see the signal flashing to show that power has been restored,” Ed com- ments. Ed manually switches over to the


municipal power grid only when he senses that the stored power capacity in the home’s solar batteries is running low. He foresees that eventually that system will be automated, but for now, he’s happy to keep track. The solar power generated onsite is enough to operate the house and professional TV cameras; it also charges an electric car in the garage—an all-electric 2002 Toyota RAV4 that’s clocked 85,000 miles. For hot water, the family comfort- ably relies mostly on a simple solar thermal setup—a 4-by-10-foot panel on the roof of black anodized tub- ing behind a piece of glass. A pump activates when a sensor in the panel senses that it’s hotter than the temper- ature in the tank. Ed observes: “If you keep things simple, they work well.” Simplicity also keeps maintenance


issues at bay. The upkeep required for his solar electric system is minor; he’s committed only to adding water to the batteries every nine months and occasionally getting up to the roof to clean the panels with a brush and a little water.


Embracing the


Great Outdoors One of Ed’s first acts when he pur- chased his current house in 1988 was to rip up the existing lawn and replace


it with native California plants and a fruit and vegetable garden. Unless raising cows or running a golf course, he can’t imagine why anyone would need high-maintenance, water-wasting grass outside their home. But, as with many of Ed’s improvements, energy saving tends to trump aesthetics. That’s where Rachelle comes in. “A few years after Rachelle had


moved in here, she was telling a friend to meet her at the house,” Ed recalls, “and she said ‘It’s the one on the corner that looks like the Addams Family yard.’ I thought: ‘Oooh, maybe that garden isn’t quite as nice-looking as it used to be.’ It was very drought- tolerant, but it didn’t look good.” With Rachelle’s help, a new land- scaper joined the effort of turning the formerly bleak-looking yard into an attractive mix of native plants that in- cludes fragrant rosemary and purple- flowering sage along with broccoli, ar- tichoke, corn and lettuce. Plans for the new family home will allow Ed an ex- panded capability to harvest rainwater through a large catchment system with an underground tank, so that he can irrigate the gardens without drawing from the municipal water supply— which he characterizes as having, “… our straw dipped into someone else’s drink”—namely, Northern California’s water. “If you’re going to take water from someone else,” Ed advises, “the least you can do is to use it respon- sibly and not waste it on non-native species.”


Meeting in the Middle Bringing Rachelle’s aesthetic influ- ence to bear has entailed replacing outdated living room curtains with at- tractive and energy-efficient wooden shutters, and finding ways to recycle without having large bins in plain sight. She’s orchestrating the design and layout of the new house—al- lowing for both entertaining space and larger closets—while Ed focuses on its renewable energy systems— including more unshaded rooftop panels and orienting the building to make the most of natural light. “If we don’t go LEED Platinum, then who will?” Rachelle queries.


www. NaturalTucson.com


“That alone is not easy; still, I want to make it look like other houses in the neighborhood. I don’t want a Jetsons’ house; super modern has never been my style. I‘d like to show people that you can have it all, and I’m praying that it’s true.” The Begleys got off to a good


start in March by tearing down an existing home on the property they recently purchased—96 percent of which, from cabinets to pipes, will be recycled or reused through Habitat for Humanity. By March 2012, the new house should be finished. They want their LEED Platinum home to serve as a model for people who are build- ing new residences, to show what is possible in achieving real energy ef- ficiency and waste reduction without sacrificing style or comfort. Ed’s aim is to ensure the place produces more energy than it uses. As before, the whole process will be documented. “I hope that I’ve shown what you can do with a retrofit,” Ed says. “Now I want to show people what you can do from the ground up in 2011 and beyond.” The family’s ongoing focus on


green living has made a major impact on Hayden, who accepts environ- mental consciousness as the norm. “I learned everything from my dad, from composting to solar panels,” Hayden says. “I always teach my friends to turn off the lights more often, take shorter showers, stuff like that.” Her green awareness gives this


tween maturity beyond her years. As Rachelle says, “She thinks about things outside of herself. She’s always been conscientious. She’s also really concerned about the planet and very compassionate.” Hayden is proof that a family’s day-to-day environmental commitments can leave a lasting impact that reaches far beyond the immediate family.


Brita Belli is the editor of E-The Envi- ronmental Magazine and the author of The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Re- newable Energy for Your Home. Her next book, due out this fall, explores the relationship of environmental toxins and autism.


April 2011 23


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