Builders of “Green” Home Hope to Let Sunshine In

By Erik Robinson, The Columbian, Vancouver, Wash.

Jun. 1–Designers of a super-green home in Felida want it to generate as much energy as it consumes.

Yet there’s no getting around a blazingly clear fact of life in Southwest Washington: Our drizzly climate presents a significant obstacle for generating solar energy.

Proponents still believe it’s possible, but only by wringing every ray of sunshine out of the sky — and only if the home’s occupants live an extreme version of the Northwest’s eco-friendly reputation.

To meet the Living Building Challenge, the house must net zero energy over the course of a year.

It won’t be a total energy island. The house will be hooked to the same Clark Public Utilities transmission system that serves the rest of the bungalow-style homes in the subdivision. It will employ a net metering device to distribute surplus energy to the grid when the sun is shining and take in electricity at night and when the sky is overcast.

Builder John Fazzolari went into the project believing net-zero energy would be the toughest obstacle.

Lately, he’s been more encouraged.

“I actually feel like we’ve got a pretty good grasp on that,” he said. “I’m pretty sure we have the plan that’s going to work.”

Others consulting on the project aren’t so sure

“There’s no way in the world there’s going to be enough room on that roof to put enough solar panels to make the house net-zero,” said Mike Lubliner, a building science specialist with the Washington State University Energy Program in Olympia.

Later, he qualified the statement. While it may theoretically be possible to generate a substantial amount of energy, even in a predominantly cloudy climate — Lubliner, backed by a U.S. Department of Energy program, is working up a computer simulation to find out just how much the house will need — he said it won’t come close to meeting the typical modern American’s demand for energy.

“It’s all about lifestyle,”

Lubliner said. “You’ve got to get somebody who doesn’t have a big-screen TV, who isn’t on the computer all night … who uses a clothesline, not a dryer.”

In designing what is believed to be the nation’s first single-family house built to the greenest of green certification standards, designers face a daunting array of challenges. The building must meet 16 prerequisites under six broad categories of sustainability: energy; site design; materials; water; indoor environment; and beauty and inspiration.

“That’s why this is a ‘challenge,’ ” project organizer Brandon Tauscher said.

Besides slathering the south-facing roof with photovoltaic panels, meeting the net-zero energy challenge is forcing designers to eke out efficiencies everywhere they can find.

A solar water heater will be placed amid the greenery on the “eco-roof” of the adjacent garage. High-efficiency windows will maximize heating in the winter and cooling in the summer. The house will be tightly sealed and efficiently ventilated. A “smart” system will monitor and, potentially, adjust energy usage throughout the house. A ductless heating system that uses pipes filled with liquid refrigerant will efficiently regulate room temperature. Designers are even contemplating heat exchangers that would, for example, be able to capture heat from hot water poured down a sink.

Designers can’t afford to skimp on appliances, said Chuck Dougherty, a consultant with Vancouver-based Synergy Design Group who is coordinating the home’s design. The design must anticipate the way people are likely to live.

“You can’t just buy a small fridge, because the homeowner will just buy another one to stick in the garage,” Dougherty said. “You end up shooting yourself in the foot.”

The same principle applies in reverse on the energy-supply side of the equation.

“We don’t want to oversize it,” architect Timothy Buckley said. “‘Bigger’ doesn’t mean more efficient, and it doesn’t mean ‘better.’ ”

And it definitely doesn’t mean cheaper.

“Cost is going to be a factor,” Buckley said during a meeting of consultants earlier this year, “and John reminds us of that nearly every day.”

Fazzolari initially estimated the cost of solar panels alone to be $80,000, but he now believes it will be substantially less. Covering roughly 800 square feet of the south-facing half of the roof should allow the panels to generate roughly 8 kilowatts, which Dougherty figures ought to come fairly close to meeting the needs of a highly efficient and relatively small 1,780-square-foot home.

“We’re in pretty good shape,” he said.

Fazzolari, who ultimately must find a buyer willing to pay top dollar for a house with a composting toilet, is maintaining his enthusiasm.

“We’re building a sports car,” he said. “An efficient sports car.”

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Copyright (c) 2008, The Columbian, Vancouver, Wash.

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