the most expensive ways to construct a home. It was also overloaded with features more appropriate for a larger home, but absolutely necessary from a competition point of view. Team Darmstadt is rumored to have spend 1.2 million euros on thieir house, though about $400,000 went into transportation costs.

3) While the house is not LEED certified (one more thing to ask of an overloaded student crew), we used LEED as a guiding principle in our construction and materials selection. We arrived at many FSC certified materials, parts or components, or items that were deliberately selected due to their 500-mile proximity to College Park, as well as finishes that were soy based, zero voc, or both.

4) We’re proud that we fit every thing you would find in a normal home into an 800-square-foot footprint– including closets. Our goal was to produce a home that was both minimalist and livable, in the hopes of encouraging people to think twice before buying a McMansion.

1) What does it cost to build?

2) Can the build cost of this “green” home be afforded by anyone who lives a ecologically benign minimal footprint lifestyle?

3) If not, how green is it?

4) Isn’t this just another attempt to give capitalist consumerism a green tinge?