Clifton Park Homes for Sale, Local Real Estate Agent. ‘Green' Home Has Energy to Spare

Clifton Park Homes for Sale, Local Real Estate Agent.  ‘Green' Home Has Energy to Spare

By Paul Restuccia

How green can a house get?

A Bay State couple lives in a highly energy-efficient home that creates two-and-a-half times more power than it needs.

Tina Clarke and Doug Stephens, who built the three-bedroom house in Turners Falls for just $180,000, just won a $10,000 prize for the best "Zero Net Energy" project from the Northeast Sustainable Energy Association, which starts its 35th annual trade show in Boston tomorrow.

"We built this home to show others that you can have a comfortable home without using fossil fuels," said Clarke, who works for Transition Town, a group that encourages sustainable communities.

The 1,152-square-foot, cedar-shingled house has a metal roof covered with photovoltaic solar panels that last year generated 4,892 kilowatt hours of electricity. The house itself only used 1,959 kilowatts for the entire year-making its annual energy bill for heating, cooling, hot water, cooking, appliances and lighting an astoundingly low $392.

The couple sold 2,933 kilowatt hours worth $586 back to the grid.

Clifton Park Homes for Sale, Local Real Estate Agent.  ‘Green' Home Has Energy to Spare

"We didn't just build a house but a powerhouse, an official company on the grid," Clarke said.

The house stretches east to west, creating a long roof with southern exposure and deep overhangs that keep it shady in the summer. The roof is covered with 26 panels made by Evergreen Solar of Marlboro, as well as solar hot water panels.

The outside walls are a foot thick and filled with insulation made of ground-up newspapers treated with fire retardent. The attic has 30 inches of such insulation.

Clifton Park Homes for Sale, Local Real Estate Agent.  ‘Green' Home Has Energy to Spare

Windows are triple glazed and most floors are four-inch thick concrete with foam underneath that absorbs the sun's heat in the winter and holds coolness in the summer. The house has careful air sealing throughout, a high-efficiency heat recovery ventilator and an air-source pump used for heating and cooling.

But this "super-green" house is by no means sterile-looking. It's filled with light, especially an open living, dining and kitchen area with tall south-facing windows.

"It's a comfortable light-filled, gorgeous place," said Stephens, a land surveyor, who said he's willing to give away the blueprints. "We didn't set out to win a prize, but just to build a simple, very efficient house that we would want to live in."

Originally published by By PAUL RESTUCCIA

Clifton Park Homes for Sale, Local Real Estate Agent.  ‘Green' Home Has Energy to Spare