| Company type | Private |
|---|---|
| Industry | Home production |
| Founded | 1955  |
| Founder | Clyde Kinser |
| Headquarters | , |
| Website | Official website |
Deltec Homes is an American home construction company located in Asheville, North Carolina. [1] [2] The company builds round-shaped houses [3] and appeared in an episode of the reality TV show Extreme Makeover: Home Edition in 2008. [4] [5]
 | This section may rely excessively on sources too closely associated with the subject , potentially preventing the article from being verifiable and neutral.(January 2021) |
Deltec Homes was founded by Clyde Kinser in 1955 as Kinser Home Insulation of Asheville. [6] Kinser sold insulation door to door, listening to his customers' needs, and then sending a crew out the next day to install the insulation. He soon realized his customers wanted to conserve energy in many ways, so he broadened the company’s energy efficient products to aluminum doors and windows, and later vinyl products, and changed the name of the company to Kinco Corporation.
Kinser and his sons purchased designs from another Asheville company called Rondesics who made a round structure, then made substantial improvements to create the compression ring and tension collar roof system. [7] This company, called Delta Technologies, served one customer initially but as the popularity of these resort homes increased, other resort companies purchased Deltec homes and the commercial building applications grew.
In the mid-1980s the business shifted from commercial applications to residential homes and became Deltec Homes. As of 2014, more than 85% of the company's homes are primary family residences. Deltec Homes operated as a subsidiary of Kinco until Kinco was sold in 1994. At that time Deltec was spun out as a separate company.
Deltec Homes is a privately held company. Robert Kinser was chairman of the board, but died on December 13, 2017. In 2014, the company built its 5000th home. [8]
 | This section reads like a press release or a news article and may be largely based on routine coverage .(January 2021) |
Deltec Homes produces resilient, high performance homes. [9] They include both the 360 degree collection of round homes and the Renew collection, including the Ridgeline and Solar Farmhouse models. They are best known for their round-shaped homes [10] [11] [12] that are more hurricane resistant than a traditionally-shaped house while being more energy efficient naturally. [13] [14] [15] After working with Appalachian State University's Solar Decathlon award winners, [16] the company broadened their homes lines, introducing the Renew collection of homes. The solar farmhouse has since been introduced, specifically designed to be net-zero energy efficient. [17] The Deltec factory is completely powered by renewable energy. [18]
2019 Department of Energy Zero Energy Ready Housing Innovation Award Winner [19]
2021 Department of Energy Zero Energy Ready Housing Innovation Award Grand Winner [20]
2023 Department of Energy Zero Energy Ready Housing Innovation Award Winner [21]
In passive solar building design, windows, walls, and floors are made to collect, store, reflect, and distribute solar energy, in the form of heat in the winter and reject solar heat in the summer. This is called passive solar design because, unlike active solar heating systems, it does not involve the use of mechanical and electrical devices.
A low-energy house is characterized by an energy-efficient design and technical features which enable it to provide high living standards and comfort with low energy consumption and carbon emissions. Traditional heating and active cooling systems are absent, or their use is secondary. Low-energy buildings may be viewed as examples of sustainable architecture. Low-energy houses often have active and passive solar building design and components, which reduce the house's energy consumption and minimally impact the resident's lifestyle. Throughout the world, companies and non-profit organizations provide guidelines and issue certifications to guarantee the energy performance of buildings and their processes and materials. Certifications include passive house, BBC—Bâtiment Basse Consommation—Effinergie (France), zero-carbon house (UK), and Minergie (Switzerland).
An energy-plus building produces more energy from renewable energy sources, over the course of a year, than it imports from external sources. This is achieved using a combination of microgeneration technology and low-energy building techniques, such as: passive solar building design, insulation and careful site selection and placement. A reduction of modern conveniences can also contribute to energy savings, however many energy-plus houses are almost indistinguishable from a traditional home, preferring instead to use highly energy-efficient appliances, fixtures, etc., throughout the house.
The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Solar Decathlon is a collegiate competition, comprising 10 contests, that challenges student teams to design and build highly efficient and innovative buildings powered by renewable energy. The winners are selected based for the best blending of design architectural and engineering excellence with innovation, market potential, building efficiency, and smart energy production. In the summer of 2018, DOE merged its two student building design competitions into one Solar Decathlon competition.
