NEW BRITAIN, Conn. (October 26, 2016) – Eversource and United Illuminating, a subsidiary of AVANGRID, Inc. announced today that two of its 2015 Energize Connecticut Zero Energy Challenge winners – Revival Homes and Paul Torcellini – received national recognition for their efforts in zero-energy home construction at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) 2016 Housing Innovation Award ceremony held at the EEBA Excellence in Building Conference and Expo in Frisco, Texas.

Revival Homes, based out of New Hartford, Conn., was awarded winner in the Innovation in Affordable Homes category for the Katzin residence. “Jim Katzin and I believe every new home should be a high performance home. This home demonstrates that the true cost to own a high performance home is less than the cost to own a home built to the lowest standard allowed by building codes,” said David Jones, owner of Revival Homes. “We are honored to be recognized for our approach and the opportunity to serve as an example for others building zero energy homes.”

Homeowner and general contractor Paul Torcellini of Eastford, Conn. was awarded winner in the Innovation for Custom Homes (for Buyers) category for his home. “To build the house how I wanted it, it just made sense to start from scratch. During construction, we used the DOE Zero Energy ‘Getting to Zero’ Guidelines and utilized the Energize Connecticut Zero Energy Challenge’s HERS experts. We achieved our goal of building a self-sustaining home that will minimize its environmental impact for future generations,” said Paul Torcellini.

Now in its third year, the DOE’s Housing Innovation Awards have recognized forward-thinking builders for delivering American homebuyers with the home of the future, today. In addition to the award, each winning home is recognized with a page on the Tour of Zero and a customized case study included in their profile on the website.

The Energize Connecticut Zero Energy Challenge is a statewide design and build competition for new zero-energy ready single and multi-family homes. These homes consume little to no energy and produce energy on-site, and have cleaner air quality, advanced designs and integrated systems. The Challenge is part of the state’s Energize Connecticut initiative and managed by electric utilities Eversource and United Illuminating.

For more information about the 2016 Challenge, please visit www.ctzeroenergychallenge.com