Off the grid in black mountain: this solar home hits all the right notes.

As musicians, Marina Raye, a recording artist of Native Flute music, and Charlie Sheppard, a flute maker, wanted to create a home that could exist in perfect harmony with the environment. To do so, they chose to live off the grid, which required that they carefully consider their surroundings during the building process and that they continued to develop a close relationship with their land once building was complete.

The home is powered mainly by photovoltaics, or solar electricity, with a propane-fired generator for back up. Marina and Charlie estimate they use approximately six gallons of propane a week. The propane is used predominately for hot water back up, cooking and occasional clothes dryer use, although Marina dries most of her and her husband's clothes the old-fashioned way: on a Mrs. Peggs Handy Clothes Line.

Designed as a passive solar home, Casa Solara, as the homeowners call their space, sits on a wooded, southwest-facing site sloped at about 25 degrees. Its layout is open. offering excellent day lighting. All comers in the home, including inside and outside corners as well as window and door openings, are rounded to soften the home's lines and admit more natural light. The home also boasts high-performance windows, which help provide natural lighting as well as insulation from the elements.

Twelve-foot, high-mass walls give the house a built-in thermal buffer, providing primary" insulation for the home. Autoclaved active concrete--a pumice-like material made of cement, sand, lime and water used on the main and upper level floors--also acts as a humidity buffer by absorbing moisture and gradually releasing it as ambient humidity drops. This type of concrete is often referred to as "breathable." because it operates much like human skin, allowing a vapor and gas exchange. Builders also used grouted concrete block with extruded polystyrene insulation in the home's basement.

To heat Marina and Charlie's home. a radiant in-floor system is used throughout the space. Supplemental heat is provided by a Vermont Castings Majestic wood stove. Water for the radiant system is mainly heated with roof-mounted solar collectors.

The home's altitude helps with cooling; at 3,000 feet above sea level, cross ventilation and ceiling fans provide relief, while the walls and floors absorb additional heat.

But the home's harmonization with the environment doesn't end at passive solar design. A rain catchment system off the metal roof can store up to 1.500 gallons of water, and Marina and Charlie own an ENERGY STAR[R] washer, as well as a Sun Frost refrigerator. The home's plumbing fixtures are nontoxic, and no toxicity finishes were used in the home's interior. Cork flooring was used in their home's upper-floor meditation room. and recycled hardwood pallet flooring was used on the upper level.

Marina and Charlie's intimate relationship with their surroundings also continues outside of the home itself. They've tended an organic garden on their thirteen acres for two seasons now. According to Marina, she and her husband call the lower level of their property--where they've planted peach, apple, cherry, pear, plum and fig trees--the orchard. Dozens of blackberry and raspberry plants as well as strawberries and asparagus accompany the fruit trees. The property, also boasts a large patch of wild raspberries, and to the home's east lies a fenced courtyard with native plants and edibles. Marina and Charlie plan to incorporate more native plantings above their retaining wall to the north and east, where soil has been disturbed. "I expect that those plantings will provide food for wildlife, having a positive effect on the local ecosystem," Marina says. "Our intention is to live gently in their (wildlife's) presence, because I imagine they are watching us!"

A low-maintenance exterior with back-primed. Hardiplank[R] siding, integral colored stucco, and fiber-composite decking will help ensure that Casa Solara survives for lifetimes. And that's music to Marina and Charlie's ears. "My husband and I plan to live in this house forever," Marina says. "We have lived a lot of different places and feel that we have finally arrived home to our soul house."

Specification

Location

Black Mountain Township, NC

Designer

Alice Oodson, Architect

Builder

Mark Bondurant, Rare Earth Builders, Inc.

Size

3,868 total square feet, including two levels and a basement

Price tag

Approximately $708,000 total cost

Completed

December 2006

Construction type

Concrete block basement with Wallmate extruded polystyrene insulation, upper floors are aerated autoclaved concrete 

Top Green Points

Efficiency Solar hot water, radiant floor heat, passive solar design, water catchment system

Low Toxicity No OSB Advantech, no VOC Bioshield clay paint, one-coat wood sealer 

Environmental On-site organic garden, locally milled large-diameter wood, smaller wood bucked into firewood, scraps of drywall used for garden mulching