Interview with Carrie

On Tuesday afternoon, after all the rain and gloomy clouds disappeared, I drove out to Carrie's "green" house and got the full tour! I was mistaken and thought that her house was more of a tiny house, but it turns out that while originally their house was minimal, they added onto it later when they moved. Yes they actually transported their house to a new area, it was was so tiny. So now their total square footage is 1800 sq. ft. I'll go through a step-by-step process of how their house is all set up!

1. The solar panel canopy. Their whole roof is covered with 72 solar panels. They used to all be hooked up to a battery system in the lower level of their house. This meant that they had 72 humongous box-like figures in their house. This allowed them to live off the grid. After a while, they started to be fussy and overheat, so they got rid of them and went back on the grid, meaning they're connected to NYSEG and they erected the solar credits system (which I explained in my second to most recent blog post). 

I got to go up on their roof! That's how I took the next couple of pictures!

2. The evaculated glass/metal solar tubes (what the finger is pointing to in the picture below). This is the primary way their house is heated. At first, I thought, "How the heck do these things work??" I've never heard of them before! What happens is that there's a glycol tank in their utility room just outside of their house. The glycol is pumped up to these 48 tubes on the roof, gets heated by the sun, then flows back to the house into three smaller tubes. These three tubes then travel to concrete slabs in different areas of the house and the heat rises up through them. While the tubes emit no CO2 or any other harmful substances, they were at least as costly, if not more, then your average water heater/furnace. Each tube cost $125, and there are 48 of them, so the total for the tubes was $6,000, not to mention the added metal glycol holding storage tank. 

Below are pictured the three different tubes the glycol gets transferred to 

3. The area surrounded by the circular metal mesh if their ho

me garden. They grow and eat virtually all of their vegetables in here from May until October, including lettuce, carrots, potatoes (not a vegetable, but a staple food), tomatoes (also not a veggie, but a staple), asparagus, and more. They also have a few fruit trees surrounding the garden, and some cranberry bushes! 

4. This is the invertor, where the electrical current produced by the solar panels gets inverted from D.C. to A.C. Again, this whole process was explained in my second most recent entry.

5. You may be thinking, "Why would they ever store food, especially a pineapple and an orange, in a drawer?" Well the fancy thing about this drawer is that it has air conditioning! Meaning it's a fridge... This way of storing non-perishable food items is actually much more efficient because when you open the door, not all of the cold air immediately comes rushing out, keeping the food not as cold as it should be kept. Since cold air sinks, the air naturally stays within the drawers. 

6. The little sun-room dining type room shown here is significant because if you look at the accordion-folded doors on the left, this room can be closed off during the winter months, meaning it doesn't take as much heat to heat the house as it would if this room was open. 

7. The circular piece of wood you see here is actually the primary form of insulation for this house. They're called SIPs (Structural Insulating Panels) and made out of old tree bark. What makes these so efficient is one, they're made from recycled tree bark, and two, when stacked together to form a wall, there are no gaps. The only con about these is that they cost $12,800 to install.

8. This blue foamy looking stuff here is the other type of insulation they use, which is 100% cotton and made out of recycled blue jeans! Don't worry, we were NOT dealing with fiber glass insulation. They cost nothing to install. 

9. This is the other main way Carrie and Mike heat their house, with this Masonry stove. It's located in the lower level of their house (which I forgot to mention was earth bermed). The stove basically goes crazy for a couple of hours while they fill it with food to burn, then the heat radiates out of it without them having to put a lot of wood in for a while. They also use the top oven to heat their food in the winter time. 

10. Below is the tile job of their upstairs shower, which was completed by Carrie and her son, Sam. I just thought this was so beautiful I had to post a picture of it :)

11. The sink counter-top is a slab of stone they just found on their property, so Mike carved out a space for the sink. Maybe I'll learn how to use some serious power tools and do this myself someday!

12. Lastly, here is a picture of their house from the front/side view. 

I asked Carrie afterwards why she and Mike went through all of this research, physical labor, and money to put this house together. Her answer was very well thought out and compassionate. She felt like there was more she could be doing to reduce her impact on this earth. We all contribute to climate in some way, and we need to be mindful of those other species who are doing all they can reduce climate change. We need to do the same. 

Also, they were planning to retire when they got this house, which was in 2008. Mike and Carrie thought it would be fun and adventurous to undergo this big of a project. They ended up moving here earlier than they thought, which was 2010, while they still had both of their jobs, but it was still fun. 

They also weren't that afraid to make a huge leap like this, because they weren't afraid of the country, not being close to their neighbors. This house also served them as the new family "dog" when their kids went off to college. 

Sadly, they will be moving out of this house in the fall of 2016 because of a new job opportunity. I wish I could make enough money by then to rent it out, because I would love to live out here. 

While this isn't a perfect solution (it took a lot of energy to make the solar panels and the evaculated solar tubes), it's a big step in the right direction. 

Also, here's a chart of all the features of the house, including the costs, notes, manufacturers, and the location of each one in the house.