NEWS > MARTINSBURG JOURNAL ARTICLE (08.28.06)

The following article appeared in the Martinsburg Journal on Monday, August 28, 2006:

A MODEL FOR THE FUTURE
By LAUREN HOUGH / Journal Staff Writer

BERKELEY SPRINGS - With ever-rising energy prices across the country, it's easy to dream of one day owning a home that costs only pennies to maintain.

For nearly a year, a local team of builders has been working to establish an example of one such home - one that would show community members that this seemingly far-fetched dream could easily be a reality in today's day and age.

In 2002, the U.S. Department of Energy's Solar Decathlon was held for the first time in Washington. The event, a competition in which 20 teams of college and university students compete to design, build and operate the most attractive, effective and energy-efficient solar-powered house, caught the attention of thousands, including Larry Robinson, a general contractor and broker from Hedgesville.

"The challenge of the decathlon was to create a house that would collect enough energy from the sun to support a whole lifestyle," Robinson said. "It was pretty amazing that all these schools were able to pull that off and achieve it."

With his interest having been piqued by the event, Robinson, along with Mike and Pete McKechnie, owners of Mountain View Builders, decided to try and purchase a solar home from one of the 12 universities that had up put their designs for sale during the second competition in 2005. A deal was struck among the three men and the team from the University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth, and the 800 square-foot home was disassembled and driven to Morgan County.

The intent behind purchasing and establishing the solar-powered home was to establish a non-profit organization, Mountain View Solar, that would maintain the home on Pious Ridge Road as an educational facility targeting the community, visitors, students and local builders.

The solar home, which is in the process of being moved atop the recently constructed foundation, will sit next to an approximately 160 year-old farmhouse, to be converted into a hybrid home.

The existing structure, once converted, will have things homeowners can put in their house today - little steps that can easily be taken to conserve energy, McKechnie said.

Within the Mountain View Solar House, five main technologies are being used give the structure nearly net-zero energy use - meaning that it would have little, if any, reason to be connected to the traditional energy grid.

The first aspect of building such a unique home lies in the foundation, which sits atop a "sea of gravel" designed to promote drainage and keep the lower level of the house significantly warmer and drier, Robinson said. Structurally Insulated Panels, or SIPS, both frame and insulate the home at a R-32 level, whereas traditional six-inch fiberglass insulation offers only an R-19 rated level of insulation capabilities.

Multi-pane windows with sealed frames, in either a casement or awning structure, can be cranked shut like a refrigerator door, Robinson said, to prevent energy loss through gaps.

About 60 evacuated tube collectors that look like long, fluorescent light bulbs will collect radiant heat energy for domestic hot water and pure home heat without humidity in a more efficient method than traditional flat plate collectors.

"Just like the sun comes in your car and heats it, the light comes through the glass," Robinson said. "It can collect heat energy even when there's not a lot of sun. It's perfect for West Virginia."

In fact, the Mountain State, as well as neighboring Pennsylvania and much of the Appalachian highlands, offers good locations for capturing solar energy.

"It does work in this climate," McKechnie said. "We're in a good spot."

Eighteen solar photovoltaic (PVT) panels from Frederick-based BP Solar use plug-in plate technology to gather direct current (DC) energy to be converted and stored as alternating current (AC) energy for use with household appliances. The house is planned to face true south, to harness the full power of the sun.

All these modern technologies - many already being put to use around the world - might produce mental images of futuristic-looking homes. The Mountain View team, however, has made adjustments to the facade of the Solar House to make it as traditional-looking as any other home on the road.

"We wanted it to look as conventional as possible, as to not scare people away," Robinson said.

Still, the house-in-progress is catching the eyes of local builders and community members.

"All this is getting the attention of the building community," Robinson said, adding that many of the materials used for the home are more readily-available through suppliers.

And now that traditional energy is becoming more and more expensive, it's getting the attention of home owners as well. "People are ready," said McKechnie, who will live in the completed Solar House until the adjacent hybrid home is completed.

"It's going to be here a long, long time as an educational tool," he said of the home. "There's an urgency and a moral responsibility to share knowledge."

While constructing a net-zero home may not be affordable for everyone, the Mountain View Solar Home will serve as an example to the community of what technology is here, available to home owners and builders, he said. Small steps and additions to homes already standing or in construction can add up to significant energy savings as well.

"There's thousands of things you can do," Robinson said. "We're not talking nickels and dimes (in savings), either, we're talking bucks."

Net metering programs, which allow home owners to sell excess electricity generated back to the grid at a retail price, are already in place in more than 35 states and offers home owners employing solar technologies to receive their payback much more quickly.

Though West Virginia is one of 10 states that does not currently support such a program, a public hearing has been slated for September to bring it under review with the state, said Katy Fidler, of the Eastern Panhandle Home Builders Association.

For more information on the Mountain View Solar Home, visit www.mountainviewsolar.org.

- Staff writer Lauren Hough can be reached at 263-8931, ext. 163, or at lhough@journal-news.net