BACK | NEXT | INDEX
Gordian & Gabriele Raacke's Recipe for a Green Residence
STORY BY MAUREEN TRAXLER
© 2007 NETWORKING® MAGAZINE 2020 GUIDE TO GOING GREEN
Gordion and Gabriele Raacke set out to build their own home in East Hampton in 1993. They received initial help from a builder, but researched, planned, and designed the structure, and did most of the work themselves over the next four years. Their goals included reasonable construction and operation, safe non-toxic location, and environmental friendliness (burning limited fossil fuel, using recycled building materials and reducing Planet Earth’s carbon “footprint,” the emissions from the structure). Gordian Raacke recently shared their recipe for a smart home with Networking® magazine:
Start with a Tight House
Quoting a philosophy of his Dad’s, an industrial designer, Raacke says that in order to achieve the best results, one must start with “good design.” To get a well-insulated house with minimal air infiltration, the Raackes chose structural insulated panels (SIPs). SIPs are sandwiched panels of Oriented Strand Board (OSB) with Expanded PolyStyrene (EPS) foam. The panels can be produced with a large portion of “regrind” (such as used coffee cups) and are made without ozone depleting CFCs/HFCs. Thermal resistance and infiltration is about three times better than conventional stick frame construction. The OSB is made from “weed” or plantation trees instead of prime trees. While the panels cost slightly more, savings come in labor and energy benefits.
Add some Sun
The Raackes chose “hybrid” solar heat (also known as passive solar)—no moving parts. In the winter, sunlight enters the house through the south-facing windows, and the heat is soaked up by the large “thermal mass” of the four-foot cement floor and given up slowly at night. In the summer the sun travels higher in the sky and the properly sized roof overhangs prevent direct sunlight from entering the building, thus keeping it cool. Additionally, nearby deciduous trees shade the house in summer but allow the sun’s light and heat in during winter. Good “hybrid” buildings have a lot of window surface on the south side of the house, fewer and smaller windows on the east and west side, and as few as possible on the north. To minimize heat loss, all windows have high quality, gas-filled double pane glazing with an invisible film applied between the panes. The result: a warm, cozy house with plenty of sunshine in winter and a cool, breezy place in summer without the need for AC.
“It’s not rocket science,” says Raacke, “and it uses some of the simple basic concepts that were known thousands of years ago.”
A few years later, the Raackes decided to install their own “electric power plant” and generate their own electricity with a PV system. Thanks to attractive cash rebates from LIPA and federal and state tax credits, they were able to install enough Photovoltaic (PV) solar electric panels (a 2.6 kW system) atop their carport to fill their electricity needs from dishwasher to fax machine to refrigerator and more. And since LIPA allows any solar homeowner to feed excess electricity into the electric grid, they get credit for any excess kilowatt hours generated.
In the summertime, when their PV system produces more electricity than they can use, they watch their digital “net meter” turning backwards in the form of a left pointing arrow, logging a credit on their utility account. The incoming electricity is good for the utility on hot summer afternoons of peak demand, and allows LIPA to avoid buying electricity at a premium from an outside power plant.
The estimated cost of a 5 kW (kilowatt) system is as follows: The initial cost of the system would be about $37,000. LIPA would give a rebate of $18,750. The New York State 25% tax credit ($5,000 cap for primary residence) would be $4,560, and the homeowner would receive the 30% federal tax credit ($2,000 residential cap), leaving the homeowner with a rounded final cost of $12,000, or approximately one-third of the initial cost. In addition, the system will continue paying for itself over time. Interested Long Islanders can estimate calculations for a system on their own home by using the “Sunshine is Free” link at the bottom left side of the RELI website homepage, www.renewableenergylongisland.org.
The Raackes later installed a solar hot water system on the roof that collects enough of the sun’s warmth to heat their water. On cloudy or winter days, a super-efficient, propane back-up boiler kicks in and heats the stored and already preheated water in the solar hot water tank to the 120-degrees required.
Top it off with efficient appliances and lighting
The simplest way to spot energy-efficient light bulbs and appliances is to look for the EPA EnergyStar™ Label. The Raackes’ Vestfrost refrigerator uses only 1.5 kW of electricity per day (or about $5 a month). An efficient dishwasher and front-loading washing machine use much less water and save on water heating costs, too. Energy-saving compact-fluorescent light bulbs (each saving $60 in electricity over its lifetime) are complemented by light switches with motion sensors that turn the light on/off automatically when people enter/leave the room. Showers are fitted with high pressure/low volume showerheads that use only one gallon of water per minute.
The master bathroom shower has a water heat recovery system, which uses the warm water from the shower drain to preheat the cold water flowing to the hot water heater. The E-Z-Vent pulls stale air from the house, passing over an aluminum plate; fresh outside air is pulled in, passing over the back of the aluminum plate, thereby being pre-warmed.
A very “low-tech,” but highly effective, solar clothes dryer (a.k.a. clothesline and clothes pins) works rain-or-shine because there is one inside and one outside. It costs pennies but saves pounds of pollution and hundreds of dollars. Spotted on the outside of the Raacke home is a hand-operated, push lawn mower (the old-fashioned kind!).
Raacke built an artist’s studio, with plenty of light, for Gabriele, a painter, specializing in a medieval technique, reverse painting on glass—the painting is done on one side of the glass and the work is viewed from the other side. The Raackes drive a Prius, a hybrid car, and Gordian doesn’t miss a chance to ride his bicycle to work in the Village of East Hampton.
“I had to become part of the solution,” remarks Raacke, recalling that after the installation of their PV system, he told his wife, “We’re done paying LIPA bills for life!”
© 2007 NETWORKING® MAGAZINE
BACK | NEXT | INDEX |
