DYI: The All-Renewable Energy Home!

October 2003 was a devastating month in San Diego County. Of the three major brush fires that month, the Cedar fire from October 25-31 became the worst such fire in California history killing 14 people and destroying some 2400 houses. One of those homes was owned by Rich Caputo and Carol Jacklin near the rural town of Julian about 40 miles east of San Diego.

Rich and Carol decided to rebuild a house that was thermally tight and use renewable energy for heat, hot water and electricity. They also purchased energy efficient appliances. They even allowed for capturing gray water and rainwater for irrigating the garden. The results won Rich the Special Achievement in Energy by a Homeowner Award from the San Diego Regional Energy office in February.

A passive direct-gain solar design was used to heat the home with a large amount of southerly glazing and a heavy masonry floor was laid to store some of the solar energy for release later in the day. The solar orientation was planned to help heat the house on cold winter mornings as afternoons are relatively mild.

Special low-emissivity windows were installed which capitalized on warm sunlight but also blocked heat from leaking into or out of the house. Rich figures this passive solar heating in winter covers 50% of their needs. The back it up with a pellet wood stove which uses wood waste biproducts like sawdust. A central propane heating unit is available and a fan with ducting can be used occasionally to spread renewable heat around the house.

Natural lighting is achieved via the extra glazing of the passive solar design and Solatubes are used for lighting the bathrooms. Ninety percent of interior lighting are fluorescents.

A solar water heater with 40 square feet of active thermal panels is connected to a 50-gallon solar heat storage tank using an ethanol loop for freeze protection and a double-walled heat exchanger to pass the heat to the potable home water. Solar-heated water passes through a high-efficiency 30-gallon propane heater in case additional heating is needed. An anti-scalding valve is used to mix with cold water to keep incoming water at 120 degrees.

For electricity, a grid-tie PV system is mounted on the roof using 18 BP 165 panels with an SMA Sunny Boy inverter. The system should provide about 5000 kWh/year or 90% of annual needs. The roof is angled 30% south for near-optimum energy generation.

An additional solar water heating panel was added to heat a 400-gallon, well-insulated hot tub. (After all, this IS California!).

For a more detailed description of the Caputo/Jacklin award-winning home contact Rich at richardcaputo@sbcglobal.net.