Welcome to N 44^o05'54" W 121 ^o16'49"
(aka, 63309 NE Stonewood, Farewell Bend, Oregon, 97701)

Welcome to our home! Jen and I decided we wanted to build a solar house years ago. When we moved to Bend, it seemed to be the perfect time and place. This page will explain the cool ways our home is energy-efficient and environmentally sensible. There won't be a whole lot of photos on this page; there are a ton on the construction page. Hopefully you get some ideas here. Run with them. I'm still running. I can't wait to try out some other ideas. Let me know, if you think of anything, or try something new, or have some crazy idea about how to make your house better...chances are, it's not that crazy. My neighbors thought I was insane when I manually moved basalt boulders to our backyard...and now those same people think the xeriscaping back there is gorgeous. If you have a crazy idea...I wanna hear it. Hope this page is informative, or, at least, a nice diversion from whatever else you're supposed to be doing.

Passive Solar Design
Have you ever gone out on a cold winter's morning, when it's below freezing? Maybe the sun was out...it's often out here in Bend. After you've been out a little, it begins to feel warmer than it actually is. That's passive solar heating. The sun warms you, even though the air temperature is colder'n hades. Our home, designed and built by Solaire, maximizes the sun's heat in winter and minimizes it in summer. We do this with two main elements: orientation and window placement.

The sun is, for all intents and purposes, free heat. Why not use it? Our house is designed with an eyebrow, which is simply a small roof that extends over the south wall first story. Its purpose is simple: In summer, when the sun is higher in the sky, it blocks the sun's rays (and therefore, heat) from coming into the first floor. In winter, when the sun is lower, the sun's rays are below the eyebrow, and can come in to heat the ground floor, which in turn heats the rest of the house.

In order for this to be efficient, however, the house must be oriented properly so as to exploit the sun. Our house's south wall was actually supposed to face east; because of our lot, we had to do a little phenagling. The biggest change, from a solar perspective, was arranging the windows. I actually designed the window layout myself, which was a lot of fun. You can read about it on the construction page.

"What? You don't have A/C?" No need. In summer, since Bend's in the high desert, it gets darn chilly at night. We open all of the windows. Then, next morning (early), we close them all. This traps the cool air inside the house. Even on days when it's in the 90s outside, the house rarely gets above 70 inside.

Active Solar Design
So, the house exploits the sun's energy just by sitting correctly. Why doesn't everyone build their house this way? You tell me. I can't figure it. But passive solar wasn't enough for Jen and me. You see, we were told (and it's not far off base) that Bend gets 300 sunny days a year. Why not use a solar panel?

Now, there are couple of different kinds of solar panels. There are photovoltaic (PV) panels. These convert solar energy into electricity...and, because of 1) 2009 federal and Oregon tax incentives and 2) Pop Pop Rule, we were able to realize our dream and install a 2 kW system on our home! 12 Sharp panels tie into a locally - made PV Powered inverter and Voila! Electricity. Thank you, confusing American tax code, for allowing Washington to print enough money for us to offset some of our electric bill. It feels great when you see that power meter spinning backwards.

Did you notice, in the above picture of the PV cells, the other solar panel, below and off to the left? If not, go back and look...I'll wait...

In the world of active solar, there are also panels that are simply collectors that heat fluid. Our house has a Heliodyne Gobi 410, connected to our domestic water supply. The sun heats the black panel, which has tubes of propelyne glycol running through it. The glycol is heated to several hundred degrees Fahrenheit, and then it is stored in a tank in a the garage. Through a heat exchanger, this superheated glycol heats our domestic hot water.

We also have a backup hot water heater, on the days the sun doesn't shine. I haven't been able to figure the energy savings from the PV cells (they haven't been on long enough yet to establish meaningful data), but our gas bill (we use natural gas for any heat needed above and beyond that created by the sun) is only 25% of the local "average" for heating and hot water. You read that right.



Sensible Heating
Our house has radiant floor heat. The idea is simple: take the radiators off the wall, and put them under your feet. Seriously. Well, OK, not radiators in the traditional sense. We have super-PEX tubing encased in the concrete slab downstairs, and stapled underfloor upstairs (note: if we could've done it again, we would've put the tubes upstairs into some kind of concrete). The idea is to create a thermal mass, which, once heated, holds heat for very long periods of time.

