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Watsonville Development Harnesses
the Sun - Green theme Reigns Supreme at Cherry Blossom
The first Northern California housing project to incorporate an array of the latest energy-saving features is springing up in Watsonville, a coastal town in Santa Cruz County. Built by Clarum Homes of Palo Alto, the 31 Cherry Blossom houses harness the sun's energy to produce electricity with photovoltaic systems from BP Solar of Fairfield. PV systems include roof-mounted solar panels that convert sunlight into electricity and feed it into the home's electrical system. The system's utility meter measures how much power is produced. When the system produces more than the house is using, the excess goes into the PG&E grid, causing the meter to run backward. At night or on cloudy days, the house gets its electricity from PG&E, causing the meter to run forward. PG&E bills the homeowner for the net amount used. The Cherry Blossom houses are equipped with PV systems of varying capacities ranging from 1 to 2 kilowatts. Clarum Homes estimates they will produce 1,500 to 3,200 kilowatt hours of electricity a year, depending on the system's size and orientation toward the sun. Clarum says that's about 25 to 50 percent of the electricity used by the average California home, cutting the PG&E bill by about $30 to $55 a month. The houses incorporate other energy-efficient features such as fluorescent lighting, heavy-duty insulation, low-emissivity windows and radiant roof barriers that reflect 97 percent of the sun's heat away from the house, keeping it cooler. In keeping with the green theme, Clarum uses environmentally friendly building materials like fiber-cement siding, engineered wood products and Trex, a decking material made of recycled plastic and wood waste. All this comes with a price tag of $370,800 to $384,500 for a 1,611-square- foot, two-story house with three bedrooms and a loft or four bedrooms plus 21Ú2 bathrooms and a two-car garage. The Craftsman-style houses have front porches that open to an entry hall with windows along one side, a staircase on the other side and a half-bath tucked under the stairs. The hall leads to the great room - a combination living and dining room. A counter separates it from the galley-style kitchen and its roomy pantry. Sliding doors lead from the dining room to the side yard, and there's a media alcove above the gas fireplace in the living room, which also has a guest closet. Upstairs the master bedroom includes two closets. Double sinks are open to the bedroom, but the toilet and tub-shower are in their own, compact room. Also upstairs are two more bedrooms and another room that can be either another bedroom or a loft. The only difference is that the bedroom option has its own door and a closet. The loft opens to the upstairs hallway, but it doesn't overlook the downstairs. The bathroom serving these other bedrooms has a high ceiling, but because it's in the center of the house, it has no windows, making it dark. Completing the upstairs is a laundry room with shelves. The garage is on the side of the house and has a door opening into the kitchen, a convenience for grocery-toters. Besides the solar aspects, something that's a little different about this project is that it has only one furnished model, a three-bedroom plus loft plan with all the upgrades. The four-bedroom model is unfurnished and plain vanilla with standard features. Showing a house this way gives the potential buyer a chance to look more closely at the basics of the house and the quality of construction rather than being dazzled by decor. In this case, some cosmetic touches are needed, but no major flaws jump out. The lots are fairly small, 2,800 to about 4,500 square feet, but there are no homeowner dues. Some of the houses back up to a green belt and have decks overlooking it. A small community park also is part of the project. One drawback is that across the street are many older, small single-family houses, some of which are not well-kept. Nevertheless, people looking at just the plans had bought nearly 50 percent of the Cherry Blossom houses before the models opened in late August, said Joyce Byrd, sales manager. "There's quite a need for housing in the Watsonville area," she said. Cherry Blossom Project: E-mail Judy Richter at jrichter@sfchronicle.com
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