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Momo Homes, LLC
701 5th Avenue
42nd Floor
Seattle, Washington 98104

Phone +1 (206) 651-4097

So what makes a Momo a Momo?

Written by Jeff Williams on . Posted in Design, Cold-formed steel, Energy, Footings, Framing, Heating and Cooling, Roof, Solar Energy.

Quality. Durability. Resilience. Stability.

In other words, Momo homes are designed better and built better so they feel better to live in. 

Which sounds good. But what does it mean exactly?

Let’s take a closer look.

Foundation: Built to last up to 400 years

Our 100 percent steel footings system works like a tree’s deep root network, securely connecting the foundation to the earth while resisting gravity, uplift, shear, and moment loads. The system is rated to seismic category D, the “high hazard” level of coastal California construction. Expected life of the system? Up to 400 years.

Frame: Hurricane-ready

Steel framing is entirely fire-resistant, mold- and pest-resistant, and is 100 percent recyclable. This means all our homes meet top green-building standards. Our homes are built to Miami-Dade wind standards (able to withstand gusts of up to 185 mph).

Roof: 10-foot snow loads? No problem

Steel here, too. Unlike traditional roofing materials, steel won’t warp or sag. While our steel roofs are lightweight, they’re also highly durable — lasting more than twice as long as composite-shingle roofs. And because they’re chemical-free, recyclable, and virtually maintenance-free, they’re a sustainable choice. Our roofs are designed for snow loads up to 100 lbs. per square foot (that’s about 10 feet of average, settled snow).

Cladding: You’ll never have to paint again

Fiber cement board is a low-maintenance product that won’t warp, crack, or fade. Due to its weather- and moisture-resistance, it helps prevent mold, swelling and rot. Fiber cement board is durable against fire, water, and extreme weather conditions, and virtually impenetrable to pests. Plus, it’s durable, lasting 50 or more years. You’ll never have to paint again.

Heating and cooling: Save energy, stay comfy

Every Momo home is engineered for energy efficiency, from insulation to appliances. We use a high-performance Bosch heat pump and Rheem hot water heater. A smart ComfortLink thermostat tailors temperature and humidity settings, so you save energy without sacrificing comfort.

Fully electric: Never pay another energy bill

Momo homes are fully electric, which affords high efficiency and a low carbon footprint. In fact, a fully electrified home with high-quality appliances dramatically reduces, or can even eliminate, electricity bills. Fully electric homes offer resilience and peace of mind during blackouts, as well as letting you take full control of your energy future, without relying on the grid. 

  • SPAN smart panel: Full control over energy use. All Momo homes come with a SPAN smart panel, facilitating full control over your electrical usage. 
  • Solar panels: Real-time insights. We use high-efficiency tier 1 solar panels from brands like REC, Silfab and Q-Cell, paired with Enphase microinverters, capturing and optimizing sunlight, panel by panel. Everything is easily managed through the Enphase Enlighten app, giving you real-time insights, usage reports, and full control at your fingertips.
  • Battery backup: Power during outages. Any surplus energy is stored in the Franklin Whole Home battery system, ensuring power is always available, even during outages. Each battery is 15 kWh and is an entirely modular system, allowing you to add as much storage as you’d like.
  • EV charging: Charge when it’s cheapest. The SPAN smart panel provides a clear view of your home’s power flow, and EV-ready wiring means your electric vehicle can run entirely on solar energy. We offer the SPAN level 2 EV charger that integrates with the SPAN smart electrical panel, allowing you to use excess solar to charge your EV and charge when it’s cheapest. 

Extras: The beauty is in the details

Every Momo model offers: nine-foot ceilings, solid-core doors, heated towel racks, and aluminum window frames. Plus: fully assembled, custom made-to-order cabinetry designed to last a lifetime.

The Momo Max package includes Bosch appliances and heated floors.

Single-family-home models include laundry rooms, full-size primary bathrooms, and walk-in closets.

Large solar installation set among a rolling wooded autumn landscape. At sunset.

Solar for the win

Written by Charles Gale on . Posted in Solar Energy.

It’s all about to tip.

That’s according to a slew of scientists who predict that greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from the power sector, the biggest source of the planet’s emissions, are expected to fall for the first time in 2023.

To be clear, this is a GOOD tipping point. We’re inundated with evidence of bad tipping points like glacier melt, global temperatures, and deforestation of the Amazon. 

Not to mention other tipping points that are merely just regrettable, like the craze for LuLaRoe Leggings.  

This will be the first year where clean energy begins to replace fossil fuels. And that’s good news.

What’s a tipping point?

The Oxford Dictionary defines “tipping point” as the point at which a series of small changes or incidents becomes significant enough to cause a larger, more important change.

Malcolm Gladwell wrote the book on tipping points. He defined it as “the moment of critical mass, the threshold, the boiling point” when trends in business, marketing, and human behavior catch fire and spread like gangbusters.

Another way of looking at it is the point at which a new solution (like solar panels) crosses a threshold of affordability, attractiveness, or accessibility, skipping along on its path to mass adoption.

When solar tipped

History shows that a tipping point for a disruptive technology can come even before it hits five percent of market share.

