Can Breck avoid the gas?

Breckenridge hopes to forego natural gas lines for 80 units of affordable housing. Can it?

by Allen Best

Breckenridge plans to build an 80-unit affordable housing project along the Blue River a couple miles down-valley from the downtown. Still uncertain is whether gas lines will be installed to the units in Alta Verde.

The town is calling it a net-zero project. The Colorado Department of Local Affairs has awarded the project $650,0000 to install 500 kw of photovoltaic panels.

The state, through its Renewable/Clean Energy Challenge grant program, wants to fund large-scale demonstration projects that serve as models. The project is described as being net-zero ready, with the ultimate goal of being net zero.

Jessica Burley, the sustainability coordinator for the town, said that in constructing net-zero buildings, both the cost of construction will come down and the learning curve will flatten.

“This is still very much at the concept stage,” reports Kimball Crangle, Colorado market president for Gorman & Co., the project developer.

Design of the project awaits decisions whether the project gets awarded low-income housing tax credits. Then the project gets into the full mechanical, electrical, and plumbing design. The exact technology will be identified for ensuring comfortable heat. All this is not expected until next fall and winter.

Project designers are confident that variable refrigerant flow (VRF) technology will allow comfort in the units.

“We have learned that in systems like the one we are proposing, once ambient temperatures around the condensing unit get to below 0, the heat pump heating capacity begins to drop,” explained Crangle in an e-mail response to inquiries.

The future of energy illustrated at Basalt Vista