CLEMMONS -- When the sun sinks low in the sky, the high windows in the foyer of Jill and David Mayer's new house turn from clear to deep blue. The shading blocks much of the heat of the afternoon sun.
Come winter, the windows will remain clear all day, allowing the sun to warm the slate floor of the foyer, which will retain some of the heat.
When the sun hits the roof, photovoltaic panels collect its energy for electricity, and solar panels collect energy for hot water.
When rain falls, gutters and downspouts direct the water into a 1,550-gallon harvesting tank with pipes that divert the water back into the house. The Mayers use the water, which isn't suitable
for drinking, to water plants outside. By harvesting the water, they prevent as much as they can from going into the storm-water system and save by not using drinking water outside. The hoses are labeled to make it obvious that the reclaimed water is not fit for drinking.
When the Mayers do laundry, they stand on a sustainable cork floor and load their clothes into an energy-efficient washer.
The Mayers planned their house to fulfill three principles that they consider important -- it is highly energy efficient, it is built from "green" or sustainable products, and it is handicapped accessible.
The house is Energy-Star rated, a special utility rating, with a score of 53. That means that the house uses 53 percent of the energy that a house of its size -- 6,000 heated square feet, including an unfinished basement -- would ordinarily use. The heated space upstairs, where the family lives, covers 2,600 square feet.
The basement will eventually be used for storage space for their family and a suite for missionaries who need a place to stay between assignments. The suite will consist of a great room, bedroom, study, bathroom and closet.
The Mayers are Southern Baptists, but the suite will be open to members of other denominations. Radiant heating tubes, which provide heat with water from the solar hot-water heater, run beneath the floor.
"They're not intended to be heating down here," Jill Mayer said. "It's just a comfort thing, to get the coldness out of the slab." The house is heated by a three-ton, energy-efficient heat pump and a smaller unit in the bonus room over the garage.
Electricity generated from the photovoltaic panels goes into the electric power grid, and the Mayers then pay Duke Energy for what they use. By providing excess energy to the grid, they hope to equal or exceed the amount of energy that they use. Duke pays them a few cents per kilowatt hour for excess energy that they place on the grid, and they will soon be paid 15 cents per kilowatt hour by NC GreenPower, a statewide nonprofit organization geared toward improving the state's environment through voluntary contributions toward renewable energy.
In March, their bill was $104.54 after Duke Energy deducted credits of $6.55. They received a check for $21.15 from NC GreenPower. In April, their bill was $70.41, with credits of $8.09. They produced more excess electricity in April, so David Mayer expects their total electricity cost for the month to be less than $50 once they receive a check from NC GreenPower.
The house was built with an insulated concrete foundation, structural insulated panels and energy-efficient windows and skylights, which make it far less vulnerable to energy leaks. The Mayers blew in insulation for the bonus room over the garage and caulked around can lights.
"The best thing you can do for a house is insulate and stop leaks," David Mayer said. "It's sort of the low-hanging fruit for energy efficiency."
Mayer, with the input of his wife and children, designed the house. He is a corporate architect for new stores with Lowe's Companies Inc. He oriented the house to take advantage of the sun and placed windows to maximize natural ventilation.
The house faces south. A deep overhang blocks the summer sun, which travels high in the sky. In winter, when the sun's arc is lower, light streams in.
In terms of sustainability, the Mayers used bamboo, a fast-growing grass that's easily renewed, for the floors and the deep window seats of their daughters' bedrooms. Kristen, 17, and Anna, 13, often sit in the open windows and sometimes climb through them to go outside.
Cork floors in the laundry room and mudroom absorb sound and feel cushy underfoot. The bark of long-lived cork trees can be stripped every 10 years without harming the tree.
They built the house with exterior timbers of insect-resistant cypress and interior timbers of Douglas fir, which can hold up for more than 100 years. They used reclaimed timbers from an old barn in Virginia for stair treads, the handrail and the living- room mantel.
The Mayers wanted their house to be handicapped accessible, he said, because "Lord willing, Jill and I will be here a long time." So they made doors 3 feet wide to accommodate wheelchairs and designed the shower so that a chair can roll in. A closet in the foyer and a pit in the basement beneath can be converted for an elevator.
David Mayer did a great deal of research, exploring the best products and systems for energy-efficiency and sustainability, when he and his wife decided to build their new house. As a member of the American Institute of Architects, he supports an initiative that calls for carbon-neutral building by the year 2030. Carbon-neutral buildings don't use more energy than they produce, Mayer said. He and his wife spent between $525,000 to $600,000 on their house.
Building green was the right thing to do, he said. "It's a little bit of walking the talk."
The Mayers aren't perfect when it comes to being green, they said. They don't do composting, for instance. But they did what they could to make their home as green as they felt they could.
"If everybody has the ability to do something, it's better than not doing anything," he said.
■ Janice Gaston can be reached at 727-7364 or at jgaston@wsjournal.com.
■ For more information on building a green house, check the Web sites http://www.greenhomebuilding.com/ and http://www.greenhomeguide.org/.
Email
Facebook
Google
Twitter
Favorites
More
Advertisement