Check out the completed VISION House Transcend

00:00:03:03 - 00:00:40:18
Sara Gutterman: Hi, I'm Sarah Gutterman, CEO, Green Builder Media, and welcome to my house. This is Transcend and Net zero. All electric, healthy, smart solar plus storage powered Brazilian prefab homes. It's part of Green Builder Media's Vision House series. From comfort to sustainability, let's check out what makes this house so unique and special. Come on. So as I mentioned, transcend is sustainable, comfortable, healthy, smart, solar and storage powered and prefab.

00:00:40:20 - 00:01:13:07
Sara Gutterman: It's really unique home because not only does it blend all of these elements, but it's beautiful and it's elegant and it shows that sustainability doesn't necessarily at all mean sacrifice or reducing quality of life or comfort in fact, rather the opposite. So let me tell you a little bit about the Transcend Home and what makes it unique. I want to actually first start with what's under my feet, which is a unique foundational system.

00:01:13:10 - 00:01:47:07
Sara Gutterman: Most foundations and footers and stem walls are made with concrete, and we all know that with a few exceptions like opt a glass and carbon cure, a lot of concrete options are very carbon intensive. They reduce a lot of emissions, they use a lot of energy. So we actually decided to use a recycled structural steel foundational system that is proprietary and unique and very innovative that the prefab manufacturer developed, engineered for this home and for their prefab home.

00:01:47:07 - 00:02:16:18
Sara Gutterman: So we're really excited about the reduction in carbon emissions that we were able to achieve with that foundational system, to ensure that we have moisture and mold mitigation and to optimize energy efficiency. We've used Rockwool insulation, both in the foundational system as well as in the walls and the ceilings of the house. We've used a Soco air and water barrier around the house.

00:02:16:19 - 00:02:48:01
Sara Gutterman: We've also used recycled structural steel for the wall system, and that was really to enhance resiliency. We are in the most remote county in the lower 48 with 96% public lands. And our number one climate issue that we grapple with here is wildfire. So we've had to take into account wildfire risk mitigation. So we've done that with the structural steel wall system, as well as other systems and products that we've used in the house.

00:02:48:03 - 00:03:10:23
Sara Gutterman: Let's take a look at some of the other areas of the house now. One of the things I love best about this transcend home is the openness and the spaciousness. You can see that we're flooded with natural light here, which is really important because we have this gorgeous view. We wanted to take advantage of as much of the river and the mountain view as we possibly could.

00:03:10:23 - 00:03:49:24
Sara Gutterman: So we utilized windows and doors from our Espacio. They are European tilt and turnstile windows and just really substantial, incredibly high performance, passive house certified. We added a clear story to enhance and optimize that natural light, which, as you can see, really bounces off and reflects off of the light surfaces to create an open and airy space. I love this design element that we've created here with this scissor stone countertop that starts with this work area, and then it drops down into the dining table.

00:03:49:27 - 00:04:15:21
Sara Gutterman: Here we have a growing faucet, and underneath what you actually don't see is something called Grohe Blue, which makes the water that comes out of the faucet not just low flow, but we can actually access still or bubbly water. So that's a really nice feature. So we don't have to buy bubbly water in bottles or in cans and still have that, added benefit, with our water that we get out of our faucet.

00:04:15:23 - 00:04:38:18
Sara Gutterman: We also have beautiful decor appliances. So I love this induction cooktop. I mentioned earlier that we're all electric here. So this induction cooktop I've actually never had one before. And so now I have one. I will tell you I can boil water in a just split second. It's amazing. I love it. And it took me maybe 1 or 2 tries to get used to it.

00:04:38:18 - 00:05:13:15
Sara Gutterman: And you do have to use special cookware, but we have these beautiful BPA free green pans. They're literally green and figuratively green. They're wonderful and they're just fantastic for this induction cooktop. From decor, we also have just an incredibly quiet dishwasher, a combi oven, on the wall over here that does all kinds of things. Not just, convection and regular baking, but steam baking and, it's a Mikey can turn into a microwave as well.

00:05:13:15 - 00:05:45:11
Sara Gutterman: So all kinds of different functionality. And a beautiful refrigerator from decor as well. I also love our chairs and our couches from Lee furniture. Lee Furniture uses up to 70% recycled inputs in their fabrics, and they're organic and natural. The company has a wonderful sustainability story, and they're just beautiful and durable as well. So you'll see Lee furniture throughout the house to to compliment the beautiful Lee furniture.

