“We are all responsible for so many sources of energy consumption in our daily lives that we were intrigued by the possibility of reducing the ecological footprint of our home. During our research, we found that some emerging “green” technologies still cost more to adopt early on yet there were also several approaches that were cost effective and energy efficient (making it hard to imagine why they aren’t standard practice). We were excited about building a passive solar house long before we knew where, when or how we would eventually make it happen. Letting the sun and shade take care of most of our heating and cooling during the appropriate seasons is such a simple and effective idea (and who doesn’t want a wall full of beautiful south facing windows?!). As a result of the passive solar design, plenty of insulation, and excellent air sealing (all simple strategies), the temperature of our house stays steady and comfortable year-round with very little energy input from a heat pump. We also chose to have everything in our house run on electricity so we could reach net-zero energy consumption with solar panels. Not paying any energy bills is nice but there is also a bigger sense of energy independence that feels very liberating. Regardless of the slow-moving politics or quickly accelerating climate change, we have removed ourselves from one piece of the problem.”

— Shanti Cavanaugh