[Scpg] SF Gate:The house, officially called the Humboldt State University Campus Cente for Appropriate Technology (CCAT),

[Wesley Roe and Marjorie Lakin Erickson]

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Monday, January 8, 2001 (SF Chronicle)
Power on a Shoestring/21-year experiment finds ways anyone can cut energy costs
Kevin Fagan, Chronicle Staff Writer


    If you want to watch TV or run the blender in the funky old eco-house
overlooking the campus here, you'd better be ready to ride. A bicycle,
that is.
    Going nowhere.
    Unless, of course, you call riding to lunch "somewhere" -- which is where
Sean Dockery pedaled himself to the other day when he got a hankering for
salad dressing. He plucked herbs from the garden, dumped them in the
Osterizer with oil and tahini, then jumped on his souped-up bike.
    The pedals spun the wheel that spun the rod that twirled the blender
blades,
    and in a minute, voila! Salad dressing. The machine was homemade low-tech
like most everything else in this house, from the solar-paneled light
fixture overhead to the next-door greenhouse that pumped in hot air to
keep Dockery toasty on his quick ride to lunch.
    That's how things are in what may be the most energy-efficient home of its
kind in the nation -- a 1930s-era, 10-room wooden house that uses so
little energy, its power bill typically is about $10 a month.
    The house, officially called the Humboldt State University Campus Center
for Appropriate Technology (CCAT), was lovingly converted by students on a
shoestring budget 21 years ago to be a living experiment in energy
conservation. It's still run by students, and everything is still
shoestring and invented on the spot.
    And although the pedal gizmos can come off a bit wacky, this continuing
research project has a lot to show more conventional residents about how
to conserve energy -- especially when power prices are shooting through
the roof, whether you've insulated it or not.
    "The goal here is to use as little nonrenewable energy and resources as
humanly possible and to educate people while we're doing it," said
Dockery, a 22-year-old environmental science senior who is one of the
three students living at the house. "Some people might get a laugh out of
the bike thing or the dry compost toilet, but this is very serious stuff
going on here. We're not kidding around."
    The house is vibrant proof that sometimes the best way to look forward is
to reach backward.
    BERKELEY CIRCA 1972
    Stand in the hardwood living room of this bulky old place of thick beams
and wide doorways, and you might as well be in Berkeley circa 1972 --
everything from the eco-urgent books on the shelves, the
purple-green-beige wall colors and the "Love One Another" slogan painted
over the kitchen entrance speaks of lefty idealism. Stick your hands in
the no-power "cold box" that serves as the main refrigerator or crank the
hand pump outside to spray recycled "gray" water on the garden, and you
journey further to the 19th century days before electricity.
    The difference is that, whether you are lefty or libertarian, modern or
old- fashioned, there are common attractions here: Everybody wants to save
cash on power, and many of the things these students do can be duplicated
most anywhere.
    For instance, the homemade thermal curtains -- stylish quilts of insulated
cloth -- ward off the cold so well they are twice as efficient as
double-paned glass. Living room windows open from the greenhouse just
outside to blast warm air in, while a hallway vent sucks cold air under
the house and back to the greenhouse to be heated.
    Solar panels on the roof generate about 700 watts a day, which go into the
heart of the house's electrical system: 12 lead-acid, 24-volt batteries in
the basement. The batteries need little upkeep other than refilling with
water, and they last 10 years.
    WIND TURBINE POWER
    Because the eco-house often eats 1,000 watts a day for lights and
nonbicycle appliances such as the laptop computer, the rest of the power
is supplied by a wind turbine outside and a generator that burns
"biodiesel" fuel.
    Biodiesel is essentially free waste cooking oil from the school cafeteria,
distilled out back in a handcrafted setup of garbage cans and a boat motor
for mixing.
    Homemade bicycle rigs run not just the blender and TV, but the washing
machine, drill press, table saw and sander. For outdoor concerts, there is
a 14-bicycle behemoth called the Human-Powered Energy Converter, which
spews enough juice to run a sound system.
    It helps that since its first days, the project was advised by one of the
leading alternative energy experts in the country, Humboldt State
Professor Peter Lehman.
    "Most student projects start out with a lot of zeal and energy, and then
when the original leaders leave, the whole thing fizzles. Not this,"
Lehman said. "It just keeps getting better all the time."
    The house was a dilapidated wreck to be burned as an arson-study project
when the club persuaded campus administrators to let it turn the place
into an environmentally "groovy" experiment. After it was patched and
insulated, the first three co-director students moved in.
    VISITED BY 1,200 SCIENTISTS
    Since then, 60 co-director teams have run the house, all students picked
by a faculty-student committee and assisted each year by 200 volunteers
and a dozen employees. Word of the local wonder has spread so far in
ecology circles that more than 1,200 scientists and curiosity-seekers
visit every year from as far away as India.
    Outside sits the blaring emblem of the house's purpose: a clutch of wires
thrusting off the roof. That's where PG&E power used to come in, until the
leads were snipped 10 years ago in an electrical declaration of
independence.
    "There's nothing like CCAT to make you really aware of the power you use,"
said co-director Emilia Patrick, a botany senior who, at 24, already had
years of conservation and recycling fervor under her belt before moving
in. "You leave a light on at your parents' house by mistake and wake up
the next day, it's OK.
    "But you do that here on a cloudy day, and you'll be burning candles the
next night when you study."
    The only reason the house has an energy bill at all is because it still
sucks a little natural gas -- and that's optional.
    The students often allow themselves the luxury of "flash heating" shower
water with a tiny gas burner that boosts the already solar-cooked
temperature. And the clunky old kitchen stove uses gas, although they cut
cooking time in half by bringing the pan to top heat and quickly stuffing
it into an insulated drawer called the "hot box." Letting the pan sit in
its own warmth finishes the job.
    "That house is a very cool thing, and I don't know of anything exactly
like it anywhere," marveled Daniel Kammen, who would know as director of
the Renewable and Appropriate Energy Laboratory at the University of
California at Berkeley. Although he has students whose apartments are so
energy friendly, they have zero power bills, and there are a few modern,
high-tech labs that conserve better, CCAT has carved a unique category of
its own.
    "Things like the bicycle washing machine might seem cute only for the
granola and Birkenstock crowd, but there are lots of neat options for your
home if you pay attention to things like this," Kammen said. "The Humboldt
house is a perfect example of doing things right."