We have a Takagi T-K2 Instantaneous hot water heater hooked to this system. It runs on gas, and only comes on when needed, which is possible because of the large thermal mass downstairs. The house has 4 heating zones, and I gotta tell you, walking around with the floors warm is pretty rad. We also installed a gas fireplace, but it's more for looks that functionality. I have to say, however, that it's nice to stand next to after you've been out in the rain.

Some of you might ask, "Why not tie your floors to that hot water solar panel on the roof? Then you get off the gas grid!" Great question; however, I've been assured by the solar folks in the know that, since our house is such a heat producer passively, the system would spend more time storing hot water than using it for the floors. We're better off using it for domestic purposes, and using the tiny bit of gas we need to use to (occasionally) get the floor temperature up a tad.

Sensible Building Materials

We were able to make the house even greener by using recycled/renewable resourses throughout. For example, we used marmoleum in the bathrooms and laundry, because it is a natural floor covering (marmoleum is actually what linoleum used to be; it was called "linoleum" becuase it was made of linseed. It's not, anymore...but marmoleum is). We chose cork for the kitchen and entry, since cork is a fast-growing, sustainable wood. In other parts of the the house, we used 100% wool carpet, which was pretty pricey, but a lot better for you that synthetics (apparently, dust mites hate wool). Plus, it's (again) 100% renewable, and Jen tells me the sheep seem to like getting sheared.

We went with knotty alder cabinets with formalyhyde-free insides, and low VOC paint, both of which prevent chemical vapors in the house. Engineered wood beams hold us up. Blow-in blanket insulation keeps the house cool when we want it to be (without A/C) , and warm when we want it to be.

The house is very tight...this is how it manages to keep its temperatures constant. Our windows have built in vents that keep the air fresh inside. They also have a great R-factor.

Shop Smart(ly)
This part's pretty easy. Use Energy Star appliances. Period. It's not that hard, and they save you substantial amounts of energy and, thus, money. Our washer, dryer, fridge, stove, microwave, TV, stereo components, and dishwasher are all Energy Star. The washer, further, is front-loading, which uses less water. We had an internal vacuum system installed, which takes care of dust and kitty hair nicely. So nicely, in fact, that our friends who are allergic to cats can come over and be comfortable.

Oh, and while I'm here in the shop smart section...if you must buy fast food, at least go to In n'Out. Here's one reason why.

The Three R's
Reduce, Reuse and Recycle. You'd be amazed what you can do with this simple idea. For example, all of the shelving in my shop and the garage was made from scraps from the framing and siding of the house. ALL of it. That's 4 shoe racks, a bench, one 3' by 12' bike storage shelf, eight 2.5' by 13' shelves, a wraparound shelf and overhead wood racks.

In 2010, I reclaimed 50 feet of fencing from Jen's parent's house and reused it to create about 40 feet of fence at our house. The posts? My old neighbor worked for the local power company and had a bunch of 4 by 6's from power poles. They work great (freaking bombproof, too). I only had to buy some hardware and a few boards (cedar's pretty splitty once it's dry).

In our backyard, we built a retaining wall out of excavated stone from two job sites up the street. This stone was slated for (you guessed it) the dump. As part of that wall, we built in a firepit, in which we burned the rest of the scrap wood we couldn't use (I still have plenty of 2 by 4's and 2 by 6's left). I transplanted a number of juniper, sage, and lodgepole pine saplings from other bare lots that were destined to become mulch.

Speaking of mulch...you can make your own! Take all of your yard debris and place it in a dedicated 10 foot diamter circular area in your back yard somewhre. Make sure it gets wet regularly, and turn it regularly. Add organic scraps (veggie stalks, newspapers, egg cartons, wood shavings) once in a while. Mix in some topsoil. Have at it! Out here (in the desert, mind you) I was able to turn about 2 cubic yards of waste into a beautiful top dressing for our veggie garden.

When we bought the lot, I noticed that there were 8 railroad ties in the backyard. Half of them went in the walkway to our front door, and the other half went to building a support wall for our crowning glory, Jenny Pond. Excepting the filter system and liner, the pond is entirely composed of river rock, pebbles, slate, smooth basalt and cinder blocks rescued from a lazy-ass sub's dumpsite (which is now, of course, a subdivision).

You Can Do This!
Sure...when you're building a house, it's easy to be green. How about once you have a house? How do you make it greener?
Well, start with little changes. Install soap-up-savers on your shower heads to use less water. When your appliances need replacing, get Energy Star ones. Reuse anything you can. I recently started saving the tubs from our Soy Garden; for whatever reason, they can't be recycled, so I'll find some use for them.


Back to Sean's page!