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Self-reliance at home [Merritt College - Oakland]
In a recent discussion about the Self-Reliant House at Oakland's Merritt College, one militantly green architect sniffed with distaste and said he didn't condone such places. What's not to like about a little building that demonstrates environmentally friendly ways to retrofit homes? According to the architect, people too often content themselves with small alterations, rather than building new houses based on green principles. His approach might suit purists, but then there's hard reality: The Bay Area has little space left to build afresh. Anyway, how eco-friendly is it to use all new resources and pave over yet more land? More sensibly, property owners can modify existing buildings. In this, the Self-Reliant House has led the way for 25 years, experimenting with alternative technologies, such as plywood made from bamboo. Since its inception in autumn 1978, the Self-Reliant House has countered the purist attitudes that hobbled the environmental movement even then, especially when it came to outfitting houses in eco-friendly ways. Robin Freeman, chair of Merritt's environmental technology program, recalls that in the 1970s, the few new homes with energy-saving devices and solar heating resembled "science projects, so they weren't popular. The average person wouldn't want to live in houses that looked so weird. They had huge south-facing glass walls, and that was all you saw. There was nothing that reminded you of a house." Locally, people felt particularly turned off by the Integral Urban House in West Berkeley, where environmentalists "eco-ized'' a Victorian house, trying to show others how to do the same. Though the efforts resulted in a National Geographic article and a major book, the consensus is that the house was too "hippie-funky" for most people's tastes. "Joe Suburban would really be repelled'' if he had ever visited the place, says Arrol Gellner, an Emeryville architect and San Francisco Chronicle columnist. Though the project incorporated "great ideas,'' he says, "no one would want those kinds of renewable things in their houses.'' For one thing, the whole building smelled like the composting toilet. Even as the experiment continued, the founders of the Integral Urban House acknowledged that they'd failed to attract widespread support. Charles Ford, then a Merritt marine biology professor, sought their participation before he and his students created the Self-Reliant House. He remembers the founders saying, "It isn't working the way we wanted. We're only preaching to the choir. We're not going to reach Middle America, where most of the consumption is.'' They urged him not to repeat their mistakes and instead to build a middle-class-looking house. This made sense to Ford but not to his students, who angrily deserted him. Eventually, Ford hooked up with Gellner, then a 19-year-old Merritt student. Agreeing with Ford that the house should appear completely run-of-the- mill, Gellner designed a structure resembling tract houses of the era. He explains, "My aim was to make it look really suburban so ordinary people could look at it and say, 'Hey, this is something we could do to our house.' '' The house is indeed suburban-looking, though it lacks bedrooms because it needs to serve as a classroom and as the office of the Environmental Center. The building is also shabbier than anyone intended. Construction lasted more than 20 years, depending almost entirely on volunteer student labor, grants and donated materials, and as the house stood unfinished, it took a beating from the weather. Over the decades, the ecology movement took a beating, too, losing steam when Ronald Reagan became president. Tax breaks for environmentally friendly retrofits were rescinded, effectively killing the renewable-energy industry. But the Self-Reliant House has lasted long enough for the national pendulum to swing back toward environmental awareness. Attributing the project's longevity to Ford, who retired in 2000, Gellner says the professor "was like a bulldog. He latched onto this thing. And despite the changing attitudes about ecology, he just did not let go.'' Gellner notes, "To me that's the most remarkable thing about the whole project. This guy didn't do it because it happened to be a hip thing. He really believed in it. I think it would have failed with anyone else.'' Lifestyle choices All those years Ford worked from deep convictions: "It's very clear that we're going down the wrong road, that our energy and resource consumption and pollution levels are ultimately unsustainable for our species.'' He says that although the Self-Reliant House "is certainly not the whole answer, individuals, in their lifestyle choices, do make a difference. Whether they're driving a gasoline-electric hybrid Prius or a Chevy Suburban makes a difference when you add up millions of them.'' These lifestyle choices could include the alternative building materials showcased at the Self-Reliant House, such as a fence created from Trex (a flexible amalgam of recycled plastic and wood) and long-lasting kitchen countertops made of cement and fly ash (the waste