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BrokerIPTV: Today we are talking with John Keith, President of Harvard Communities. John, welcome to the show, thanks for being with us.

John Keith: You are welcome.

BrokerIPTV: I appreciate that. Now, I love what you guys are doing. You are building homes and one of them is called the near zero energy home, tells us what that is about?

John Keith: Well, I think to define a near zero energy home, you have to start with what a zero energy home is. There is lot of different definitions out there, but basically a zero energy home is a home that uses no energy from utility companies, you would have zero energy bills every month from the utility company. So, a zero energy home is basically a home that uses just a little bit more than that, so a very low utility bill every month.

BrokerIPTV: Now, what are some of the unique features we are talking about here that save energy? <more>

John Keith: Well its a matter of system. So, there is no one single magic or super sexy kind of thing. It is how we build the house, its the shell of the house, its an envelope. The type of insulation we use, the type of windows we use, how the house is sealed, basically you want the house sealed ultra-tight. You dont want the outside air in and you do not want the inside air going out. Then you work on the mechanical systems, the furnace and the air conditioner. You want to have those so they dont have to operate very often, because whey they operate they cost money, when they are not operating, it is not costing money. You will reduce the electrical demand, one of the biggest energy uses in a house. The amount of electricity you use for lights, computers, that type of things, you want to limit that and then lastly most importantly, you want to use renewable energy to supply the electricity and the house water typically.

BrokerIPTV: Like solar?

John Keith: Yeah, these houses have solar electricity called photo-voltaic or PV and they also have solar hot water systems to provide up to 100% of hot water for the house.

BrokerIPTV: Amazing. Cost of your homes that you are building?

John Keith: Well, the cost of the home does vary. To go from typical home that we build Harvard Communities builds to a zero to near zero energy homes, somewhere in the $400,000 to $500,000 range, but thats pretty variable and again that depends on where you start from. If you are starting from a not very efficient home, it would cost a lot to get to that performance level or architect collection and other Harvard Communities homes are already ultra efficient. So, to get to that level, its that the incremental $40,000 or $50,000.

BrokerIPTV: Right, now you are primarily building where?

John Keith: Lowery and Stapleton in Belmar although our zero energy homes are just in Stapleton.

BrokerIPTV: Alright, so I wanted to buy a Stapleton zero energy home, what would the list price of that home be?

John Keith: Well, we have different homes that we do zero energy versions of, but we have just sold a couple that were in the $700-750,000 range.

BrokerIPTV: And size and speck of the home?

John Keith: Those home are typically about 2800 square feet 3 or 4 bedrooms, a full basement and those homes are the annual utility bills are projected to be about $500 to $700 and again thats annual.

BrokerIPTV: A year?

John Keith: A year, yes.

Interviewee: Thats amazing.

John Keith: It is and thats huge savings every month. And thats say if you look at the savings that you have every month and compare that your additional mortgage cost. If you are spending $40,000 or 50,000 more on the house and you finance that, your yearly savings roughly equals the additional amount of mortgage cost, so in that sense no cost to it.

BrokerIPTV: John good, I love it, I appreciate it.

John Keith: Thank you very much.

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