 ome see a photo journal of the construction of our current Sunlight Homes home/office built in Albuquerque, New Mexico in 2003. We used the opportunity to experiment with some new design and construction ideas as well as some new green products that have intrigued us.
FEATURES OF THE "SUPER GREEN" HOME/OFFICE
 One of the goals for our new home/office was to ramp up the energy saving and green features to an even higher level than most of the homes we do for our customers. (Click on photo for larger view.) We have designed passive/active solar homes in the past that were off the conventional power grid with photovoltaic panels collecting the sun's energy and converting it into electricity. The batteries necessary to store the power for nighttime or cloudy days are still a bit cumbersome. Since our state of New Mexico has instituted a Net Metering Program, we decided to try a hybrid system where we generate electricity with photovoltaics but instead of using batteries to store power, we are tied into the local power grid. During the day when we are producing more electricity than we need, we sell the extra back to our power company. At night we buy it from them.
 This home is passive solar designed with distributed thermal mass in the form of an inch of concrete (instead of drywall) on all of the walls which is then covered with a beautiful, natural clay plaster. We are also using rain water catchment, low flow toilets, energy saving appliances and lighting, super insulation, an active solar hot water heater, and...most importantly, a total size of less than 1500sf since the greatest impact on energy savings, both initially and over the life of the home, occurs when you build a smaller home.
This Construction Journal can be found on our Little Sunlight Homes web site at LittleSunlightHomes.com. Read about the philosophy and priorities for this project, then visit the PROJECTS section to see the Construction Journal which will take you through the project from start to finish.
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Continue to the Building Q + A section. 
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