Nov 24 - McClatchy-Tribune Regional News - Mark Armstrong Kerrville Daily Times, Texas


For the past eight months, Rick and Stephanie Ertel has lived without any connections to water, electricity natural gas or even air conditioning.

The retired attorneys from Dallas do live in the woods, but they don't live without creature comforts or the other conveniences of modern living. They live in a 2,000-square-foot, two-bedroom, two-bathroom home above Johnson Creek with satellite television and a two-car garage.

The Ertels live in a state-of-the-art sustainable house. They have 18 solar panels on top of their garage, rain gutters that bring water to a 20,000 gallon tank outside the home and a house designed to take advantage of natural sunlight for heating water and lighting the home.

"We decided that if we were going to build a house we were going to be as environmentally conscious as we could," Stephanie Ertel said.

But being able to live completely off the grid didn't happen over night. The Ertels road to sustainability began in 1999, when they bought the property off Byas Springs Road from Stephanie Ertel's parents. Their decision to learn to live off the grid came about after they found out it would cost $10,000 just to run power lines to the house.

"We got religion really fast about sustainability," Rick said.

Rick Ertel said that given the costs of bringing water, power and sewer to the house it made sense to look into other options. In 2001, the couple began with a trip to a "Green" conference at the Solar Living Institute in California.

The couple spent years researching all of the latest sustainable technologies before starting construction in May 2007. The house was finished in November 2008, but because of the drought, they waited until March 2009 to move in after rains filled their tank.

The design of the house is a big part of what makes it possible for the Ertels to live an unconventional lifestyle.

The house features two, 20-foot silos that act as chimneys bringing warm air up to the ceiling. In the main living area, 16-foot ceilings are slanted to move warm air up, and there are 58 windows throughout the house that can be opened to let the warm air out during the summer.

The walls throughout the house are a foot thick and filled with concrete.

The house faces south to take advantage of the sun to fill the house with sunlight and for the solar water heater that heats water to about 200 degrees.

Water that comes through the catchment system is filtered and solar power keeps enough pressure in a pressurized tank to provide flow throughout the home.

The house has no air conditioning and relies on wood burning stoves for cooking and heating.

And their efforts have paid off in more ways than one.

The house has been recognized by the U.S. Green Building Council, was awarded an Austin Energy 5 Star Certification and Energy Star certification and is a finalist for Energy Value Home Award and contending for Energy Value Home of the Year from the National Association of Homebuilders.

Of course, there are some concerns that come with living in a home where there's no connection to the power grid.

"The thing you most worry about are clouds," Stephanie said.

On a good day, Rick said the solar panels produce about 10.6 kwh of power. That power is stored in 32 marine batteries which can hold enough electricity to power the house for five days.

Stephanie Ertel said living in a sustainable house does mean they think more about what resources they use. She also said so far they only ran out of hot water once and that was during a weekend when they had guests.

"My biggest concern is getting Rick to get enough wood," Stephanie said.

The house cost the Ertels about $450,000 to build, and the utility improvements, including solar panels and water systems cost about $100,000.

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