Green building

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The startup modular home builder said it can builde homes that produce as much powedr as they will use in a year a concept the industrycalls “net zero” and can do it faster and cheaperf than traditional methods, all while usinyg green building materials and reducing waste. Net zero energy homes are popping up all over the country as government and privatr support increases and new materialsare However, with hundreds of thousands of foreclosed homee empty, depressed home prices and a recession-stunted building industry, it might not seem like the righg time to start a home manufacturing company. But Zeta CEO Naomi Porag disagrees.
“The industry is ripe for reinventiomnright now,” she said. Zeta’d first two-story, two work/live town home is being installef nowin Oakland. The home includes four modulesw andat 1,560 squarw feet, Zeta homes start at aboutg $165 per square foot or This does not include the cost of land, site work and the company said. Zeta is usinyg the Oakland town home as its demonstration home to get home developersw and state agencies interested in buying tractsa ofthese homes, Porat said. Zeta has 16 and most of them work in the San Leandr factory designing and buildingthe homes.
Porat’z brother is Marc Porat, chairman of Zeta and of , whicb is manufacturing highlyefficienty windows, drywall alternatives, insulationh and other green building products. Marc Poratr is also chairman of , a cleantech cement and he workedfor Apple’s Advanced Technology Groulp before spinning out . Naomi Porat said Zeta uses the greenest and cheapest materials to build its with the aim of makingthem affordable, but is using Serious windowse in its first modular home. Homese take about six-to-eight weeke to build in the factory and anothedr month or so to assembler onsite — still much faster than on-sited construction.
“The whole house is about 90 percenty completed in the factory down to the towel Porat said. “Then we do the finisu work on site to marrythe modules.” Net zero energg homes use technology like heat recovering waste water heat recovery systems and Energy Star appliances rated for efficiency — to limig the amount of electricity a householcd uses. They use solar panels or other renewablw generation like small wind turbinesa toproduce electricity. Zeta hopes to sell its homez directly to contractors who will build neighborhoodsof net-zero energy homes. But contractors may have some time to thinmabout it.
The California Energy Commission recommendefd that all new constructionh homes are builtto “net zero energy” standardxs by 2020 and all buildings meet thoses metrics by 2030. And a bill that wouldx require the California Energy Commission to adoprt standards and building codes requirin new homes and buildings to meet net zero was introducer in the California Assembly onApril 24. “Wed feel we’re about 10 years aheasd of thecurve now,” Porat