Amory Lovins, who won a MacArthur Genius grant back in 1993 (and an Eco-Hero Award just right now), has been living in a house he built since 1983. It looks like a very nice and comfy house, especially when you consider that, despite living 7,000 feet up in the Rocky Mountains (where it gets pretty dang cold), he pays $0 a year on his heating. Not only that, but his house actually generates more electricity than he needs — so he sells the surplus energy to the power company for some extra cash. Here are three ways to cut your electric bill like crazy.
CLICK HERE TO SEE AN INFORMATIVE YET FUN YET NEAT VIDEO OF HIS HOUSE
Insulate, Insulate, Insulate
His secret (one of them) is that he designed his house to be very well insulated. His walls are 16 inches thick, and his large super-insulated windows (made with special glass that insulates as well as 14 normal panes of glass) mean that his house can retain heat quite well.
Passive and Active Solar Heating
Lovins’ house is heated in two main ways: both from sun-rays passing through his many windows, or by means of Amory’s solar panels, which supply his house with more energy than it even uses.
Energy-Efficient Appliances
Much of Lovins’ house is naturally lit by the sun. Besides that, motion-detector lights and energy-efficient bulbs help to cut down on electricity use. His fridge is thickly-insulated, which reduces its energy consumption by quite a lot. His dryer is solar powered, and looks like it uses no electricity at all (watch the video to see how).
Amory Lovins’ home took some extra thought to design and build. It also cost a little bit extra ($6,000). But by cutting his power bill to zero, the extra planning and money spent were easily worth it. If more and more contractors start building this way, you could kiss our “oil prices” and “energy crisis” problems good-bye.
Thankee to Sam for telling me about this homey
March 12th, 2008 at 5:33 am
Sounds very interesting and I agree with you on house insulating and energy efficient appliances.
The sole point on which I disagree is about building houses like this would solve the problem. Of course, this would help, but not that much.
To the research I done on France, insulating the 31 million existing houses is a priority as they consume way too much.
I think it must be the same for you in the US.
March 12th, 2008 at 8:26 am
Yeah, better insulation and smarter use of electricity would make a large difference here in the U.S. Hopefully, more people will start building homes “like” this, even if they don’t take it as far as this guy did.
April 7th, 2008 at 6:42 pm
Your link to Amory Lovins Wikipedia page has a slash at the end
Amory Lovins/
so it doesn’t work
April 8th, 2008 at 7:54 am
Thanks Blue Rubi. The link is all fixed up ahora.
July 25th, 2008 at 3:56 pm
My father designed a solar concentrator combined with a dirt ball to store energy for use on cloudy days and in the winter time when days are shorter. This system enables you to run electric free, have the electric company pay you if there is a surplus of energy, and not have to worry about when the sun doesn’t shine. For more info visit http://www.spedy180.com
July 25th, 2008 at 7:14 pm
Can you explain the dirt ball part of that system, because it sounds sort of unbelievable.
January 27th, 2009 at 3:13 am
It's actually pretty simple. Your solar concentrator is used to heat up cooking oil that runs through tubes like fluorescent lighting tubes and circulates through a dirt ball. The dirt ball is simply a patch of ground that is insulated with an umbrella (something to keep your patch of dirt from getting wet, wet dirt doesn't hold heat as well). We used plastic,buried about 4 ft. down on each side of your dirt ball and over the top. The plastic will keep your dirt dry year round, thereby allowing you to store heat in it. The stored heat can be extracted to heat your house in a variety of ways all year round.
January 27th, 2009 at 3:14 am
The plastic is completely under the gound so you can't see it, it looks like part of your yard. It is a very efficient and reliable way to heat your home, since the reliability of a solar concentrator depends on whether the sun is shining. Now even if it's cloudy or rainy for days you can still enjoy the comforts of free heat. We are currently working on a new dirt ball theory involving sand and 50 gallon barrels for people who don't own enough land to make a dirtball. This will be for people in towns and cities who live on a lot and do not have much room, like me. If you would like more information please email me. Our website is experiencing some difficulty and is currently down.
January 28th, 2009 at 4:26 am
The idea of a dirt ball was used for thermal mass on a geodesiac dome in Mother Earth News in Janurary 1985.It was called Passive annual heat storage.The slab foundation and dome was not insulated from the ground, the earth around the dome was instead insulated from the surface and covered with topsoil.The insulation was called an umbrella and was extended out to 10 ft (which proved to be 1/2 the required distance).The temperature in the house stabilized to a comfortable range year around.
September 3rd, 2009 at 10:51 am
In regards to the polar ice caps melting, apart from global warming some scientists believe it's a natural cycle of the earth, and right now we are approaching the end of a cycle.
January 6th, 2010 at 4:03 pm
Good afternoon. I’m french speaker. You’re post interset me a lot. I think french are according with that. Sorry for languge errors
January 25th, 2010 at 3:45 am
By constructing the magniwork power generator, you will be able to generate completely free electric energy, meaning , create energy without needing any source of renewable or non-renewable energy. The generator powers itself and creates energy by itself, without requiring solar energy, heat, water, coal or any kind of resource. This generator powers itself and works indefinitely, without stopping, creating a large amount of energy.