By Jerry Brown
BrownOnGreen.Net
John Avenson has been a science fiction fan all of his life.
So, when he saw The Jetsons on TV as a boy it didn’t take long for him to decide he wanted a house like theirs -- full of gadgets that would make everyday life easier.
He’s also been fascinated by the idea of getting free heat from the sun, which dates back to a childhood trip with his family to Indian cliff dwellings near Colorado Springs.
Using plans he obtained from the Solar Energy Research Institute, now NREL, Avenson built a house in the suburbs of Denver nearly 30 years ago that combines elements from The Jetsons and the lessons he learned during his visit to those cliff dwellings.
“I’ve lived in a home that for 29 years has had almost no heating bills,” Avenson says. He says his largest heating bills, in February, are somewhere between $30 and $40
In fact, his heating bills are so low that he’s hasn’t bothered to replace the furnace that came with the house with one of the new high-efficiency furnaces now on the market. “I hardly ever use my furnace,” Avenson says. “It wouldn’t be worth it.”
Avenson shares his living space with Rex, a computer that keeps track of how much energy he uses and how much energy he generates with the solar panels on his roof. Rex also keeps track of temperatures throughout the house, turns lights on an off and -- my favorite trick -- automatically raises and lowers a set of heat-trapping shades. Rex raises the shades when the sun is shining during the winter to let the sun heat his home and lowers the shades when the sun sets -- or goes behind a cloud -- to trap the heat in the house inside.
I met Avenson through Steve Stevens, who has also made his house highly energy efficient. I featured Stevens’ home in an earlier story on BrownOnGreen.Net.
Both Avenson and Stevens have done most of the work on their houses themselves. One key difference: Stevens has done much of the work on his house on the cheap with materials he’s either scrounged for free or purchased at deeply discounted prices; Avenson hasn’t.
Click on the picture at the top of this story to see a live update of the energy usage at Avenson’s house. Or play the video for a tour.
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