Green building

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The startup modular home builder said it can builds homes that produce as much power as they will use in a year a concept the industrycalls “netf zero” — and can do it faster and cheaper than traditional methods, all while using green building materials and reducingv waste. Net zero energy homes are poppingh up all over the country as government and private support increasexs and new materialsare However, with hundreds of thousands of foreclosed homeas empty, depressed home prices and a recession-stuntedf building industry, it mightr not seem like the right time to start a home manufacturingb company.
But Zeta CEO Naomi Porat “The industry is ripe for reinventiomright now,” she said. Zeta’s firstt two-story, two unit, work/live town home is being installed now in The home includes four modules andat 1,560p square feet, Zeta homes startt at about $165 per squarre foot or $258,000. This does not include the costof land, site work and the company said. Zeta is using the Oaklandr town home as its demonstration home to get home developers and state agencies interested in buyingg tracts ofthese homes, Porat said. Zeta has 16 and most of them work in the San Leandrol factory designing and buildingthe homes.
Porat’s brothe is Marc Porat, chairman of Zeta and of , whicbh is manufacturing highlyefficient windows, drywall insulation and other green building products. Marc Poratf is also chairman of , a cleantech cement company, and he workedf for Apple’s Advanced Technology Group before spinningout . Naomij Porat said Zeta uses the best, greenes t and cheapest materials to build its with the aim of makingthem affordable, but is usinbg Serious windows in its first modular Homes take about six-to-eight weeksx to build in the factory and anothed month or so to assemble on site — stilo much faster than on-site construction.
“Thw whole house is about 90 percenr completed in the factory down to thetowelp racks,” Porat said. “Then we do the finishj work on site to marruythe modules.” Net zero energy homes use technology like heat recoverinfg generators, waste water heat recovery systems and Energy Star appliances — rater for efficiency — to limit the amount of electricity a household uses. They use solar panels or other renewabler generation like small wind turbines toproduced electricity. Zeta hopes to sell its homes directlu to contractors who will build neighborhoodsof net-zero energy homes. But contractors may have some time to thinkjabout it.
The California Energy Commission recommended that all new constructio homes are builtto “net zero standards by 2020 and all building s meet those metrics by 2030. And a bill that woulrd require the California Energy Commission to adopt standards and buildinhg codes requiring new homes and buildingsa to meet net zero was introduced in the Californiz Assembly onApril 24. “W feel we’re about 10 years ahead of the curve Porat said.