A Zero-Energy Building (ZEB), also known as a Net Zero-Energy (NZE) building, is a building with net zero energy consumption, meaning the total amount of energy used by the building on an annual basis is equal to the amount of renewable energy created on the site or in other definitions by renewable energy sources offsite, using technology such as heat pumps, high efficiency windows and insulation, and solar panels.
Renewable heat is an application of renewable energy referring to the generation of heat from renewable sources; for example, feeding radiators with water warmed by focused solar radiation rather than by a fossil fuel boiler. Renewable heat technologies include renewable biofuels, solar heating, geothermal heating, heat pumps and heat exchangers. Insulation is almost always an important factor in how renewable heating is implemented.
Domestic housing in the United Kingdom presents a possible opportunity for achieving the 20% overall cut in UK greenhouse gas emissions targeted by the Government for 2010. However, the process of achieving that drop is proving problematic given the very wide range of age and condition of the UK housing stock.
The Code for Sustainable Homes was an environmental assessment method for rating and certifying the performance of new homes in United Kingdom. First introduced in 2006, it is a national standard for use in the design and construction of new homes with a view to encouraging continuous improvement in sustainable home building. In 2015 the Government in England withdrew it, consolidating some standards into Building Regulations.
The Edison Electric Institute (EEI) is an association that represents all U.S. investor-owned electric companies.
ARPA-E, or Advanced Research Projects Agency–Energy is a United States government agency tasked with promoting and funding research and development of advanced energy technologies. It is modeled after the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA).
Superior Walls of America, Ltd. is a company headquartered in New Holland, Pennsylvania, that specializes in the fabrication and installation of precast concrete foundation systems. It has installed more than 170,000 residential foundations through a North American distribution network since its founding in 1981.
The Solar Settlement at Schlierberg is a 59-home PlusEnergy housing community in Freiburg, Germany. Solar architect Rolf Disch wanted to apply his PlusEnergy concept, created originally with his Heliotrope home, to mass residential production. The residential complex won awards, including House of the Year (2002), Residential PV solar integration award (2002), and "Germany's most beautiful housing community" (2006). It is one of the first housing communities in the world in which all the homes produce a positive energy balance and which is emissions-free and CO2 neutral.
Both the public and private sectors in the United Kingdom promote green building. Presently, there are already regulatory mechanisms in place that establish Britain's commitment to this kind of building construction. The government, for instance, set out a target that by 2016, all new homes will have zero carbon emission and it also includes a progressive tightening of energy efficiency regulations by 25 percent and 44 percent in 2010 and 2013, respectively. The UK Building Regulations set requirements for insulation levels and other aspects of sustainability in building construction.
The Solar Decathlon Europe (SDE) is an international student-based Competition that challenges collegiate Teams to design, build and operate highly efficient and innovative buildings powered by renewable energy. The winner of the Competition is the Team able to score the most points in 10 contests.
Mark Group Limited is a UK based energy advice and installation company, who focus upon energy efficiency. Mark Group went into administration on 7 October 2015. They work with homeowners, businesses, housebuilders and the construction industry, local authorities and social housing providers. Mark Group operates out of 17 locations throughout England, Scotland and Wales. Its head office is based in Leicester, East Midlands, where approximately 500 of its staff operate.
Kingspan Group plc is a building materials company based in Ireland, trading in over 80 countries with more than 210 factories employing over 22,000 people. The company operates with six divisions; Insulated Panels, Insulation, Light & Air, Water & Energy, and, Data & Flooring, Roof & Waterproofing.
Zero-carbon housing is a term used to describe a house that does not emit greenhouse gasses, specifically carbon dioxide (CO2), into the atmosphere. Homes release greenhouse gases through burning fossil fuels in order to provide heat, or even while cooking on a gas stove. A zero carbon house can be achieved by either building or renovating a home to be very energy efficient and for its energy consumption to be from non-emitting sources, for example electricity.
The ESET Technical School of Engineering is the school of engineering of the CEU Cardinal Herrera University, located in Alfara del Patriarca (Valencia), Spain. Currently, the ESET School occupies a former industrial building converted character with 3000m2 for effect.
Based in the United States and founded in 2001, HelioPower develops proprietary projects with third-party offtakers and currently owns and operates more than 100 energy systems at facilities such as the Tech Museum of Innovation in San Jose and Ronald McDonald House in San Diego.
Illinois Solar Decathlon (ISD) is an interdisciplinary organization based in the Champaign-Urbana, IL and is the official Solar Decathlon team for the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. It is also closely affiliated with the Illinois School of Architecture.