GCEA’s Housing Demo Focuses on Efficiency, Cost-Savings

A new type of home is on the horizon that emphasizes energy efficiency and cost savings for both energy consumers and electric utilities. GCEA, with offices in Gunnison and Crested Butte, recently announced that it will be exhibiting one of these homes from VISION House Transcend to demonstrate to consumer-members the efficiency and technology capabilities homeowners can attain while also inhabiting a beautifully-designed domicile.

GCEA and its power supplier, Tri-State G&T, partnered with Green Builder Media and VISION House Transcend to bring this new demonstration project to the Gunnison area. Designed and constructed by California-based prefab builder Dvele, these homes are “unique in that they have been optimized for cost savings, waste reduction, quality control, and expedited construction timeframes.”

“We are excited to have a project like this in our service territory,” GCEA Member Relations Supervisor Alliy Sahagun said in a November 2022 press release. “It’s going to be an interesting way to share with members the capabilities of a highly energy efficient home, and we are eager to showcase all the technology the home will feature.”

Features of VISION House Transcend homes can include energy-efficient doors and windows, heat pump technology, solar panels and battery storage. GCEA will research and gather data from the demonstration project to construct educational materials to share with its consumer-members so they can visualize the ways they can help the environment and their pocketbooks.

Sahagun said, “We call this ‘beneficial electrification,’ and the VISION House Transcend will provide a wonderful demonstration of what BE looks like in real life.”