A LOOK AT “ZERO ENERGY” HOME PLANS, from Matt Edens. Excerpt:

Starting in 2002, ORNL’s Building Technology Center teamed up with Habitat for Humanity to build four demonstration homes outside Lenoir City. Built for less than $100,000 each, those homes’ daily energy costs averaged out to a mere 82 cents a day compared to the $4-$5 of an average Lenoir City home. They weren’t entirely “off the grid,” but at times, their meters more or less ran backwards. Credit for excess electricity contributed back to the power grid trimmed an average of almost $300 off each home’s annual utility bill.

Read the whole thing.