Cooperative Extension Service Communications and Technology Department 3354 1000 E. University Ave. Laramie, WY 82071 (307) 766-6342 • fax (307) 766-3998 • www.uwyo.edu

 

For Immediate Release

 

 

Contact: Steven L. Miller, Senior Editor

Phone: (307) 766-6342

E-mail: slmiller@uwyo.edu

Archived News Site www.uwyo.edu/agadmin/news/news.htm

 

Date: Sept. 26, 2006

 

Tours of LCCC campus building and ‘green’ home follow UW housing issues conference

            Attendees to the 2006 Consumer Issues Conference “Home On The Range” Sept. 28 at the University of Wyoming can tour the next day the environmentally friendly Laramie County Community College (LCCC) building and the ‘green’ house being built by a LCCC construction class.

            Housing issues are the focus of the conference Thursday at UW. For conference information, see www.uwyo.edu/consumerconference/default.htm

            The tour of the LCCC campus building will last from 8:30-9:30 a.m. Tours of the house at 2360 Ames Court will begin about 9:45 a.m. and last 30 to 45 minutes. Small groups will move through the house simultaneously, said Virginia Vincenti, an organizer of the consumer issues conference.  Directions to the home will be given at the conference. To register, call 1-877-733-3618, extension 2, or (307) 766-5249. Both tours will be limited to about 60 people. For more information about the buildings, visit www.lccc.wy.edu/ACC

            The Laramie house is being built by LCCC instructor Tim Nyquist and students in a construction technology class and is expected to be completed within a week.

            “It’s important to show all of the green and efficient products in this house,” Nyquist said. “It’s a near net-zero house, with its own electricity from solar power and its own heat. The yearly utility bill should be zero. That’s our goal. This is an extremely sustainable house that should last 200 years. It’s extremely good for the environment and extremely good for indoor air quality.”

            Construction on the 2,400-square-foot house and 700-square-foot garage started in August last year.

            The house utilizes new technology to make it super efficient. “This is my passion, to build energy-efficient, environmentally safe homes,” said Nyquist. “I don’t like paying high energy prices and I don’t like using up fossil energy fuels. We don’t have to. In Wyoming, we have more energy than anywhere in the world. We have sunlight and wind.”

            Eight students are helping build the house. “I believe strongly and so do the students that we are able to change our little piece of the world,” said Nyquist. “I know in my heart it is the right thing to do. This is the way to do it.”

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