00:05:45:13 - 00:06:12:29
Sara Gutterman: We have very sustainable flooring from Kraft. It's called Savona. It's all sourced from North American forests and is certified and has a wonderful sustainability story. The light color also reflects the natural light, just to keep the house really airy and bright. I also love our wood burning fireplace. And yes, I said wood burning. Now we are all electric in here, as I've mentioned.

00:06:13:02 - 00:06:37:22
Sara Gutterman: And this is a Scandinavian fireplace that is so efficient that it burns wood and heats up so quickly and so readily that, you really reduce the amount of wood that you're actually burning in there, and then it burns very cleanly as well. So you don't really have any air quality interior or exterior combustion or air quality issues.

00:06:37:24 - 00:07:02:19
Sara Gutterman: An added bonus feature of the Transcend Home Sonos behind the wall speakers. When people think about Sonos, they think about their wonderful, very sustainably made speakers that sit out on a table and in table a nightstand. But they also have behind the wall system. So in transcend, we have both actually. So behind the wall systems where you can't see them, but you can definitely hear them.

00:07:02:21 - 00:07:27:07
Sara Gutterman: And then of course, also, some of their other, portable speakers like the move, which you can have it plugged in and charged and then pick it up and take it outside or take it around the house with you and, just have a complete surround sound all controlled by their app so you can set music or the TV up to run through the entire house or room by room.

00:07:27:09 - 00:07:51:18
Sara Gutterman: I mentioned the arc espacio windows and doors, and I just want to show you how substantial these are. They're just wonderful doors. They're, they're heavy in a good way. And then, as you can see, you have this wonderful seamless transition from the interior to the out to area, augmenting our connection with the beautiful natural environment that this house sits in.

00:07:51:20 - 00:08:17:10
Sara Gutterman: So I mentioned the decor appliances in the kitchen. Decor is a brand that's owned by Samsung. And we also have Samsung. What are the washer and dryer here? This dryer is a heat pump dryer so it's super efficient. It's a condensing dryer meaning it pulls moisture out of the clothes that are in the dryer in a different way than a standard dryer operates, so it doesn't actually heat the space.

00:08:17:10 - 00:08:46:22
Sara Gutterman: Again, it removes the water. And so you actually have, a little holder here for the water that's removed that you have to empty after every cycle. Ish. But it's a wonderful washer dryer combination. Very efficient. And, just works so nicely. Just wanted to point out some more Lee furniture. I love this bed. It's just got this beautiful headboard that is both elegant and very sustainable.

00:08:46:25 - 00:09:11:23
Sara Gutterman: Comes from recycled materials. We've carefully curated the cookie sheets. They're all made from organic cotton and, again, recycled materials. We've got sleep number beds and then, super efficient, lighting and lamps and fixtures from lamps. Plus, I want to take you into the primary bathroom to check it out. But before we go there, I want to show you these true style doors.

00:09:11:23 - 00:09:42:19
Sara Gutterman: I love these these are called kerf cuts. And they're a design element that Truesdale can make that are custom for different projects. So they did these custom doors for our Transcend Home. As you can see there are some light bands, in this door, which is a beautiful design element. And these doors are incredibly substantial. They've also got, wood certifications, and they're made with about 70% recycled content.

00:09:42:22 - 00:10:10:01
Sara Gutterman: Let's go on in here to the primary bathroom. So this is the primary bathroom. And as you can see, it's incredibly spacious. It's light and airy, just like in the main living room and the kitchen area. We have Grohe facets, American Standard sinks and then a Z wall hung toilet. Needless to say, all of the faucets and showerheads and toilets and fixtures are low flow.

00:10:10:03 - 00:10:45:12
Sara Gutterman: To conserve water here, which is a precious resource really anywhere but particularly here. High up in the Colorado Rockies, the Caesar stone surfaces are strong. They are scratch and stain resistant, and they're also antimicrobial and non-porous. The Dell tile surfaces has a technology called micro fan, which inhibits the growth of mold and bacteria. It also has a technology called stepwise, which makes it slip resistant, which as you can imagine, is wonderful to have in the bathroom.

