How would you like a house that produced all its own energy for heating, cooling, electricity and hot water—and even has an energy meter so you can see if you’re producing more energy than you’re using?

Such homes may become available, and a model, called the BrightBuilt Barn, is being completed in Rockport, Maine. This is no Unabomber cabin; the BrightBuilt Barn has some high-tech amenities you won’t find on many of today’s greenest tech homes.

The single floor, 42-by-18-foot structure is the brainchild of owner Keith Collins, who plans to use it as an art studio for his wife, Mary, and as an office space for himself. “I’m concerned about global warming and wanted to build a structure that’s responsible and not have a negative effect on the environment,” Collins says.

Architect Phil Kaplan, of Kaplan Thompson Architects in Portland, Maine, designed a structure of super-insulated (R-40) 4-foot panels that was put together in just a couple of days. The walls are a foot thick and are insulated with 4 inches of rigid foam and blown-in cellulose insulation. Revision Energy of Maine added a 6.3-kilowatt Sunpower photovoltaic array of solar panels and two Thermomax solar thermal panels to the roof to produce electricity and hot water for heating. That’s augmented by a Trane air-to-air heat pump. With the super-insulation, solar thermal system and heat pump, there should be no need for a furnace—even during Maine’s frigid winter.

But the really cool stuff is in the electronics. Brian Lazarus of Open One Studio has designed an energy meter to go on the front facade of the structure, so Collins can see at a glance if the barn is producing more energy than it’s using. The meter consists of three tubes lit by LEDs to convey whether the barn is collecting more that it’s using, the equivalent in acres of trees planted if it’s using more, and the cumulative energy net. In addition, a skirt of LED lights around the structure will glow green when it’s producing more energy than it’s using.

A computer in the barn will gather the data from the photovoltaic cells and off of the electrical panel, and show that data on the BrightBuilt Barn web site.

That’s not all. Almost all the electrical wiring in the barn is behind the baseboard, allowing for “disentanglement” from other building systems to enable a more modular expansion of both wiring and the structure. In other words, stuff can be ripped out and changed without the mess of existing wiring inside the walls. To accommodate this, Lazarus designed footswitches in the baseboard for the lights.

The project has been such a success, that Kaplan’s firm is talking with builder Bensonwood Homes about commercializing the modular design for building homes. “We’ve already had a fair amount of interest. We’re working out final issues with Bensonwood to put this in place,” Kaplan says.

Steven Castle - Contributing Writer

Steven Castle is Electronic House's managing editor. he has been writing about consumer electronics, homes and energy efficiency topics for two decades. He is also the co-founder of GreenTech Advocates.