Nexus Energy Center, a Huntsville, Alabama-based Better Buildings Residential Network member, is trying to raise $5,000 through a crowd-funding effort to build the city’s first tiny, energy-efficient home. The idea was inspired by a Nexus Energy Center volunteer who approached Executive Director Ruchi Singhal in winter 2013 with a video of eco-friendly, tiny-house developments in New York City.

“When he showed me that video, it was really inspiring because it’s talking about how you can transform spaces,” Singhal said.

Nexus Energy Center’s “TRES (Tiny, Renewable, and Environmentally Sustainable) Project: The Greenest Tiny Home in Alabama” campaign was launched soon thereafter. With the help of such organizations as the U.S. Green Building Council of Alabama, Nexus plans to construct an energy-efficient, 250-square-foot demonstration home to educate students and home performance contractors about energy efficiency and renewable energy strategies and technologies.

Frustrated by what Nexus Energy Center Project Team Leader Daniel Tait called “the prevailing myth that high performance also has to be high cost,” program staff hopes the tiny space will motivate more people to think about upgrading their homes to be more energy efficient.

Learn more about Nexus Energy Center’s TRES Project.