Our Founder and CEO, Ted L. Clifton, has been quietly designing and constructing Energy Efficient Homes for more than thirty years. On January 19, 2009 at Las Vegas, Nevada, Ted was awarded the Gold Award for Custom Homes in a Moderate Climate by the US Department of Energy and the NAHB Research Center at the National Energy Value Housing Award celebration. There were just eight gold awards issued nationwide at the 2009 event. In May of 2009 Ted was awarded a National Green Building Award for Concept/Reserach at the National Green Building Conference in Dallas, and for the second year in a row, one of his homes was just selected as a finalist for another Energy Value Housing Award.
Educated at Berkeley, California, Ted has worked in every phase of construction at a journeyman level, and knows first-hand what it takes to design and construct a quality home. Having built homes, and commercial and institutional buildings, Ted has the advantage of extensive knowledge of the means and methods used in all three. He also has worked in three very different climate zones, from the foothills of California, to Ketchikan, Alaska, to Whidbey Island, Washington.
In the year 2001, as President of his local Homebuilders Association, Ted provided the first push to establish the Skagit-Island Counties Builders Association Built Green® program, which he now chairs. Ted is also Vice President of Built Green® Washington, and has been instrumental in the establishment and expansion of the Green Building movement in the State of Washington. Ted received accreditation to teach both Green Building and Building Codes & Standards for the National Association of Homebuilders, and has taught the two-day Green Building for Building Professionals course up and down the West Coast of the United States.
Many of the attendees of Ted's Green Building classes have asked if they could purchase his plans, so as not to have to "re-invent the wheel". Since Ted's construction company, CVH Inc., is a custom homebuilder, each of his plans had been built only once. Good design should not be left gathering dust on the shelf! This website is our response to the need for sound, easy to build, mainstream Zero-Energy Plans.
We will be adding plans to this site from other well qualified designers. The RC-1 plan was contributed by Ted L. Clifton's son, Ted W. Clifton, of TC Legend Homes in Bellingham, WA. If you are a designer of Zero-Energy Plans, and you wish to make your plans available through this site, please contact ted@zero-energyplans.com
On May 10, 2008, Ted attended the first graduation and reception for Certified Green Professionals. Ted has not only earned this designation himself, but has taught the required Green Building for Building Professionals class to a number of other receipients of this prestigious new NAHB Designation. "This was one of the proudest moments of my career, to receive this Professional Designation in company with several members of the classes I taught. Making a difference is what it is all about!"
Ted is available to groups and companies to teach Green Building and Energy Efficient Construction, please use the Contact Us button above for more information.
