Acre Designs

Simple, sexy Smarthomes that produce all their own power.

3 followers

Simple, sexy Smarthomes that produce all their own power.

3 followers

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Physical Products

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Space design apps

Launch tags:Home•Batteries•Internet of Things

Launch Team

Render Sandboxes: a computer for every agentIsolated compute, persistent state and a real filesystem

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Acre Designs

Maker

Hello Product Hunters! I’m Andrew, co-founder of Acre. Our mission is to replace many of the 1 million shoddy, inefficient homes built every year - which haven’t changed in over a century - with a product you can love. Simple, smart, and sustainable, we design homes as a high-end consumer product. The goal is to enable you to spend less time thinking about (and working for) the home itself, and more time enjoying the life it enables. Acre homes produce all their own power, use 70% less water, and integrate the latest smarthome technology. They’re also dead sexy. And since you’re busy, they’re built in half the time of a normal house, for almost the same cost. Perfect for: Technophiles Flexible lifestyle Remote management (vacation home, AirBnB sharing, etc.) Anyone who loves the environment For the PH community we’re offering an upgraded technology package at no extra cost: a network of sensors that measure the home’s performance, and open API software to allow you to hack and fine-tune your home. We’re literally the marriage of an architect + industrial designer, partnered with a builder, and we’re passionate about creating a better built environment. Ask us anything - we’d love to chat!

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11yr ago

yes.no

@bennettdickson Hey Andrew, smart homes or net zero homes are becoming more prevalent and there are probably hundreds of companies building, shipping and offering such houses. My first question would be, how to you differ yourself from the competition? Second of all, what countries are you active on and what kind of service would you offer for someone considering building their smart home with you? What about guarantee for your work, how many years will you be in charge of any malfunctions of the systems, as most technologies to the best of my knowledge are pretty new?

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11yr ago

Boost

@bennettdickson Hey Andrew, very impressive. This has in recent history been a hard market to succeed in (modern, green, system homes). I have seen a number of these launched, not necessarily as ambitious, but that ultimately don't get the traction to materialize in a real way. Do you have any plans that you think will help you knock it out of the park? Also on another note, the piece that this is omitting in the pricing estimations is the site conditions and land purchase. Would be nice if there were really a way to evaluate this as a fully loaded cost per sq. ft. to compare with other home purchases. I am hoping for you to win, we need more of this in the future. Good job, and good luck!

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11yr ago

Acre Designs

Maker

@jmacias Thanks! It is a hard road, no doubt. We are different in a couple key areas. A. We work with local builders to assemble the home, reducing our overhead, increasing reach and ability to scale and leveraging their talents and familiarity with local issues. B. We have some hardware tech that will help us reduce costs and maintain quality. C. We are approaching the issue as a fast moving tech startup and pushing the boundaries in a number of areas. Being a Y-Combinator company as a housing company is an interesting mix that helps us break through some noise. Land is a variable we can't influence for the individual buyer, so has to be separate. The price shown does include either a pier or slab foundation, with basement as an option. We'll eat minor differences and have adjustments for unusual lots. It's more valuable for us to streamline the process for customers and give an all in price. Thanks for the support!!

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11yr ago

Acre Designs

Maker

@jodoron Hey Yonatan! See below for a few differences. Seems like there are many options, but in reality, there are not many. Housing is such a fractured market with hundreds of builders in every major metro, but there are only a handful of companies that break the mold, getting press in the process. It's unlikely that there will ever be a Google of housing, instead it takes a bunch of us to remake the million plus homes/apartments built every year. US for now, but getting interest from abroad. Might be awhile before we take that leap, too many different regs. We offer a 10 year warranty on craftsmanship and help support equipment warranties. We are looking at service programs to further simplify ownership. Most tech has actually been around for awhile, but will support closely. We are focused on building a brand, so that reputation is critical. Thanks!

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11yr ago

Gumroad

@bennettdickson This looks amazing and very ambitious! 1. These houses seem to be geared towards single families. Are there any alternative types in the works for new sectors like co-housing. 2. As it seems the houses come prepackaged with the design, how do you plan to get Architects involved? ( and not just contractors and builders). Are you planning to put us out of jobs :)

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11yr ago

Ideator

Sweet. I want one. Do you have a tool to help calculate the total cost to complete? Is it usually more or less than traditional construction?

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10yr ago

Acre Designs

Maker

@cpsmith04 hi Charlie, great question. We've tried to make the pricing simple. The costs on our website include basic foundations, the complete build, plus the solar and appliances (The full "NetZero" package!). The only additional costs would be an upcharge for unique site constraints (i.e. bedrock, steep slope), any optional upgrades you choose, and landscaping/paving on your site. We're more affordable than most other Zero Energy options, and depending on your location, either at or slightly above traditional construction. We add a lot of value by being a higher quality option, built in half the time, and generating huge long-term savings.

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10yr ago

Ideator

@jen_dickson Thanks Jennifer. That would certainly make you cheaper than any other option in Marin County! Do you have a breakdown of the add-on costs? I didn't see it.

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10yr ago

Acre Designs

Maker

@cpsmith04 will send you info!

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10yr ago

Chatfuel

@bennettdickson I love the project but also believe that there should be more price difference from 2BR house to 4BR one, It almost doesn't make sense to get a 2BR at that price. Also, I wonder, are these houses modular? So for example, can you design vertical shaped house from the same material that will use less land for populated cities with expensive land prices?

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11yr ago

Acre Designs

Maker

@ehevich thanks for the insights. We find that a lot of people WANT to live a smaller, more edited life. Less space = less stuff and less cleaning/maintenance. It also depends on lot sizes and local size restrictions. We design around modular plumbing/ kitchen cores, which stack for multi-family, and create efficiency between our single-family designs.

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11yr ago

Sustainable and energy efficient housing is something I am very interested as a builder. Based in Australia, in interested to know more about your guaranteed build times when variables like available subcontract labour and pricing are always factors to content with, and vary from country to country. Secondly, liability for workmanship, am I right in understanding you have developed the design and package then partner with builders to execute the construction. Im interested to know who bears the home owners warranty for the actual build. The contractor or you? Great idea

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11yr ago

Acre Designs

Maker

@a12rj a big part of our solution is designed to shorten build cycle and make those more consistent. Our sips she'll is a great start and our packaged mechanical setup helps reduce the expensive parts. We warranty the work ultimately, part of establishing a brand.

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10yr ago

Summer Bod 2020

This is super cool. I love the idea of making most people's single biggest possession and purchase more efficient.

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11yr ago

Chatbot Mafia ☠️

This looks AWESOME! Building more sustainable homes will have a huge impact on the world. Very inspiring and best of luck in the future @bennettdickson @jen_dickson!

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11yr ago

Acre Designs

Maker

@whoismaxpelzner thanks for the enthusiasm!

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11yr ago