Page 20 - Green Builder Magazine Jul-Aug 2021

Dvele It’s now solar power all the way for homes

by this Southern California builder.

S 20% 84%
T

A of U.S. total per square foot
T
Amount of carbon emissions in the Drop in Dvele home’s energy usage
S
atmosphere generated by older homes vs. average U.S. home

HAT DOES A RESIDENTIAL homebuilder do when Kurt Goodjohn. “Fixing the bucket, in this case, will
there’s a climate crisis underway, and studies show take at least 10 years with concerted effort and cost
that homes are responsible for 20 percent of the billions of dollars that our bankrupt utility companies don’t
W nation’s carbon emissions? have. And when you layer on the financial liability and
If you’re La Jolla, California-based modular homemaker distraction of having to manage seasonal wildfire dangers
Dvele, you build homes that are carbon free. Last year, the resulting from climate change, it’s questionable if it can
company announced that all of its future models will be com- ever be done.”
pletely self-powered via individual solar arrays and backup Meanwhile, an improved thermal envelope in Dvele
battery systems. homes cuts household energy use by about 84 per-
Dvele’s all-solar setup eliminates the impact of power cent per square foot compared to the typical American
outages—a huge problem in California due to the massive home, according to the company. Traditional site-built
heatwaves of the current and recent summers. There’s also homes are notorious for being leaky with respect to air
a conservation factor: Only one-third of the energy from control, almost the equivalent of driving a car with the win-
California’s electric grid actually makes it into buildings. dows down. But a Dvele home is “the equivalent of driving
The rest, the company notes, is lost in transit. with the windows up,” the company notes. “We design
“That’s a really, really leaky bucket,” notes Dvele CEO our homes like you would a spaceship, and utilize the

Tight makes right. Dvele homes are 84 percent more efficient in
E-power is out. Going all-solar and being backup battery enabled will keep a home energy savings than the typical new development, thanks to air
from over dependence on the grid. COURTESY OF DVELE sealed windows. COURTESY OF DVELE
18 GREEN BUILDER July/August 2021 www.greenbuildermedia.com