Renovated East Liberty house will produce its own electricity
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Chris Rhodes of West Penn Energy Solutions renovates an old house in East Liberty on Friday. -
From left, Luke McChesney, owner of McChesney Painting & Restoration; Michael Merck, president of West Penn Energy Solutions, and Nathan Cunningham, director of Real Estate Development of East Liberty, renovate old houses in East Liberty.
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Whoever buys 710 N. St. Clair St. in East Liberty will shell out as much as $275,000 but will not pay for electricity. Ever.
That's the point of a net-zero house, which is designed to generate all the electrical energy it needs. This will be the first net-zero rehab in the city.
Michael Merck is about two months from completing it. He is renovating the property for East Liberty Development Inc., which will sell it with a second mortgage of up to $35,000 from the Urban Development Authority.
This is a model for saving older homes and giving them cachet regardless of the neighborhood. But ELDI's portfolio of 155 homes has been moving into private hands more briskly of late, said Nate Cunningham, director of real estate development for ELDI. "The primary reason is that East Liberty is looking better.
"For all our new homes we have a long-standing commitment to energy efficiency," he said. "Now we are working with small developers to rehab older homes."
The three-story Colonial Revival that Mr. Merck undertook almost a year ago "was almost as bad as you can imagine," a complete gut job of a 100-year-old house that had been carved into several apartments and vacant for several years.
Representatives of ELDI and the URA say they hope to do more net-zero projects.
"We'll see how this one goes," said Jessica Smith Perry, the URA's assistant director of housing. "We'd love to work with him or others in other parts of the city."
ELDI has just signed on with Luke McChesney, an indoor air quality specialist, to rehab 731 N. St. Clair St. Mr. McChesney is crossing the street to work with Mr. Merck as well.
"We definitely think it could be a great model," said Tom Cummings, director of housing for the URA. Because the appraisal will come in under the cost of the house, the URA's money, which comes from the Housing Recovery Program, will "cover the appraisal gap," he said. "Our loan will be repaid based on energy savings. We'll capture a percentage until the loan is repaid. After that, those savings are [the home owner's.]"
The solar panels will also heat water. Sheets of rigid insulation backed by cellulose will make heating the home for a whole year what some people pay in a month of winter -- $215 a year.
First Published February 14, 2011 12:00 am
