Modern Homestead: A California Home Creates Self-Sufficient Green Dream

Enlarge Image Image Gallery Home to an array of wildlife, Mark Feichtmeir and Karen Boness’s property is officially recognized as a certified wildlife habitat by the National Wildlife Federation and listed as part of the National Registry of Backyard Wildlife Habitats. --BARBARA BOURNE

Eight years ago, when Karen Boness and Mark Feichtmeir got the opportunity to create their dream home, they didn’t know they would end up building an almost entirely self-sufficient house. Unsure of what they wanted, they headed to the bookstore where they found a wealth of information about environmental living. "I’d dreamed for many years of building an ecological home, but I really didn’t know much about it," says Karen, a computer programmer at the time.

The couple’s research led them to the concept of passive-solar design, a variety of green materials, and permaculture—an ecological design practice that creates functional, interdependent systems that serve both nature and humans. Using these principles, they began to envision a modern homestead where they could live off the land and eliminate their need for fossil fuels.

Building with the land

Mark and Karen bought five acres in Sonoma County, California. "We didn’t necessarily want to live in wine country," says Mark, who works in property management, "but we were lured by the oak savannas with all their trees and open space." The property’s southern exposure enables passive-solar design; the strong southern sun warms the house’s thermal mass, which stores the heat and releases it throughout the evening.

The couple enlisted Berkeley architect Todd Jersey, who specializes in sustainable building and has studied permaculture. While Karen and Mark were specific about their goals regarding perma-culture design and energy use, their only aesthetic request was that the home be simple, natural and organic. "We wanted it to blend in with the environment as much as possible," Karen says.

Jersey let the property’s sloping topography guide him in designing a three-bedroom, 2,700-square-foot structure tucked into the site’s south-facing slope. The façade’s series of gentle curves appears to be an organic extension of the hillside. For passive-solar heating, the couple needed walls with high thermal mass. They chose a method of earth construction called PISE (pneumatically installed, stabilized earth), a mix of locally mined earthen material and concrete.

Jersey’s team calculated optimal dimensions for the overhangs and windows with a heliodon, a device that models the sun’s path across a site. Deep roof overhangs provide relief from the brutal summer sun, and high, operable clerestory windows enable "night-flushing"—wherein the cool night air can flow through the house and pull out the daytime heat that’s been absorbed by all the thermal mass. 

Truly self-sufficient

In addition to using passive-solar gain for heat, the home is equipped with 96 photovoltaic panels that provide all the electricity needed on the property year-round. In the summer, the panels produce more energy than Karen and Mark consume. They send the excess back to the electrical grid for credit, which they use in winter when they need more energy than the panels can provide.