Greenhouse not just for plants
After eight years of planning, USU professor Ed Stafford is only two months away from moving into his dream home. But the 4,000 square foot house isn’t your average structure. It’s green.
Stafford, a marketing professor, has designed a near-zero energy home, constructed to cost 60 to 90 percent less than a normal house in utility costs.
The process has been long for Stafford and after dreaming of building a low-energy home for so long, he said it is probably one of the hardest things he has ever done. However, he said he believes the benefits are extensive.
First, Stafford said it is better for the environment and is more energy efficient, something more people need to consider.
“When building houses, people don’t think about energy efficiency,” he said.
To further his efforts, Stafford said he focused on four main areas– heating, cooling, appliances and lighting. Stafford’s home includes energy-saving and green features like countertops made of recycled paper, decks constructed of recycled plastic bottles, bags and wood, and compressed fluorescent light bulbs that use 27 percent of the energy required by typical light bulbs.
Stafford is also using a geothermal pump, what he calls the most radical feature of his new home, for heating and cooling.
Installed 200 feet underground, the pump eliminates the need for a standard furnace and air conditioner by warming water for domestic use and heat and cooling air. Stafford said the pump works similar to a refrigerator, but in reverse.
To heat his home, Stafford said he is using radiant heat floors. The pump will circulate water heated to 70 or 80 degrees under the floors. This will help warm the home because the system heats objects, rather than forced air.
Stafford has had icynene insulation placed in his walls that he said should make this home like an igloo.
To cool the home, the pump will send cooler air through the vents.
Stafford said he is expecting a 75 percent reduction in energy costs with the geothermal pump. To install regular air conditioning and heating systems in a house the size of Stafford’s, it costs $27,000. Stafford said the geothermal pump costs $43,000.
While it is $16,000 more, Stafford said it eliminates the cost of natural gas which is about $1,000 a year, taking about eight years to pay itself off.
It requires more electricity to run the pump, Stafford said but after he evaluates exactly how much electricity it requires, he hopes to purchase a solar panel, making it a net zero-energy home.
With the exception of natural gas for cooking, Stafford said his home will independent of natural gas.
In addition to these innovations, Stafford said he and his wife have purchased an Aska washer and dryer, designed to use only $8 of energy a year.
“I hope it washes clothes,” Stafford said.
The home is also installed with Energy Star windows and doors. Stafford said it is hard to estimate how much money those will save him but he said cost is not the only important thing.
“It’s not just economics, it’s comfort,” he said.
Stafford said one of the most obvious, zero-cost decisions in building his home was picking the lot and carefully placing the home on it. Stafford said he had to find a lot facing south in order to maximize the angles of the sun.
In constructing his home, Stafford had three, six and nine-foot eaves designed to block the summer sun, reducing the energy needed to cool the home.
Stafford said the goal for the longer eaves to block the summer sun has already proved itself to the construction workers.
He said, “The workers said they liked working on the second floor. The second floor is very temperate– an indication that it’s working and we haven’t even finished it. That’s kind of exciting.”
He also designed his home to have the garage on the west side to act as a buffer to the hot setting sun and reduce the need for cooling.
Stafford said of these decisions, like the angle of the house and location of the garage, Stafford said anyone can make with their home, they don’t have to be dedicated to the green movement.
“Some of it’s not green per say, it’s just really smart,” he said.
Stafford has been heavily involved with renewable energy, clean technology and conservation efforts on campus. Because of his career, Stafford said he was more motivated to construct an energy efficient home.
“I see the house as part of my research,” he said. “It’s hard to talk about ‘build green’ and then not live in a green house.”
Stafford also said it will benefit the community. By proving green homes are feasible, comfortable and beautiful, he said he hopes people will have an increased interest in them.
When hearing about green buildings, he said people immediately think of ultra modern, weird looking homes but Stafford’s is designed in an Italian Tuscan style, dissimilar to the strange angles and materials people imagine in energy efficient facilities.
“When they think green buildings, they think ‘Gilligan’s Island,'” Stafford said. But with his home, he said, “If you didn’t know, you couldn’t tell.”
Stafford said it took along time to find an architect willing to do it. After floating the idea of building green to many who told him it was a bad idea, he found Angela Dean of AMD Architecture.
While Stafford said it is more expensive upfront to build green, it improves the quality of the house and the extra cost should eventually pay itself off.
He said, “It’s not only good for the environment but you save money. I’d rather have money go into the equity of the home than to the energy company.”
With runaway energy costs eating the income of the middle class, Stafford said he thinks energy is going to be the biggest issue of the 21st Century and that more people will be interested in the movement or, at least saving money.
“You don’t have to be green to want to save money on your energy bill,” Stafford said.
He also said, “Building green– it’s clever. It’s a smarter way to build. All homes should be that way.”
–arie.k@aggiemail.usu.edu