From Tad: In the 60’s, power was cheap, there was little regard for insulation in the walls; the idea of houses generating their own power was a pipe dream.

Cut to 2012: Now, with the energy crisis, even suburban houses are rethinking how to both consume and generate power. The two major sources of home generated power are geo-thermal (taking heat and cool from the earth itself) and solar power  (collect sun power for heat and electricity.)

Geo-thermal won’t work for this house; we are building on rocky soil and the scale of house to open land is too tight. But natural light will work. We will also maximize the use of insulation. We will use  heat and cooling zones — another example of advanced design for the suburbs. In this house, we divide heating and cooling zones, and have two zones per floor. For example, on the lower level, we will use highly-rated, split-system, conventional heating and cooling system. We are also building with an eye for installing solar panels in the future.