converts sunlight to electricity. Constructed to top-level Platinum LEED standards, the
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Lussier’s custom home is crammed with green building features. But it doesn’t scream solar. The panels and passive solar features are carefully integrated into the $500,000 home, which fits nicely into an existing subdivision in Bend, Ore. “You can barely see the panels when you’re on the ground,”
says Margie Lussier. “They disappear into the roof. We wanted to show you can have a house that doesn’t look like it’s solar, but it is.”
Buyers of high-end homes increasingly are asking for solar energy as part of the custom-home package. Government incen- tives, particularly those in states such as Oregon, make the panels and related gear needed for active solar applications more afford- able than ever. But doing solar right isn’t a matter of just hanging panels on a
handsome house. From the start, the building must be air-sealed and insulated well enough to use very little heat and air condi- tioning. It must have efficient lighting, appliances, and mechani- cal systems that reduce the demand for hot water and electricity. And it should be oriented correctly to the sun. “Make sure you’re integrating all aspects of energy conserva-
tion into the home before you integrate solar on the roof,” says Cindi O’Neil, vice president of sales and marketing at SolAire Homebuilders in Bend, Ore., the company that built the Lussier house. “Then it’s the right kind of icing on the cake.” O’Neil has a good vantage point from which to view the evolu-
tion. SolAire offers building options with three levels of energy efficiency, including a top-level package with both solar hot water and electric. Roughly nine out of 10 customers end up with solar panels, she says, and it’s rare for a home costing more than $400,000 not to have at least solar hot water. “We fill out all the [tax rebate] paperwork for customers and
make it easy,” O’Neil says. “We make it like any other option, like adding a sink.” Hot water is the first choice, because it can slice water heating costs by 80% in sunny, central Oregon. A system that retails for $8,500 can net out at $3,390 after state and federal incentives.
fter 30 years of living in a home that was hot in summer and cold in winter, Margie and Jim Lussier recently moved to a new house that’s very efficient and very comfortable. What’s not obvi- ous from the street is that the house soaks up solar energy three ways: through large, south-facing windows, and with discrete, rooftop panels, one set that heats water, the other that
Tax rebates and utility-sponsored programs made the solar system on this Oregon house affordable, and the integration of the panels into the design of the house made it palatable to owners and neighbors alike. .
October 2010 GreenBuilder
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Photo courtesy SolAire Homebuilders
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