CSRwire - LEXINGTON, Mass., June 10 /PRNewswire/ -- Over the course of the last year, Massachusetts’ investor-owned electric utility companies "“ National Grid, NSTAR, Unitil and Western Mass Electric Company -- successfully implemented a unique energy efficiency pilot program called the Zero Energy Challenge. Five home builders competed to construct super energy-efficient single-family homes and will be awarded prizes based on their results totaling $50,000. The awards event will be held June 29, 2009 at 1:00 p.m. at the Massachusetts State House with guest speaker Energy and Environmental Affairs Secretary Ian Bowles.

The purpose of this initiative, in alliance with Governor Patrick’s Net-Zero Energy Goal and the Massachusetts Green Communities Act, was to promote the use of advanced energy efficiency technologies and engage Massachusetts homebuilders in utilizing advanced building techniques. Each competitor in the Zero Energy Challenge was challenged to use best practice HVAC installations, demonstrate the use of advanced and replicable building techniques and integrate the use of renewable energy systems into their projects to make them as energy-efficient as possible. The homes used energy efficiency and renewable energy technologies such as double-stud wall and super-insulation, passive solar design, thermal air panel, heat-recovery ventilation, mini-split heat pump technology, super efficient windows, photovoltaic electricity panels and other state-of-the-art green building methods and technologies to achieve their goals.

"These homes will serve as 'laboratories' to help identify innovative and cost-effective building technologies and practices that can be used by all building professionals interested in constructing homes that have close to zero energy use," states David Ruggiero, Zero Energy Challenge Manager.

The winners were selected based on their project scores on the nationally recognized ENERGY STAR/HERS rating scale. The Home Energy Rating System (HERS) index runs from 100 to 0. Typically homes built to the prevailing code standard would score 100, homes built to the ENERGY STAR standard would score 85 and a zero energy home would score 0.

The homes, located in the following communities, are a mix of income eligible, affordable, and market rate projects:

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