Nov 24 - Milwaukee Journal Sentinel



Developer Mike Speas acknowledges that the nine "green" houses he plans to build in Port Washington could lack some features, such as attached garages or granite kitchen countertops, that are found in many new homes.

Speas plans to emphasize another selling point: These houses come with the potential to eliminate monthly heating and electricity bills.

The homes will include geothermal systems, which absorb heat from beneath the ground as a substitute for conventional furnaces. The building frames will use heavily insulated panels, instead of studs, to provide a higher level of insulation.

The houses will be placed on their lots with the larger windows facing south, to absorb more sunlight. And the roofs will have solar panels for hot water heaters, with additional room to allow homeowners to install solar panels to provide electricity.

The proposed nine-lot subdivision, called the Terraces at Mineral Springs, just won conceptual approval from the Port Washington Plan Commission.

Speas plans to build homes of about 1,200 square feet, with three bedrooms and two bathrooms, and sell them for about $200,000.

The heavy insulation, solar panels and geothermal systems, which are reversed during the summer to cool the house, cost "a ton of money" compared with conventional home building techniques, he said.

To keep the price around $200,000, he might not include the detached garage, which the homeowner could build later. The price also would be reduced by not finishing the basement, and by not including photovoltaic solar panels, he said.

But home buyers who decide to install the photovoltaic panels will be generating their own electricity. Among other things, that solar power will run the geothermal system to provide cooling and heating.

It's that energy savings -- not necessarily a "green consciousness" -- that Speas says will help sell the homes.

"If you don't have a utility bill, that's huge," he said.

Also, the houses will have an aesthetic appeal, Speas said, with a traditional arts-and-crafts bungalow design that blends with the city's older homes.

"They really say more about Port than the suburban garage facing the street with a ranch-style home," Speas said.

There are other green homes in Wisconsin, including one in Ixonia that produces its own energy, which recently sold for about $350,000.

The Milwaukee Plan Commission recently approved a proposed apartment building in the Bay View neighborhood that will include a geothermal system and solar energy. But energy-producing houses are often aimed at wealthy buyers, Speas said.

The Port Washington homes will target more middle-class families who make an investment on the front end that will be repaid through lower energy costs, he said.

Rebates from the state's Focus on Energy program, along with federal tax credits for buying and installing solar panels, can help reduce those upfront costs, he said.

The Terraces at Mineral Springs is planned for a 5.7-acre parcel on S. Division St., south of Western Ave., on the city's south edge.

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