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Sun Plans is proud to be a PATH
Partner. The Partnership for Advancing Technology in Housing (PATH)
is dedicated to accelerating the development and use of technologies that
radically improve the quality, durability, energy efficiency, environmental
performance, and affordability of America's housing. We are also a professional
member of the USGBC - United
States Green Building Council - where we have actively participated in
the review of the developing LEED for Homes program as well as the development
of a local branch of USGBC.
Architect Debra Rucker Coleman, AIA is the owner of Sun Plans Inc. and
has been designing passive solar homes since 1985. In 1990 she first published
the house plan book Sun-Inspired Home Plans.
In October 2005, Sun Plans Inc. published the 256 page book The
Sun-Inspired House that include over 50 house plans plus 150 pages
of educational information about passive solar, green building, energy-efficient
construction, working with architects, case studies of built homes, photos,
resources, etc! Buy it directly from Sun Plans, your local bookstore,
numerous energy organizations, or ask for it at your library.
Sun Plans is a small service-oriented architectural firm. Every design
including changes is personally reviewed by Debra, who also prepares the
Custom Energy Specs and Recommendations that come with blueprints, vellums,
and CAD files. For custom design projects, you will work directly with
her.
The majority of our work is Custom Design. We sell blueprints and CAD
files of some of these custom designs and those designs can be found in
our house
plan list. Selling existing plans is a small part or our business
and does not get the same level of personal as do custom designs, but
we do prepare Custom Energy Recommendations for each order that is purchased
directly from us. You may be fortunate enough to find that a house plan
we designed for someone else also meets your needs, but most people who
are discriminating enough to want passive solar also want customization.
House plans on the Sun Plans website have been on the National Tour of
Solar Homes held every October by the American Solar Energy Association,
and the work of Debbie has been published in Fine Homebuilding
(Nov 1993), Solar Today
(July/Aug 1996), Mother
Earth News (Aug/Sept
2002), Home
Power (Dec
2006, Aug/Sept 2002), Home Energy (Mar/Apr
2003), Carolina Sun, and the Southface Journal.
In 2002, Sun Plans Inc. received the "Best Practice" Sustainability
Award for Residential Buildings from the Sustainable Building Industries
Council. The award recognizes businesses that have contributed significantly
to the promotion of sustainable buildings.
The homes sold by Sun Plans are designed according to the Passive
Solar Design Strategies: Guidelines for Home Builders as developed
in the 1980's by the Sustainable
Building Industries Council (SBIC) previously the Passive Solar Industries
Council (PSIC). Our homes which have been carefully constructed according
to the energy recommendations for construction and have been monitored,
have had their actual energy bills come very close to the energy estimates
arrived at through the use of the Guidelines.
The owner of a variation of the Northern Lights house has provided us
with a recent letter about his house
too. It is about a 2200 s.f. home in the east that has been averaging
$32 a month for the heating and cooling alone. A 2100 s.f. Southern Cypress
plan in the hot south has averaged $66 per month for all of the electrical
use in the home including air conditioning, which does not need to be
run until June.
- American Institute of Architects
- American Solar Energy Association
- Sustainable Buildings Industry Council
- US Green Building Council
- International Code Council
Energy organizations have listed Sun Plans (or Sun-Inspired Home Plans,
Energetic Design, or Debra Rucker Coleman) in their information about
passive solar house plans:
Debra has been a licensed architect since 1984 and is currently
registered in Alabama and North Carolina. (Most states do not require
a licensed architect in their state to design homes, but you may want
to verify that as well as any local code or subdivision requirements.)
She received a Bachelor of Architecture from the University of Arizona
in 1979. During her career she has worked for several architects and contractors.
While practicing in NC, she received the Governor's Energy Achievement
Award for both residential and commercial projects. Currently she lives
in Alabama, but has spent extensive time in many climate zones, such as
Arizona, Switzerland, the Caribbean, and North Carolina, and has researched
energy requirements for most climates in North America. She has presented
papers and given seminars for the North Carolina Solar Center, the Energy-Efficient
Building Association, as well as numerous other organizations in the United
States and Canada. She was the general contractor for a sun-tempered home
that she lives in with her family.
.
Sun Plans is a small company that likes staying that way,
but at the same time there is a growing demand for both our services (custom
design) and products (pre-designed) house plans so we do have some growing
pains. (If you are in the Mobile, AL area and share our passion for sustainable
residential design, please contact us about the possibilities of becoming
part of our team.
Since we are not staffed for detailed phone consultation
except for custom design clients, your most thorough comments to your
concerns and questions will be by email. We may direct you to the chapter
in our book or web site page if it the concern is elsewhere addressed,
or if it is a construction related question regarding specific plan,,
will direct you to the page in the Construction Review Set where it is
answered. Often though, architectural consulting by the architect is needed
and we may direct you to either our House Plan Selection Consulting where
we can assist you in detail with selecting a plan, or Custom Changes Consulting
where we can review your ideas and proposed changes to one or more plans
even though we will most likely recommend your local design professional
make the changes from our CAD files. (See the Custom Services page for
updates on our schedule of accepting work.)
For new custom designs, you will work with Debra directly
in the design stage and on some level throughout the entire process. Harry
assists with design and drafting. Our 3D designer, Peter, prepares interior
and exterior 3D drawings for our custom work. Other consultants may be
involved as the project and our work load demands and Barry will be glad
to assist you with initial inquiries and customer service related issues.
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