Customer Story: Heating a Billings, Montana Certified Living Building

Customer Story: Heating a Billings, Montana Certified Living Building

To say Randy and Janna Hafer of Billings, Montana based High Plains Architects have a unique home is an understatement.  Their nationally renowned Urban Frontier House is a 2,400 sqft Certified Living Building and a statement to the possibilities of building high performance, grid independent, sustainable housing.  

The house features 4x Arctica 1500 Series solar air heaters, 3x servicing the main living space, and 1x attached to the garage.  In strong sunlight, each 1500 generates about 5,000 BTUh, so Randy's house is getting about 20,000 BTUh from 4x installed heaters.  On a cold morning in Feb, 2021, Randy sent us the following email:

Here's something you might be interested in regarding the solar air heaters - we received about 8" of snow in the last 24 hours and it it currently 3 deg above 0.  It is still snowing lightly but the clouds are thin and the sky is bright AND the heaters are running producing air at 75 -83 deg, ambient air temp approx 61. (PS the ambient air at 60 is pretty typical in the house this time of year and is quite comfortable.  These things are amazing!

 

Check out the links for more information about the design and build of this truly unique home, and check out this virtual tour below:

Back to blog

Leave a comment

Please note, comments need to be approved before they are published.