In Garfield County, where housing costs are high and monthly expenses can make or break a family’s ability to stay rooted in the valley, Habitat for Humanity of the Roaring Fork Valley is demonstrating how energy efficiency can be a cornerstone of long-term affordability.
At Wapiti Commons, a recently completed Habitat development in southern Rifle, homeowners are seeing the impact immediately. Monthly energy costs for homeowners are in the range of $20 to $30, with some as low as $6, says Trent Marshall, project manager for the multifamily housing project. Those utility bill savings are the result of a carefully coordinated approach to building design, construction practices, and energy systems informed by hands-on collaboration with Garfield Clean Energy’s (GCE) residential energy coaches.
Building tight, all-electric homes
From the start, Habitat prioritized homes that would be efficient to operate, not just affordable to purchase. That meant focusing on renewable inputs as well as how well the homes were sealed to prevent heat loss and drafts. GCE recommended a package of technologies and materials that together would meet a net-zero standard, model the system to ensure that it did, and spec the major components. Wapiti consists of 5 townhomes to house the local workforce and ten single-level condos for older adults.
Each unit is fully electric, with no gas lines running into the development. Every home includes rooftop solar—6.7 kilowatts per unit—along with heat pump water heaters, ENERGY STAR appliances, induction ovens, and individual mini-split systems in each room. Before the build, Habitat worked with GCE to conduct energy modeling and then had regular check-ins to measure progress towards efficiency goals.
“GCE showed our guys tips and tricks to build a tighter house,” remembers Marshall. “Some of these upgrades we had never done before, and I thought it was incredible.”
What could have felt like an added constraint instead became a motivation for the construction team, especially when it came to the blower door test, which measures how much outside air seeps into a home, helping builders understand how well the house is sealed. The results at Wapiti created a new performance benchmark for Habitat’s local builds.
“We were getting tighter blower door numbers than we were in Basalt Vista at this project,” says Marshall. “And that was a huge thanks to GCE.”
Education that starts before move-in day
Energy efficiency is baked into the entire process, from construction to the day new homeowners receive the keys. Habitat also puts significant emphasis on homeowner education, ensuring families understand how to use and maintain their homes for long-term performance. Habitat homeowners contribute sweat equity through time and labor by helping build their own homes and others in the development, reducing costs while deepening their connection to the community. It also provides an opportunity to see firsthand the steps taken to build a tight, energy-efficient home.
“The communication really starts when they’re doing their sweat equity with us,” Marshall says. “They’re very interested, and they ask a lot of questions.”
Once families close on their homes, that education shifts to long-term maintenance. From mini-split settings and filters to breakers and ground fault circuit interrupters, every system is reviewed.
“I go to the house with a homeowner’s manual and explain every little thing down to the very last plug,” Marshall says. For example, “you can’t have one [mini-split] on full blast heat and the kids’ room blowing cold air.”
Because induction cooking relies on magnetic energy rather than direct heat, Habitat even provides induction-compatible cookware to help ease the cost of transitioning from gas or traditional electric stovetops.
An energy model for long-term affordability
For Habitat, energy efficiency is inseparable from the realities of living in the Roaring Fork Valley, where housing costs and rising rents continue to push working families to the brink. To stay true to their mission to provide affordable housing to families, paying attention to costs after the initial purchase price is essential.
“If you build a house and buy a house at an affordable rate, but have a $600 gas bill or electricity bill it doesn’t make sense,” Marshall says. “Why do all the work if it’s still going to be a burden in the long run anyway?”
That mission-driven approach also aligns with where the housing is trending, says Darla Callaway, chief executive officer for Habitat for Humanity Roaring Fork Valley.
“We’re building quality units that are in step with where the market and grid are going,” Callaway says. “I don’t think we’re going to be able to build projects in the future that are not electric. Why would we build projects that aren’t set up for long-term success?”
For organizations or builders considering energy coaching with GCE, Trent encourages them to rethink assumptions about cost and complexity.
“A lot of builders don’t give [energy efficient building] a chance because they think of the process as adding costs and adding time,” states Marshall. “But in our experience, we haven’t had that happen.”
For Garfield County, the takeaway is clear: energy efficiency is essential infrastructure for keeping homes affordable, now and into the future. For homeowners looking for energy coaching, visit https://garfieldcleanenergy.org/res-buildings/.