Solar is already way past that, and quarterly global solar installations have grown 50% each year for the past three years.  

But it took some time to get there.

Solar panel technology has been around for about 60 years, but it’s only in the last decade or so that they’ve really taken off in widespread adoption.

A number of factors contributed to this tipping point. Affordability, for one.

The cost of solar power dropped by more than 80 percent over the past decade thanks to the combined forces of technology innovation, learning-by-doing, and scaling.

In 2010, a megawatt hour of electricity fueled by solar panels cost about $378 to generate. By 2019, that cost had tumbled down to just $68 – cheaper than nuclear and coal. 

Then there are external factors like the drop in costs of solar’s required components or private- and government-funded research. The 2022 Inflation Reduction Act, with its raft of subsidies and incentives for home energy projects, is another major catalyst.

The fossilization of Big Oil

Once that tipping point is reached, the momentum is with the new technology. But tipping points don’t come easy. They’re reached after a lot of resistance, including all those early high costs and low efficiencies.

But resistance comes from the old school, too. And nobody hates the clean energy competition as much as Big Oil.

They’ve worked to block renewable energy projects across the country, through lobbying groups for one. They’ve also hired their own scientists to mislead the public about climate change.  

They do it in hiding too, by backing so-called local opposition groups that look grassroots until you track down their funding.

Hardly a fair fight

They have a lot to be scared of. Fossil fuels, restricted by region, supply, geopolitics, and contractual forces, don’t stand a chance against the unlimited, renewable energy of solar.

In fact, solar energy is now cheaper than coal and gas. The share of renewable energy that achieved lower costs than the most competitive fossil fuels doubled in 2020.

Once renewable energy is cheaper than oil and gas, the race can pretty much be called.

And with our solar-ready homes, we’re backing the winner.

Cheers,

Mike

Mike McAllister is head of story for Momo Homes.

Graphic showing 11 darkened homes and one lit-up one.

Get off the grid—the promise of microgrids 

Written by Charles Gale on . Posted in Solar Energy.

Some things—like wine, denim, or friendship—get better with age.

Infrastructure, not so much.

Today, over 70% of the nation’s power grid is more than 25 years old, an aging system increasingly vulnerable to climate change effects. Between 2000 and 2021, 83% of power outages were caused by extreme weather events.

You already know that people are turning to alternatives, including renewable energy sources like solar.  

Another solution comes in the form of microgrids.

What is a microgrid?

A self-contained electrical network, microgrids allow you to generate your own electricity onsite to use when it’s needed most, like during power outages.  

This is a completely different approach to electricity than your typical utility grid. The grid uses an (aging) centralized power plant to generate electricity, then distributes it along miles and miles of (aging) transmission lines.

To generate electricity, microgrids often combine backup diesel generators with renewable integration like solar panels, and use batteries to store the electricity.

Typically you can operate a microgrid while it’s connected to the grid, or in a disconnected “island” mode. This is super helpful when the grid goes down, or when rates go way up during peak hours.

Depending on the specific microgrid-utility grid arrangement, you might even be able to sell your surplus energy back to the grid.

Microgrids are still rare, but growing in popularity, with organizations like the U.S. Department of Electricity investing money into its future. By 2035, they say:

Microgrids are envisioned to be essential building blocks of the future electricity delivery system to support resilience, decarbonization, and affordability. 

Who uses microgrids?

The growing list of current microgrid customers include municipal governments, hospitals, university research labs, corporate data centers, and military bases.

Right now, microgrids are used by organizations to:

–  Access reliable energy

–  Cut their carbon footprint

–  Reduce costs and increase energy resiliency

Utilities themselves have taken notice, and are getting in on the microgrid game, too.

More than 60% of utility leaders say they have deployed or are currently working to deploy a microgrid (probably to yank back control over the profits, but that’s for another blog).

What’s the future of microgrids?

Why are we sharing this info with you? Well, microgrids are coming to homeowners, too.

Residential microgrids are now the fastest growing sector, beginning to displace retail microgrids in use.  

In southern California, KB Homes is building two communities totaling 219 homes, that will be connected to a central microgrid.

If the utility grid goes down, the community microgrid will isolate the two communities from the grid and provide power to keep essential functions running. The homes will first draw from their own individual batteries, then from the community battery.

The New York Times recently profiled the Heron’s Nest, another community of 31 homes that is North Carolina’s first residential microgrid development. The residents will benefit from revenue that is either diverted back to the local utility or passed along as dividends. 

During Hurricane Fiona in 2022, home microgrids helped out. 45 residential microgrids in Puerto Rico, previously installed by Caribbean initiatives at Environmental Defense Fund (EDF), went into full backup mode on Fiona’s approach.

Beyond supplying the homes’ residents with power at a critical time, their microgrids have turned into resiliency hubs for other homes.

Neighbors have been able to visit the microgrid users (who are low- to moderate-income, single parents, and the elderly) to plug in phones and meet their healthcare needs.

We see a future filled with stories and communities like these, and are building our homes to thrive in that future, too.

Cheers,

Mike

Mike McAllister is head of story for Momo Homes.