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Okay, so I am a procrastinator. I think it’s time to confess. Trying to tie renewable energy systems into my home has been in the back of my mind for about 15 years now. So why the wait? I don’t know—job, children, job, children. You know, the usual. I figured I would have this wonderful epiphany showing me the way to when, where and how it would all come together. That was never the case.

Finally, having the opportunity to build a new home a few years ago, I had my chance to apply sustainable building techniques and energy efficient ideas. I decided I would build with the intent of later adding on renewable energy systems, such as solar thermal to heat water, or photovoltaic panels to produce electricity.

Since solar water and space heating applications have always interested me the most, my focus was a passive solar house design to reduce the heating load and help a solar thermal system work more effectively.

Taking what's free

Where to locate my house on the lot was a fairly easy decision, based on basic passive solar design principles: you orient the long axis of the house in such a way as to get optimum solar gain through south-facing windows; you protect the north side from winter energy losses and limit the west side from too much summer heat gain.

This very simple design would allow me to use all the free energy savings first, and allow for a tremendous amount of natural day lighting—more free stuff.

With a great deal of help from friends and family, the construction project continued. Wayne Stevens of Rhinelander was the general contractor and his insight and enthusiasm was always appreciated. (In a follow-up article we’ll be visiting Wayne and exploring a green home he is working on now.)    

My three-bedroom home is 2,400 sq. ft. with two floors, and is built into a hillside. The wood floors and paneling reflect the hard work of Doug McRae, who harvested the ash trees, and the magic of Krueger’s Sawmill, located near Nicolet College, that turned them into a finished product.

Another local talent and dear friend, Rod Loduha, was on the scene from footings to final stucco work. Inside, his hand-textured finishes add warmth to the walls and ceilings.

In all, the house just plain feels good.

Part of that feel-good comes from the way the house is heated. For most of the time, a wood-fired soapstone parlor stove provides all the necessary heat. Radiant floor heat, powered by a high condensing gas boiler, warms the 5-inch concrete floor and the upstairs tile floor. Radiant floor heat is also a very efficient way to utilize solar thermal space heating.

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