TerraSol: An Affordable Solar & Geothermal Powered Community in Salt Lake City

<a href="http://www.garbetthomes.com/terrasol.html" target="_blank">Garbett Homes</a> is a huge home building company based in Utah with a surprise up their sleeves -- they've just opened a new totally solar- and geothermal-powered housing community in Salt Lake City, Utah. To top it off, <a href="http://www.garbetthomes.com/terrasol.html" target="_blank">TerraSol homes</a> are directed at first time home buyers who want to have an energy efficient home, but otherwise couldn't afford it. Starting at $217,900, all the homes come standard with photovoltaics, solar thermal and geothermal systems, in addition to a number of "super-green" energy saving features. Garbett Homes has two model homes open now that they are utilizing as learning centers to educate potential buyers on how the homes work.

Located in South Salt Lake, the TerraSol development will eventually include 60 high performance, super green homes all starting at the reasonable price of $217,900.

Buyers can choose 3 different floor plans with 10 different exterior styles.

The homes are all about 1500 sq feet with 2 or 3 bedrooms with the option to add on an unfinished basement.

The homes themselves were designed by California-based <a href="http://www.ktgy.com/residential/single_family.html">KTGY Architects</a>, who have also included a number of energy and water saving strategies.

Each home comes standard with energy efficient, green features that include: spray foam and blown-in insulation, HERS (Home Energy Rating System) scores under 40, low-e windows, CFL lighting, 100% Energy Star 3.0 certification, and bio-based resource efficient engineered wood.

Each home includes solar, solar-thermal and geothermal technologies as standard features and the qualify for the Federal and State Energy Tax Credit of $8,000, which effectively reduces the cost of the house down to $210,000.

Garbett's goal for these homes was to design and build environmentally friendly homes for the first time homebuyer.

This meant keeping keep costs as low as possible to build, but also keeping energy costs down over the life of the home.

Garbett is promising electricity bills as low as $5 and natural gas bills as low as $7 per month.

“Many young buyers want to go green, but they just can’t afford it”, states Rene Oehlerking, Garbett Homes Marketing Director, “So we made green affordable."

“At Garbett Homes, we’re committed to building the greenest and most sustainable homes possible,” said <a href="http://www.garbetthomes.com/about.html">Bryson Garbett</a>, president and CEO of Garbett Homes. “We’re also educating potential homebuyers on what it means to buy an energy efficient and sustainable home, and ways they can take advantage of its construction for years to come.”

Two model homes are open Monday through Saturday from 11:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. Inside, you can tour the homes, see their floor plans and features as well as get an inside look at all the green features.

Three different model floor plans.