By ANDREW MARTIN
The concept of going green is one that's been kicked around for generations but it has gained a full head of steam most recently, thanks in part to the energy and economic crises plaguing the globe. And anyone paying an electric or heating bill knows about that first hand.
So what is a homeowner to do? One viable option is to restructure your home with energy efficient products like new windows or appliances. You can also add or replace any insulation to ensure you are getting the most out of your oil, gas, or electric heating.
Or, if you are like Ray Cayer, of 163 Stubtown Road, you just build a brand new home with the aforementioned amenities. A typical home, however, this is not. Sure, it has a roof, walls, doors, windows, and everything else you would expect. But here is the catch: it is round.
Cayer built the 2,500 square foot home, with some minor help from friends and family. The construction process, he noted, was both easy and inexpensive. Not including the septic tank and well, the home cost about $80,000 to build.
The idea to build his home stemmed from several years spent living on sailboats. He said that on a boat, you are always conscious of how much energy you use. Also, he had worked with systems like wind generators, solar applications, and steam turbines so he had background in energy conservation.
"I knew that in this particular house I was going to build something that would be the most energy efficient house I could build," Cayer said.
The round design was a beneficial decision for several reasons, according to Cayer. Besides offering 25 percent more square footage, it will stand up better to disasters and high winds when compared to its square or rectangular brethren. Also, the round concrete roof allows for a full open ceiling, which provides about 400 more square feet. That extra space was later turned into a loft.
Cayer described the building process as him basically playing with a giant LEGO set. "It was made with foam blocks that you stack on top of each other and you use a razor knife to cut them. So basically you stack the blocks and then fill in with cement," he explained. And the pieces for the whole house could be shipped in a single tractor-trailer.
Another benefit of the design is that it retains more heat than even a typical energy efficient home. Cayer said that to heat his home, he would only have to run his furnace for an hour-and-a-half over a 24-hour period. An energy efficient home, on the other hand, would have to run its boiler for much, much longer.
Although there is minimal wood in the home, Cayer had to use some for the window areas. He made sure to make good use of his surroundings, though, and milled most of the wood from oak trees on his property.
Using local products is essential to Cayer. He said people need to utilize businesses like Hopkinton-based Thompson Native Lumber to put money back into the community. "Eventually we're all going to have to live as a community and work locally again … rather than being so scattered. No one is really concentrating on their own home area," he said.
Cayer also used wood for other applications in the house, including his 800-gallon hot water storage tank. The mammoth tank, which is truly something to behold, powers the home's heating system that is a radiant heated slab. The tank also provides hot water for showers, washing clothes and dishes, and other uses.
To heat the water, Cayer mixes solar power with a wood stove that he runs for six to eight hours once every 10 to 14 days. But he is hoping to become 90 percent dependant on solar through a new, groundbreaking form of solar power called a heliostat.
A heliostat, made by Boston-based Practical Solar, Inc., is essentially a collection of medium-sized mirrors that reflect the sun's beams to a central location. Each heliostat is controlled by a computer software program. Outside Cayer's home, more than a handful of heliostats stand in his side yard, shining sunlight at a coil that will be used to heat water. "This tracking heliostat experiment is the first we know of in the world applied to a home," he said.
Practical Solar Chief Operating Officer David R. Howell concurred. "This would be the first house to heat its water with heliostats," he explained. He continued to say that they will be on the market in a year's time. Regarding Cayer's home, Howell said its one of the premier renewable energy homes in the world.
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