Source: US National Renewable Energy Laboratory
Fire Survivors Embraced an Energy-Efficient Passive Design Structure
Sitting in a friend’s Boulder, Colorado, townhouse after the Dec. 30, 2021, Marshall Fire burned his family’s home to the ground, Kevin Lombardo, a National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) Client and Infrastructure Services manager, was struck by the enormity of what they faced.
He and his wife Casey had grabbed their two young sons and some precious belongings to flee just before the Marshall Fire engulfed their Louisville, Colorado, home of six years. Driven by wind gusts up to 115 mph, Colorado’s most destructive wildfire ever quickly destroyed 1,100 structures in Louisville, Superior, and unincorporated Boulder County. Two residents died in the firestorm.
“I don’t really know what to do,” Lombardo recalled thinking. “Do I file an insurance claim? Take a picture? Still pay my mortgage? This feels bigger than that.”
Lombardo, who has worked in tech since he was a teen growing up in New Jersey, is used to problem solving and was familiar with NREL’s building expertise.
Having started at NREL in 2007 as a contractor before becoming a full-time employee the following year, Lombardo said, “I know a little bit of a lot of what NREL does. I’ve worked with the buildings folks in the past. Our team [in IT] supports [the U.S. Department of Energy] DOE and the Solar Decathlon.”
But starting from scratch to rebuild his family’s home was overwhelming. He was not thinking of anything special. All he wanted to do was replace their dwelling. “I felt like: I don’t care. Let’s put a house back,” he said.
Their former home was an almost unidentifiable scorched lot filled with rubble. Only a surviving metal mailbox revealed where they had lived. “All the landmarks were gone,” he said.
The next few months became an exhausting blur of trying to navigate a new reality. Slowly, with support from the community and neighbors—getting donated clothing, food, as well as emotional and logistical support—they began with others a journey to recovery, becoming “fire survivors,” not victims.
During a building webinar about passive-designed homes, which use a building strategy that relies on natural sources of heating and cooling to reduce energy use, a new vision finally clicked. While such designs have been around for decades, they are employed more commonly on the East and West coasts using various building techniques to increase building efficiency.
Encouraged by an Xcel Energy rebate program designed to ease the demand for electricity, the Lombardos began exploring a way to rebuild a better structure.
“It hadn’t crossed my mind at first,” he said. “Then it clicked. I blame my mental state at the time.”
After a series of meetings with different builders, the Lombardos decided on an architect, builder, and landscaper who shared their vision. Their ties to NREL emerged.
“I asked my architect and builder, ‘Did you guys ever hear of this Solar Decathlon?’” Lombardo recalled. “And my architect said, ‘Yeah, I competed in it.’ My builder said that he had consulted with some of the student teams.”
NREL-Tested Building Technology Used
Techniques tested at the competition and validated at NREL came into play.
“We were holistically tied together,” Lombardo said, noting that after only a couple of meetings, they had a concept. “It took off, and it took off fast.”
Still, it took time. On Sept. 1, 2022, the Lombardo family moved into their secondary rental property in Louisville. The property was unharmed but occupied by renters during the Marshall Fire.
The new footprint that emerged was solid: a three-story, 2,572 square-foot rectangular home, slightly larger than their previous house. But the difference was obvious, reflecting their own adjustments and personal touches. Even the two boys, Max and Miles, had input. The architect asked the boys to draw what they would like. Overjoyed, both sketched out rooms that, as Lombardo said, look like something from Tony Stark’s Iron Man lab. Their desires became reality. Both have lofts in their bedrooms connected by a secret bookshelf door. This helped comfort the youngsters who had been frightened by the devastation.
Other construction elements incorporated a mix of traditional and cutting-edge building techniques.
The new home is situated on their reclaimed lot to ensure maximum exposure to the sun in the winter, yet the house also has awnings to protect from too much sun in the summer. The exterior of the house is corrugated steel. Also, the entire house is air sealed, and all the vents are ember-resistant vents. That way, if there is another fire and an ember hits the vent, a material within the vent expands to prevent the fire from entering. Exterior walls are thicker than normal construction, employing a 12-inch double-stud technique, which helps with both insulation and fire resistance.
Furthermore, the house is all-electric, utilizing a heat pump for any active heating and cooling that might be needed, and solar panels are being installed. Control and monitoring of the energy usage, air quality, and mechanical systems are accomplished through multiple sensors and an open-source home-automation platform running on a local server in the house.
The Lombardos also chose to leverage additional techniques such as recycled denim and cellulose insulation, a concrete-free “slab” under the ground floor, and a laundry-to-landscape gray water implementation that helps provide irrigation to their native and waterwise perennials and trees in the front yard.
Finally, in spring 2024, the family moved into the house. Hours after the movers left, the electric utility shut off the power for 42 hours due to high winds. A lot of the neighbors got cold and uncomfortable and left for hotels, but because of the high performance of their house, the Lombardos stayed comfortable and warm with no active heating.
The family loves it, even though they still need to make the home their own. “It sort of feels like being on a vacation,” Lombardo said.
The house has drawn plenty of attention as one of several green-technique homes in the neighborhood. They have opened it up for tours, including the Boulder Green Homes Tour in June when more than 140 visitors stopped by.
As time goes by, it becomes more and more like home. “Finding a place for the Christmas tree will make it seem more like ours,” Lombardo said.
Yet, memories of the tragedy linger.
“We don’t want to go through it again. I don’t want my kids feeling like they’re living in a house where it could happen again,” Lombardo said. “So, yes, a fire can happen again. Nothing is fireproof, really.”
But Lombardo and his family feel comfortable knowing that they have done the best possible to ensure their house is safe and energy efficient—and perhaps an inspiration to others.