product of burned coal). A wall-to-wall carpet bears a recycled-rubber backing, and though the nylon threads on top might wear out, one can excise small squares and replace only necessary parts. "The way they do the weave, when you make a cut and put another piece in, the line disappears,'' Freeman explains. The company that manufactured the 6-year-old carpet has since improved on this technology and can now melt down worn threads, creating nylon without using new material. Health concerns have governed some of the choices at the Self-Reliant House. Typically, buildings expose us to countless carcinogens as new materials such as foam (in mattresses and cushions), glue and interior paint release gas, often for years. Acutely aware of these hazards, Freeman and his staff chose nontoxic products such as linoleum produced from linseed oil (as was originally done, hence the name), rather than vinyl, because manufacturing, using and disposing of vinyl can pose major environmental and health hazards, including cancer and birth defects. Energy exchange A desire to harness heat has dictated other product selections. In two rooms at the Self-Reliant House, red floor tiles made of crushed, melted-down glass bottles provide thermal mass. That is, being dark, dense materials, they absorb solar heat during the day (thereby cooling the air) and radiate it back out at night (keeping the place warm). Temperature control is a big issue at the Self-Reliant House, where heat seeps through single-pane windows. As these break (thanks to airborne rocks, in one instance), the house acquires double-glazed used windows from Urban Ore. Ford notes that plugging air leaks and insulating ceilings can be terrific investments that yield a 10 to 20 percent annual return. "Given the escalating cost of energy, you can make out like a stock market manipulator,'' he says. Heat also wafts up toward the high ceiling so typical of tract houses. After studying temperature fluctuations at specific locations, the staff will set up fans and ducts to recirculate hot air. Gellner did follow the rules of green design by including south-facing windows, and although these provide warmth and sunlight all day (reducing energy consumption), they also create glare and hot spots. As Freeman says, "There's a whole world called daylighting, which is more confusing and has more options than you would ever believe. It's not just having a window. Someone described trying to design with sunlight as trying to take a drink out of a fire hose. In other words, there's way more sunlight coming in than you can actually use.'' To combat these problems, teachers and students are experimenting with window treatments. Researchers at UC Berkeley and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory will participate in these investigations. In addition, when vines recently planted grow to cover the window overhang, they'll provide shade in summer, then drop their leaves in winter. Harnessing the sun The sunny site presents a distinct advantage when it comes to energy savings, in that solar electric (photovoltaic) panels generate enough energy to power computers in the building. PG&E still heats the place, especially at night, but solar panels slash energy use in half. That's key, because according to Freeman, buildings consume 48 percent of energy in this country, primarily through heating, air conditioning, lights and appliances. Two types of solar panels heat water at the Self-Reliant House. One kind ordinarily goes on roofs, and Freeman comments, "There was a time when most of the water in California was on these roof heaters. But the gas companies don't make any money that way.'' Laughing ruefully, he says, "Advertising campaigns convinced people to switch over to gas.'' The other type of panel features reflecting materials made from recycled potato chip bags and aluminum foil. Savings by the ton Reuse is a big theme at the Self-Reliant House. Old water faucet handles serve as pulls for kitchen cabinets, which have also been resurrected, salvaged from someone's remodel. These cabinets sport new faces made from sustained-yield maple from the Menominee Tribal Forest, a Wisconsin enterprise where workers replenish the forest as fast as they cut it. The Self-Reliant House staff hungers for castoffs, and not just because of its meager budget. Freeman strongly believes that consumption habits add to the vast waste in this country, starting with the way discarding old items makes landfills that much higher. Furthermore, manufacturing requires a high amount of energy, and only 7 percent of the raw material makes its way into the finished product. Transporting that item fritters away yet more resources. Freeman says that by acquiring used furniture, "we've saved about 2 tons of furnishings that would have gone to the landfill. But then you figure, if we'd bought new furniture, that would have been 93 percent waste. That would have been 18 or 19 tons of waste. So we actually saved 20 tons of either landfill waste or new waste.'' How's that for making a difference through lifestyle choices? --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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