Had enough of oil bills? This tour's full of ideas to kick the habit

On Saturday, Andrea and Jeff Burns expect about 25 to 40 people to stop by their home in Sanbornton. And none of those people will be there to deliver oil or read their electric meter. The Burns home, one of the many on the 2008 Green Buildings Open House tour, is constructed so that all the electricity the family of four consumes is gathered from sunlight, and all the heat and hot water the family uses is provided by a combination of "passive solar heat" and the burning of wood.

The tour is presented locally by the Northeast Sustainable Energy Association, and is part of the American Solar Energy Society's National Solar Tour. It gives the general public the opportunity to see how it's possible to reduce consumption of fossil fuels to nearly zero, while staying comfortable throughout New Hampshire's cold and cloudy winters.

The Burnses have opened their home to the tour for the past six years, and there are many points on the tour that visitors will find interesting.

In addition to the Burns home's ability to forgo the consumption of fossil fuels, Andrea and Jeff chose to build the home using sustainable and locally-produced materials as much as possible, and they used non-toxic materials as often as they could.

It helps that the family owns about 35 acres, from which they harvested much of the lumber used to build the home and which provides enough wood to keep the family in hot water all winter long.

The design of the home is decidedly "crunchy," and fits the family's lifestyle, which also includes home schooling for their children and the organic vegetables that nourish the family year-round. However, there are many aspects of the design that could easily be incorporated into a more conventional home and could save a great deal of energy consumption.

A very low-tech way to take advantage of solar energy is to utilize "passive solar heat." This term simply means that the southern side of the house should have the most windows, that the eastern and western sides have a few windows, and that the northern side have almost no windows. In the Burns home, they have installed insulated curtains, which they open on winter mornings and close when the sun goes down.

A surprising amount of heat can be gained by this method, especially because the sun's lower angle during the winter means that a lot of sunlight enters the building. At the Burns home, which has the benefit of an open southern exposure and superior insulation, this passive solar heat provides enough energy to keep the house warm through the entire month of March.

During the colder winter months, the family burns wood in a stove that is piped into a radiant heat system, a heat system that runs pipes of hot water underneath the floors in the house. In conventional systems, that water would be heated using an oil or propane-fired boiler. In the Burns home, the water is heated by the wood stove and kept warm in a hot water tank. The Burnses also cook using a wood stove.

The family only goes through about three and a half cords of wood each year, a number that is kept down by the high level of insulation in the house. In conventional construction, exterior walls would be four to six inches thick, with fiberglass insulation separated by vertical studs. The effectiveness of the fiberglass insulation is hampered by the that of the wooden studs, which does not have a great insulating effect. When Jeff Burns built his home, he built post-and-beam home with walls 18 inches thick. Inside those walls are straw bales, which insulate better than fiberglass. The straw bales are then covered with clay, and can then be coated with lime cement, on top of which could be any type of siding.

Before you think of any "Three Little Pigs" jokes, you should know that straw bale construction has been around for a long time, and there are homes in the American southwest 150 years old that were built using the technique.

Not only does the insulation keep the home warm in the winter, "it really keeps it cool in the summer," said Andrea. This is important, because the house does not have air conditioning. That's one of the major energy drains that the family decided to do without. They also don't have a dishwasher or clothes drier, and they rarely use their television. They don't have a computer, although that's due to lifestyle choice rather than limited electrical capacity. "We have a lifestyle where we don't spend a lot of money. I think a lot of people could do it," she said.

They could have fancier and electricity-guzzling appliances if they invested more in their solar panels. As it is now, they've only spend $6,000 on eight photovoltaic panels, an inverter and four golf cart batteries to store the juice. That's enough for their lights, various pumps, and a highly-efficient refrigerator, freezer and washing machine. Not bad, considering the power company was going to charge them $5,000 to run a power line up their long driveway.

"It doesn't have to be sunny, it just has to be light out," said Andrea about the efficacy of the solar panels. She noted that there was a stretch of about 48 hours a couple of winters ago when all of their neighbors were without power due to a storm, but not the Burnses.

Overall, building this type of house costs about the same as a conventional home. The materials actually cost less, but there's more labor involved. Jeff is a builder, and has started to build this type of home for his customers. He charges about $100 per square foot.

While they strive for no environmental impact, they recognize that there is mercury in their high-efficiency light bulbs, and the metal components of their home won't biodegrade. However, that's no reason for them to feel discouraged for their efforts, especially since they haven't seen an oil or electricity bill in eight years, and don't plan to receive one in the future, either.

At times, their enthusiasm for low-impact living has left them feeling a bit lonely in their convictions. Andrea said the open house tour has helped to combat that and renew their dedications. "It's been really fun – everyone's starting to care, a huge difference from five or six years ago."

For more information on the tour, including a list of homes available by region, visit www.nesea.org/buildings/openhouse. When using the search, note that the site has a category for both "NH-Lakes Region" and "NH-Central" which seem to have overlapping territories. Check both to avoid missing a nearby house.