Michigan Net Zero Homes
Net Zero Homes for Sale
Starting in 2023
PHIUS Zero Certified
Greenstar Certified
Low Embodied Carbon Design
Business Vision
Envision a transformation of the residential construction industry that parallels the transformation underway in transportation.
Your home's design is a key to living a net zero life.
Everything in the home is electrified; combustion is eliminated.
Home and transportation footprints are reduced to net zero.
Educational resources are provided to help you eliminate your entire carbon footprint including impacts of food and products we buy.
Values that guide design decisions include simplicity (lagom), durability, health (exceptional indoor environmental quality), respect for place, walkable neighborhood development, and concern for environmental justice .
The business has healthy partnerships with architects, builders, manufacturers and distributors, non-profits, utilities, and government entities. We work together to lead communities to net zero (or negative) carbon footprint. We address both operational and embodied carbon.
Personal Mission
Dale Hulst
Owner / Designer
I learn and create in order to help others live sustainably. I draw on 30 years of experience in commercial HVAC engineering and business leadership, as well as a few years of entrepreneurial experience in custom home building when I was younger.
More recently, I have been learning from the GreenHome Institute and the Build Show Network. Following early retirement from an HVAC plant manager role in 2021, I studied to become a PHIUS Certified Passive House Consultant (CPHC), then a GreenHome Associate, then a licensed Michigan Residential Builder. I am working out next steps, which have including buying an empty lot in the city where I'm gearing up to build a GreenStar certified, net zero, single family home for sale in late 2023 or early 2024.
I'm partnering with others on the design, striving for the perfect recipe for exceptional energy performance, comfort, health, water and materials use, and respect for place/location. The goal is a home that produces enough energy for the home and two EVs and can run for days in a grid-down event, all for a modestly increased price that pays backs back on a 30 year mortgage in energy / fuel savings.
Working with partners we will use Chief Architect CAD software to design homes and document critical Passive House details. I will use Google SketchUp and WUFI to do the energy modeling required for PHIUS Zero certification. I will model the rooftop PV solar array in SolarEdge Designer and partner with leading solar companies for the homes' final solar, battery, and EV charging design and installation.
My overarching goal is to show West Michigan how great net zero living can be! That will mean demonstrating the value to homeowners, and growing a network of visionary, seize-the-moment practitioners (architects, engineers, financiers, builders, developers, skilled trades, building inspectors and code officials) in order to rapidly transition the local construction industry to net zero, first in new construction, then in retrofitting capability. (By the way, Passive House is for commercial buildings of any size and purpose too.)
We have a HUGE opportunity to build a better world. This business is my attempt to provide a catalyzing model that helps others transition to net zero design, construction, and life!
Stay tuned for an new, much improved web site to be launched in 2Q2023, where, among other things, progress updates will be provided on the first house, MiNet0-1 (Eastern).
