Videos featuring four homes that are on this year's Princeton Environmental Commission Green House Tour are screened in advance of the tour. Registration required for house tours.
Learn how your neighbors are creating healthier and more energy-efficient homes and environments with green building practices such as solar panels with energy storage, rain gardens, superior insulation and more. The 2023 Green House Tour is presented in partnership with the library and Sustainable Princeton.
How to participate:
Register for a time slot for an in-person, deep-dive tour of Princeton homes with green building features.
Registration is free and opens in mid-September at www.princetongreenhousetour.com until all slots are filled.
All homes have individual registration and time slots.*
You can attend as many home tours as you can register for.
Time slots are limited to 15 people.
Must be 18 or older.
Attend the Green House tour kick-off and screening at the Community Room on Sept. 30, 10-11:30 a.m.
Light refreshments and snacks will be provided. Be sure to bring your reusable water bottle.
If time slots are still available, you can register at the library at the kick-off and screening.
Head out from the Community Room at 11:30 a.m. with a map in hand with the locations to visit the homes you have signed up to tour.
All but one stop on the tour is within a 25-minute walk or a 6-minute bike ride apart.
The Hello Sunshine and Goodbye Gas House is located on the north border of the municipality and is best accessed by driving.
Tours end at 4 p.m.
*The Livestreaming Yard does not require signing up for a time slot. Stop by at any time between noon and 4 p.m.
About the homes:
The Radically Radiant House
Forest Meggers is an Energy Engineer at Princeton University who is renovating his family home with a focus on energy efficiency and the environment. This house receives its nickname for its use of radiant flooring used to heat and cool the home. Other cool features of this home include a ground source heat pump, passive solar design, and thermal energy storage.
Mrs. Brown’s Lucky Oyster Bar
The intention of Mrs. Brown’s Lucky Oyster Bar was to build a very small, tight, and well-insulated home in a walkable and bikeable town like Princeton. This house receives its nickname from the hundreds of oyster shells and bottles found during the excavation of this home. Some top features of this home are the passive solar design, air source heat pump space, water heaters, and the sustainable materials used inside.
The Hello Sunshine and Goodbye Gas House
This home is working on becoming fully electrified! The name of this home comes from saying goodbye to natural gas and installing a solar roof that powers all the electric appliances and vehicles in the home. Interesting features in this house include a geothermal heat pump, an induction cooktop, and a rooftop solar array with backup lithium-phosphate batteries.
The Livestreaming Yard
This yard has taken stormwater water management to the next level! Its name comes from the stream that runs across the backyard, which has been incorporated into the beautiful gardens to control the flow during rain storms as the water heads to two human-made ponds at the edge of the property. The front yard features a rain garden, native plants, and a unique Wishing (the earth) Well. No registration is needed for this home. The gardens will be open for you to drop in and tour at your leisure from noon until 4:00.
More homes may be added to the tour.
Presented in partnership with Sustainable Princeton.