00:10:45:14 - 00:11:18:06
Sara Gutterman: I also love this growing bathtub. It's just so luxurious and it speaks for itself. It's a freestanding tub and it's just wonderful. Yet one more incredibly special feature of the Transcend Home is that we are using up and our radiant heating and cooling ceiling panels. Now, a lot of people are familiar with Lupino's radiant floor systems, but, these ceiling panels are the this is the first application here in North America.

00:11:18:06 - 00:11:45:26
Sara Gutterman: The ceiling panels are prevalent in Europe and Australia. But up on our worked with us to bring these radiant heating and cooling ceiling panels installed. Yes, in the ceiling to the US in this project. We're so excited about it because not only are they incredibly efficient and quiet, but, they provide both the heating and the cooling through a small pipe system, in the ceiling.

00:11:45:26 - 00:12:12:02
Sara Gutterman: And then, of course, we have their thermostats all around the house so we can do zone controlling. We also have a super aqua safe system in here. So we have fire protection. Again, wildfire risk mitigation incredibly important as well as fire suppression inside of the home. So we are in the mechanical room of transcend. And this is jam packed with really cool technology and systems.

00:12:12:05 - 00:12:54:04
Sara Gutterman: We can start with the Rheem Pro Tara water heater, super efficient, water heater for an all electric home. Next we have a brown hall home indoor air quality system with an ERV. So the ERV ensures that there's fresh air exchange in the home and the whole home air quality system called overture, is a proactive system so that if it senses VOCs, CO2, moisture, or toxins or pollutants in the air, it will actually turn itself on, to filter and purify the air, to work with the ERV, to exchange the air.

00:12:54:06 - 00:13:22:26
Sara Gutterman: And then of course, there are, vent fans and a range hood in the kitchen, so that you can have manual, control of the system as well. We also have a Genco Solar Inverter and Battery storage system, which pairs with the Eagle PV panels, also by Genco Solar. To make sure that this house not only harvests solar but stores it as well.

00:13:22:26 - 00:13:54:29
Sara Gutterman: And at this point, we're actually getting credits from our utility, which is a local co-op called GCA, which is part of a larger energy provider along the Mountain West called Tri state. And we've partnered with GCA and Tri State and Genco, and then also Schneider Electric, which has provided the smart panels to do demand side energy management so that we can do things like preheat or cool or spaces in this home to optimize our energy use to reduce costs.

00:13:55:01 - 00:14:22:19
Sara Gutterman: But then also to effectively become a virtual power plant, supplying energy to the grid when we have extra capacity and we're actually generating credits, which is wonderful because that offsets, any energy bills that we do produce or create, when we use energy from the grid. So the house is grid tied. However, it is net zero in that we produce all of the energy.

00:14:22:19 - 00:14:50:06
Sara Gutterman: And again, in fact, in this case, more energy, than we actually use here. Check out our solar array. We decided to do a ground mount because the house itself has some shading from these beautiful ponderosa trees that we did not want to cut down or impact. We really wanted to keep the trees. So we did the ground mount, which we love because as you can see, it just has amazing southern and western exposure.

00:14:50:06 - 00:15:16:11
Sara Gutterman: So we can optimize the amount of solar energy that we are harvesting through this array. So this is the Arctic heat pump now heat pumps. The old technology didn't really work well in cold climates, and we're at about 9000ft in the Colorado Rockies. So as you can imagine, we get pretty cold winters here. But this is a cold weather heat pump optimized for our climate zone.

00:15:16:13 - 00:15:46:03
Sara Gutterman: A heat pump is simply a means of transferring energy from one source to another. It's the same principle used in a geothermal heat system, which pulls warmer energy out of the ground and delivers it into a house through a series of heat exchange processes. On the exterior, we have Luna Wood, which is a treated wood product that actually is very resilient even though it's wood, but because of the way that it's treated, it really helps to enhance our resiliency story.

00:15:46:05 - 00:16:06:16
Sara Gutterman: And of course, it's super beautiful. We really wanted something that would feel natural in this beautiful setting of the Ponderosa forest. And so as you can see, not only does it look good and fit in, but again, it has that fire rating so that we can help mitigate that fire risk.

00:16:06:18 - 00:16:25:23
Sara Gutterman: Thanks so much for visiting the vision House. Transcend with me. As you can see, we've been able to blend sustainability with beauty and elegance, performance, health and resiliency. And if you'd like some more information, please visit Green Builder media.com.