In building their new homes, two Eastern Connecticut families got what they’d always wanted — new houses and lower energy bills.
John and Delaine Simonds, of Voluntown, and Cindy Moeckel and Larry Grasso, of Ashford, earned prizes in the 2011 Connecticut Zero Energy Challenge. The program awards homeowners and builders whose projects use “green” technology to produce as much energy as they use, and sometimes more, said Enoch Lenge, an associate program administrator for residential new construction at Connecticut Light & Power.
The Simondses took home the overall prize in the competition for their 2,800 square-foot Beach Pond Road home. The house, which was built in 2010, is heated and cooled with a geothermal system. The oil tank and furnace were replaced by a massive solar array that provides the power for heating, cooling, hot water and electric. Gone are the oil tank and furnace.
“We wave at the oil trucks when they drive by,” Delaine Simonds said with a laugh.
The 20-year lease for the panels costs $142 a month. The panels generate far more electricity than the family could ever use, so they haven’t gotten an electric bill in more than a year. Extra energy is sold back to CL&P.
“We went through the snow and the cold last winter, and we never saw an electric bill,” John Simonds said. “It’s so affordable it’s almost embarrassing.”
For the Simondses, the new house was always a dream. They worked with Colchester home builder Bruce “Bruno” Hayn on the project and set out their specifications: as green as possible, and as much American-made as possible. All the labor on the project was done by local companies.
“We always wanted to do this, but it always seems like a daunting task,” John Simonds said. “But to add renewable energy, it was actually pretty easy in hindsight.”
In Ashford, it was the same desire to save the planet that led Larry Grasso and Cindy Moeckel to build their home using renewable energy features.
“We’re both committed to environmental responsibility and this was something we felt like we needed to do,” Moeckel said.
Architect Richard Sherman, of Appropriate Designs in Chaplin, designed the house and served as construction manager while it was built. He entered the house in the Zero Energy Challenge, and it won the award for Lowest Home Energy Rating System, or HERS, rating.
“They set a big blower fan up at the door,” Moeckel said of the contest. “It basically measures leaks in the walls.”
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