About the Home

The most important term to remember with a Solar Powered home is CONSERVATION.  The power you don’t use is what will help save our environment, our natural resources, and your money.  This concept was at the forefront during the design of this passive solar log cabin.

We began by facing the house towards the southern sky where the ample windows/ doors would allow the sun to warm the tiles on the concrete foundation in the winter. The low-E double pane glass helps to insulate and keep out the summer heat. The cooling process is aided by the cross ventilation effect of the open windows/doors. The cabin is stick built with 2×6 wall studs with R-19 insulation and R-30 in the ceilings, then wrapped with Tyvex house wrap and covered with a four inch thick log siding exterior.

We have a solar array consisting of ten 120 watt Solarex solar panels on an adjustable top of pole rack. These provide electricity for our 48 volts DC system that is stored in twenty-four deep cell 6 volt marine batteries. These batteries provide for our electrical needs during low/no light periods and would last about four days if needed. As a backup, we have an Air 403 wind turbine for stormy days (which, due to its location, doesn’t see much action), and an Onan 5000 watt generator that we normally run for about one hour per week during the winter months. The Trace inverter transforms the DC  to AC current which powers the entire house.

All lighting is compact florescent, we have two Solatubes and all electrical appliances have a wall switch to prevent phantom loads from draining the system. There are many propane appliances; a Servel refrigerator, a Primier range with a fully electronic ignition system and the oven does not have an electric glow bar, an Aquastar tankless water heater for endless on-demand hot water, an Eco-Therm direct vent heater and a GE gas dryer with a moisture sensor. A standard 1/2 hp AC submersible well pump, which feeds an oversized diaphram water storage tank, was installed by the local Well Driller. Our washing machine is an efficient Staber that uses 1/3 the water and 1/4 the laudry detergent as a standard machine. The cabin is heated primarily by a Vermont Casting wood stove using a renewabel energy source, cord wood, that we harvest from our own thirteen acre wooded lot.

Our only background in this project was our do-it-yourself experience, the local library, the internet and a great deal of time and help from Steve Schulze at New England Solar Electric.