Spreading Sunshine: A Solar-Powered Home in New Mexico
This gorgeous New Mexico home adds more than just elegance to its neighborhood--it also supplies renewable solar power to the neighbors.
July/August 2008
By Lori Tobias
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Xeriscaping--native, low-water landscaping--replaces a water-guzzling grass yard outside the master bedroom. The water-conserving native plants are low-maintenance and beautiful.
Daniel Nadelbach
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After six months of shopping for land on which to build their home, Betsy Armstrong and Richard Barr were thrilled when they found a fairly priced 1-acre lot in the midst of a neighborhood in the Santa Fe foothills. Their designer-builder was equally excited and eager to meet the infill site’s inherent challenges. “It was perched on a narrow ridge, and everything else had been built around it,” says Mitchell Smith, owner of the Santa Fe green building firm Solarsmith. “People thought it would be hard to build on.”
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The neighborhood—full of large, elegant homes—also presented a challenge. Richard and Betsy wanted to create a home with the smallest footprint and the greenest design possible, but they knew it needed to fit in with the neighborhood. It wasn’t easy, but they managed to weave a lot of green into a 3,000-square-foot home that they—and their neighbors—feel good about.
Finding green
Among the hidden gems in Richard and Betsy’s home are twenty 140-watt rooftop solar panels, which generate the home’s electricity—plus extra for others in the neighborhood—using a system that “seeks out” the nearest energy need.
“They’re tied to the local grid,” Smith says. “There are no batteries in these systems. If someone is generating more than he is using—which is true on most days—and his neighbor has his AC on, the power will go to that neighbor.”
Smith also positioned the home to take advantage of passive solar heat. The house faces south to capture winter sun, and its sheltered west side helps protect it from New Mexico’s intense summer sun. Betsy and Richard enjoy views of the Jemez Mountains from the front door and can see the southern Sandia Peak and Ortiz Mountains from several windows. Clerestory windows 16 feet above the kitchen floor bring daylight into the home’s core and double as passive cooling vents.
“You open the windows in April and close them in November,” Smith says. “During the spring, summer and fall, there’s a gentle convective loop. Heat naturally rises. By opening the high windows, warm air is allowed to escape, drawing in cooler air from below.” Passive cooling and smart orientation mean the house does not need mechanical air conditioning.
The exterior walls are double-framed (the interior and exterior walls have insulated space between them) with a 2-inch layer of closed-cell foam insulation outside. “It’s called a thermal envelope,” Smith says. “It repels heat and cold outside the house and maintains a comfortable temperature inside.”
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