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Home Efficient Home
Richard Engel
 Just
a few trees interrupt the view of the downtown skyline from Caren
Glotfelty and Wim Schoonhaven's ecologically-renovated home on the
lower slope of Pittsburgh's Mount Washington. The modest, two-story
structure was built around 1880 and sits on Sycamore Street, the steepest
in the city, near several similar homes, some of which still have
no plumbing though the location is nearly ideal — within walking
distance of a stop on the electric light-rail "T." Caren
and Wim plan to keep their home small though an addition is in the
works.
The Glotfelty-Schoonhaven family is showing a great commitment
to the ecology and the city, though they have been in Pittsburgh
just two years. Caren's current position, as Program Director for
the Environment Program at The Heinz Endowments, brought them to
the city. She was previously the Goddard Professor of forestry and
the environment at Penn State, and before that, deputy secretary
for water quality for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Wim, now
retired, worked for Pennsylvania Power and Light helping communities
plan for industrial development and helping PP+L locate new plants
where they would have the least impact on the environment.
Recently, the Glotfelty-Schoonhaven family hosted an open house
to show off their home's energy conservation improvements, as well
as to give the Safe Energy Communications Council a forum to announce
their new guide to cutting home energy costs.
After finding and buying the 950-square-foot house, Wim and Caren
have had to spend much of the last two years living elsewhere during
the renovation. "It was a total gut," said Wim. Though
hampered by the property - "the slope made a ground-water heat-pump
heating system too expensive," he said, and undermining required
them to do a geologic study for their planned addition — the
family continues to be pleased with the project. The original home's
renovation is nearly complete and the groundwork has been done for
the addition.
Their radiant floor heating uses water heated by an electric ultra-insulated
water heater. Though more expensive than a forced-air system, the
radiant system will decrease their energy usage and bills, and will
pay for itself in about 5 years. Their high-velocity, small-diameter-duct
air conditioning system, on the other hand, presented no additional
cost because "the walls were all already opened up and getting
redone," Wim said.
Insulation will provide the home's biggest energy savings. The
original home had none whatsoever. They selected blown cellulose,
and their research showed "several myths, such as the one that
fires in houses with this paper insulation are more dangerous, are
untrue." Cellulose was also less expensive, has a greater resistance
to energy moving through it (R-value), and lower air infiltration
than fiberglass. All the penetrations needed for wiring the house
were air-sealed with foam.
Caren described other special measures they've taken, including
low- or no-VOC (volatile organic compound) paints, wood from sustainably-managed
forests, compact fluorescent lighting, and high-performance replacement
windows. All these measures have reduced their monthly energy bill
to about $100 for the original structure.
"It will be easier to implement energy-saving measures in
the addition," said Caren, citing their ability to orient the
addition for maximum solar benefits. The 2000-sq.-foot addition
will include a garage, living room and master bedroom, and will
likely be heated by solar power or a fuel-cell system. When the
addition is complete, Caren believes the house will be valued at
"about what we put into it."
The day's open house also featured the release of "Pennsylvania
Home Power Boosters: A Guide to Home Energy Savings," and a
presentation by author Christopher Sherry. The book includes Pennsylvania
success stories, and "a how-to manual of energy saving tips,"
all of which is available free at www.homepowerboosters.org
online and at more than 100 public libraries in Pennsylvania.
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