Sunlight is a terrible thing to waste.

We are proud to cohabitate with Indigo Architects in Downtown Davis. Our workspace is an extension of the former Dairy Queen restaurant. The award-winning, climate-adapted strawbale building captures 90% of its heating and cooling energy from the environment, transforming a local agricultural by product (rice straw) into a tactile and efficient building material. Powered by 46 solar PV panels, the workspace is the first zero net-energy commercial building in our community. Indigo was honored with the USGBC Norther California 2015 Award for Innovation for its adaptive reuse of the property

Climate-adapted design principles are used to harvest energy from the environment through daylighting, passive heating, night ventilation cooling and thermal storage. Natural light provides all lighting during daylight hours. In summer, windows are shielded from direct sunlight and a natural ventilation system brings sea breezes into building to cool heat sinks. In the winter, lower-angle sunlight warms the heat sinks.

South-facing windows are fully shaded in the summer and admit sun in the winter. Automated louvers operate to flush building and cool the culvert pipe thermal storage tanks for next day’s use.

The next time you're heading east or west on Fifth Street, stop by, say hello, and learn if you qualify for the RepowerYolo group solar purchase program.