These owners are walking their talk, step by step. When they merged their families they decided to make "green" improvements incrementally. "If these things are going to work, we're going to have to try them. The shift to renewables has to be made not just society-wide, but also house by house."

This 1937 home accidentally features classic elements of passive solar design. Throughout the heating season, sunlight streams in south-facing windows and warms the dining and living rooms; in the summer, overhangs and trees shade the rooms, naturally cooling the entire house.

They installed water-conserving showerheads and faucets, and replaced burned-out light bulbs and aging appliances with new, efficient models. Thanks to these changes, the couple already used as little as 21 kWh of electricity per day; the average for energy-conscious homeowners is closer to 30. They also purchase "time-of-use" and "salmon-friendly" power from PGE, and have installed water-conserving landscaping. In their dining room expansion, they incorporated green features including extra wall and ceiling insulation, energy-efficient Marvin windows with U-24 and U-32 efficiency ratings, and natural finishes.

They replaced their leaky water heater with a solar water heater. First, John Patterson or Mr.Sun Solar installed an Intermatic timer on the couple's water heater. This alone cut their electric usage from 9.6 to 9.3 kWh per day. Next, Patterson recommended a new single-tank solar water heating system. Two Sun Earth panels installed unobtrusively on the roof collect the sun's energy and transfer it to an antifreeze solution. A small pump circulates the fluid to a heat exchanger in the bottom of an 80-gallon Rheem water heater tank, which is in the basement. This sun-heated fluid then warms potable water in the tank. The "solar" fluid circulates as long as the fluid in the panels is warmer than the water in the tank. Since it was installed in May, the solar system has been providing almost 100% of the home's hot water; on gray winter days, that likely will drop to about 10%. Nonetheless, with the solar savings and the Oregon Department of Energy tax credit, the system should pay for itself in 15 years - and much sooner if electric rates continue to rise.

Using themselves as "guinea pigs" to teach others about solar-energy systems, they had extra meters installed to monitor the system's performance. As a side benefit, the data helped them identify and repair a leak.

System Details

System Type:
Solar Hot Water
Conservation, Water efficiency

Installer: Mr. Sun Solar

Designer: Room Service, Portland

Builder: Boone Remodel, Portland

Landscape: John West, JW Landscapes, Seattle