Clean Energy

Success Stories

 

CERTs-Southeast: Clean Energy Resource Teams of SE Minnesota

Energy Self-Sufficient Home with all the Conveniences

Talk about a labor of love!  Jim Riddle and Joyce Ford built their house with their own hands, incorporating many recycled materials and relying on the wind, the woods and the sun for their energy needs. 

The house is built into a hillside in beautiful Wiscoy Valley, Winona County.  The timberframe house was constructed form locally-logged butternut. The stone foundation was salvaged from an old barn; Joyce and Jim chipped the old mortar from the limestone blocks and taught themselves stonemasonry.  The 14" thick stone walls (with additional 2" of foam insulation outside) help moderate the interior temperature, absorbing heat during the day and releasing the heat on cool nights. Even the roof  is from recycled materials -- 1940's metal roof tiles from a deconstructed building.

The house incorporates both passive and active solar technologies. Facing 12^o east of south, the house gets maximum sun exposure during the winter and deep roof overhangs provide shade during summer.  The lower level of the house has a sunroom with slate walls (old blackboards where their kids could create chalk art) and  limestone floors (imperfectly cut pieces purchased from a nearby quarry at $5 a truckload) that absorb the heat and provided a great place to start seeds when  the family grew organic vegetables for market.

A small woodstove heats the house in winter, with LP gas backup if the family is away for a few days. Copper tubing spirals around the stove pipe.  Well water running through the tubing is heated on its way to a water tank (the tubing also runs under the sunroom floor.) 

All the appliances are very energy efficient.  The refrigerator is a 12-volt Sunfrost brand, super insulated, with the motor on top.  It uses 1/3 the energy a typical refrigerator-freezer requires. The rest of the appliances - range, dishwasher, clothes washer and dryer - are Bosch brand, selected for both energy efficiency and the availability of local repair service.

Electricity is provided by three pole-mounted photovoltaic arrays  and a small wind generator.  Two of the solar arrays are fixed, facing the direction of average optimum year-round sunshine. A third tracking array was added last year. 

The wind generator, located up the  hill,  is a 1 kw Whisper 1000 on a 40-foot tilt-up tower (no climbing required for maintenance).  The electricity is stored in a bank of 18 lead-acid deep cycle batteries. The batteries store enough solar and wind power to meet the energy needs for the entire household and two offices.  They also recharge the family's battery-powered trimming lawnmower and the silent  trawling motor for the fishing boat!