Peace and Environment News* November-December 2004
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Peace and Environment News * November-December 2004 |
by Jacquie Johnson
 The bathroom has a low-flow toilet and the shower uses water from the "on demand" water heater. We take "sailor" showers, of course. Photo: Jacquie Johnson. |
It was an exciting day in June when the men came to cut off the electricity. From then on my parents knew they were well and truly on their own—self-sufficient, environmentally friendly and, best of all, getting their power for free!
My dad began designing their energy efficient cottage in January 2002. Being an engineer by profession (although of bridges and roads, not buildings), he planned to do most of the design himself and expected it to be complete by the end of February. Construction could then begin as soon as the snow was gone, in April or May.
But at the end of February he was still working on the roof, having been encouraged by some of his colleagues to "think big" and install a cathedral ceiling with no central support. He also had to design around solar panels, minimal energy consumption, high ceilings and good ventilation. At this point, he says, "the engineer began to take over, and I became fascinated with the structural solutions to this problem."
The solution he chose was a series of hip beams rising from the corners of the roof to a central apex held together by a compression ring at the top and a tension tie at the bottom running around the top of the walls. Basically as the weight of the roof forces the beams to spread outwards, the metal tie rod at the bottom forces them inwards; as long as all the forces are kept in balance, the building doesn't fall down!
As he told the relatives in his annual update, "by this time the simple summer cottage was becoming my Sydney Opera House or Millennium Dome."
Insulating and ventilating
Another important element of the design was a high "R" (insulation) value to minimize the need for heating in the winter and air conditioning in the summer. To achieve this he used an innovative new type of roof panel made of sandwiches of wood consisting of Oriented Strand Board with Expanded Polystyrene (EPS) in the middle. These Structural Insulated Panels are so new that he had to drag a builder out of semi-retirement to help him to install them, as he was the only man in the area who had ever seen them before.
Meanwhile, the walls were constructed of Insulated Concrete Forms—sandwiches of EPS with concrete poured in the middle—which have a high R-value and are strong enough to hold up the roof. Naturally all the windows were double-glazed and tightly sealed as well. In fact the house was so airtight that my dad had to install a ventilation unit with a heat exchanger to bring fresh air inside.
In the summer the building is ventilated by a large number of windows and several skylights. Since heat rises and accumulates in the high ceilings, the skylights allow it to escape through the roof. Fans and internal windows installed near the ceilings channel hot air towards these escape routes.
During the colder months heat is provided by a high-efficiency wood stove and a propane-powered forced air furnace. The spare bedrooms and the basement are separated from the rest of the house with extra thick walls and doors so they can be "sealed off" when not in use. There's no point in heating a room no one's using, is there?
Solar power
During the day large south-facing picture windows allow light and heat into the house; these are covered with thick window quilts at night to keep the heat in (and during the day in the summer to keep it out). Window quilts are simply very thick quilted blinds that keep out light and also create an air pocket between the window and the rest of the room to trap heat.
Of course the piece de resistance is the solar panel on the south side of the roof, which can be adjusted during the winter to match the sun's lower position in the sky. I'm always amazed that the entire house can be run on this one, quite small, panel. When it's sunny, it charges a large bank of batteries in the basement, which can be drawn on when it rains or clouds over. During exceptionally bad weather, a back-up diesel generator can be fired up.
Because we rely on solar power, we have installed a number of energy-saving features, but the impact on our lifestyle is smaller than you might think. The fridge, stove, water heater and furnace all run on propane, which we buy in tanks from the gas station. The water heater operates on demand, thus decreasing heating costs. The toilets have two buttons, one for a small flush, one for a large, thus decreasing our water usage (we're on a well and septic system).
Naturally all the lights are compact fluorescent, which use less electricity and produce less heat than traditional incandescents. We even unplug the microwave and VCR when they're not in use to avoid wasting electricity to power the standby LED.
Getting off the grid
The inspiration for these measures was primarily personal comfort. The old cottage, which we'd been using for over ten years, was built in the '50s and was probably never intended to be used in the winter. It was heated by a wood stove and an oil stove but was always too cold, especially at 3 a.m. when the fire went out. This experience taught my parents the importance of good insulation.
Another motivator was the cost of electricity in rural areas. Because we only used the cottage a few weeks in the year and turned off the power when we weren't there, we were paying many times more in delivery and "debt retirement" charges than we were for the actual kilowatts we were using.
My parents also wanted to be independent of the utility companies and have less impact on the environment. Plus it would simply be "neat" to be "off grid." They initially thought about installing a wind turbine too, but discovered that it would have to be 50 feet high to be effective and, even then, our location is not particularly wind swept.
Now that the wires have been cut, my parents feel proud of themselves. But they acknowledge that they couldn't have done it ten or even five years ago. It is the wider availability and affordability of energy efficient fixtures and appliances and solar power kits in recent years that has made their experiment possible.
The cottage is also not their primary residence, so it doesn't have to support high demand tasks, like laundry, or extended periods of bad weather. But more solar panels can be installed in the future if needed, and improvements in the efficiency of everyday appliances are sure to continue.
My mum's advice to others contemplating these options? Seriously consider whether you are prepared to make the necessary tradeoffs, minor lifestyle changes and the high initial costs; do lots and lots of research; and find the necessary expertise. Overall, she says, it has been a great experience, and, now that the work is finally done, they are looking forward to enjoying the place and seeing how it works out.
Jacquie Johnson writes about environmental issues.
Converted January 3, 2005 - Lg
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