New Jersey's Net-Zero Affordable Housing Project

In Eatontown, N.J., the owners of the Pine Tree Manufactured Home Park, along with the Affordable Housing Alliance (AHA) launched a net-zero home project to reduce overall homeownership costs for residents.

Nonprofit Next Step brought together builder Champion Homes with the AHA for the project. Once the homes were built, ductless heating and air conditioning solutions from Panasonic were installed to bring down utility costs. "The ductless unit was installed at the factory, so the refrigerant lines were fully charged, and was shipped to site ready for use," Victor Flynn, product manager for Panasonic heating and cooling solutions, tells ProudGreenHome.com. Testing on the homes will continue until mid-2018.

The trailer park already had older manufactured homes already on it, but they were out of date and inefficient. The Alliance knew that utility costs were a large part of what made older manufactured homes expensive for residents. Depending on the season, residents were paying $400 to $500 per month in utilities and oil and propane costs were on the rise. A lack of insulation meant the homes were wasting vast amounts of energy to maintain a comfortable temperature. Because of this, the new models needed to be well insulated and have energy- efficient and cost-effective utilities.

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