Yellow Springs Green Home Tour

5 November 2011 from 2 to 4 pm
Sponsored by Yellow Springs Home, Inc.

Come and see what your friends and neighbors are doing to reduce their energy costs, reduce their carbon footprint and live in an environmentally responsible manner. Get ideas on what you can do.

1) 1440 Meadow Lane, Yellow Springs. Hosts Harvey and Ruth Page.

Ruth and Harvey Paige added a solar voltaic array to their back yard in May of 2011. The array is intended to supply all of their electricity needs on an annual basis, one more step towards a carbon-neutral home. Heating their well-insulated home has been accomplished using a high-efficiency wood stove, recently supplemented by a pellet stove.

2) 340 East Yellow Springs-Fairfield Road (intersection with East Enon Road), the Stockwell Farm

The Stockwell Farm has two different kinds of solar electricity production, and a small wind turbine for electricity production We also have solar panels to generate hot water for our home. These are arranged on three different roofs and the front yard of our farm homestead.

3) 736 Jacoby Road ( go east on Grinnell Road to Clifton Road, right (south) on Clifton Road then right on Jacoby Road. Hosts Paul and Gayle Sampson.

At the Sampsons you will see a large array of solar panels on the barn behind their home. With this they are able to generate enough electricity to meet their annual needs. They have detailed figures to show their cost, the paybacks by the State of Ohio and the federal government. They will also explain the way in which they receive compensation for selling credits for the energy that they generate.

4) 440 Stewart Drive, Yellow Springs. Host Pat Brown.

At the Brown home you will see an array of 25 solar panels mounted on her back roof. The home is heated by a geothermal heating system. The house is well insulated and utilizes all energy efficient appliances and lighting. It has a back-up heating unit in the living area.
At the Brown home you will also see an amazing edible forest garden that fills most of the yard. There are fruit and nut trees, berries, herbs and vegetables as well as flowers. A recently completed root cellar has been constructed in the space under the home to preserve the harvest.

5) 1635 Spillan Road, Yellow Springs, Host Joan Horn

This geothermal house was built in 1984 by Jonathan Brown and Bruce Parker It utilizes a constant air flow drawn from inside the house by a furnace fan to either warm a layer of gravel under the house, or use the 54 degree earth to cool another layer of gravel. This reduces the load on the furnace and air conditioning units lowering the utility bills. Other unique features are tough-cut cedar used for interior doors and window trim, a pair of Dutch doors for directing the flow of children and animals, and an efficient floor plane that provides rapid traffic flow between rooms.

6) 395 West North College Street, Yellow Springs, (actually to the right off W N College), hosts: Lauren Heaton and Kirk Weigard
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This two story straw bale house is under construction by Bruce Parker. It is built on little stilts, cement piers that minimize heat loss into the ground. It is constructed of oak and maple beams reclaimed from Greene County barns, on of which also provided the recycled metal roof and interior stair and window framing. The straw, also from Green County farmers, is covered with lime plaster to minimize interior/exterior bridges that can “leak” heat. Windows were minimized on the north side and maximized on the south side4 for solar gain. Additionally, heat will be provided by rooftop solar water heaters connected to a radiant floor system.


7) 123 Cliff Street, Yellow Springs, hosts Lindie Keaton and Joel Smith

This straw bale house, built by Andy Holyoke, has an estimated R value of between 30 and 50 compared to R of 15 for a traditional stick built house. A recent energy audit shows that the hose uses a third of the gas and a quarter of the electricity of an average Yellow Springs home of comparable size. It uses passive solar energy with large windows on the south side, and active solar with solar hot water panels on the roof to supply hot water for both internal use and the radiant floor heating system. Backup heating comes from a flash gas hot water heater for the radiant floor and a wood burning stove.
Another straw bale home is being built diagonally adjacent to the Keaton/Smith home and can be seen in the early construction phase.

8) 333 King Street, Yellow Springs, under construction

This is a passive solar home under construction. It is so well insulated that it does not need a furnace for heat. It is a type that is being constructed in large numbers in Germany. It is an example of the type of construction that will become increasingly common in the USA.

Click on images to enlarge.