Developing Stakeholder-Informed Guidelines for Net-Zero Energy Affordable Housing Development
Completed
Challenge
Constructing sustainable, carbon neutral, and affordable housing is one of the largest challenges Minnesotans face as we work to reduce carbon emissions and achieve statewide goals. While the transportation and power generation sectors have made remarkable progress, the building sector and housing in particular have demonstrated little to no improvement.
Impact Goal
Gather lessons from energy efficient housing residents and contractors that development teams can use to better design future developments and share that information with interested groups around the state. These lessons can be used to construct net zero housing more easily, effectively and cost efficiently, while improving their performance both in terms of energy efficiency and meeting the needs of their residents.
Funding
Partner Organization(s)
Project Lead
Center for Sustainable Building Research
Integrating Feedback in High-Performance Housing
Traditionally, the housing industry has focused on what’s been called a “cradle to keys” approach – Once occupants move in, there is no feedback on what does and doesn’t work for them. This is especially true for high performance housing, where new or unfamiliar features such as passive solar design, heat recovery ventilators, air source heat pumps, high efficiency heat pump clothes dryers and the importance of continuous air barriers may not be well understood or operated by residents.
Put simply, a low-carbon, energy-efficient home can be engineered to perform perfectly, but unanticipated resident activities or decisions can drive up energy usage in spite of the best design intentions.
The aim of this project was to bring the development process full circle by providing necessary feedback to the design and development team. To do this, they learned from the residents who are living in energy-efficient housing, as well as the contractors who built them.
Outcomes
- Conducted post occupancy evaluations to understand residents’ experiences, thoughts and feelings about living in energy-efficient structures
- Interviewed general contractors and subcontractors who worked on net zero energy projects for post construction evaluation
- Looked for patterns in data across 32 units across 13 different buildings in order to guide ventilation or HVAC system design strategies
Meet the Project Team
Project Lead
Additional Team Members
Project Status
Last Updated
Aug 05, 2026
Impact Location
Southeast Minnesota