LESSONS TO BE LEARNED Here are some examples of things done at the Campus
Center for Appropriate Technology eco-house that might be applied in the
average home:
    -- Thermal curtains can be easily sewn together with materials either from
around the house or bought at a fabric store. They consist of one layer of
cloth, a layer of insulation made of blankets or shredded newspaper, a
vapor barrier of Mylar, and lastly, another fabric layer for a nice
appearance. Some companies also make and sell these curtains.
    -- Solar panels can cost a bit to install, but the savings over the long
run more than pay for them, even in a cloudy environment like the North
Coast.
    -- A cold box can store most food that needs refrigeration in the winter,
and in the summer it is good for fruit and fresh vegetables. Pick a big
cupboard on the north side of the house, which doesn't get as much direct
sunlight during the day, heavily insulate it and cut vents to the outside.
You'll also need to install a pipe that goes through the roof. The pipe,
painted black on the top, draws the heat up and sucks the cold air into
the box.
    -- A hot box can cut a lot of cooking time in half. Pick a drawer, or box
with a lid, and line it with metal insulation such as bubble-pack
Reflectix. Get food, such as rice, to full heat, then put it in the box to
let the insulation do the rest.
    -- Reflector cookers come in many shapes and sizes - the idea is simply to
direct sunlight into a concentrated beam that acts as a stove burner. The
eco- house uses old satellite dishes rigged with racks, but its Web site
gives tips on how to build them or buy them elsewhere.
    -- Compact fluorescent light bulbs use about a quarter of the power of
normal incandescent light bulbs: The house uses only 15-watt bulbs, which
give off the light of 75 usual watts. Available at most hardware stores.
    -- The bicycle-pedaled gadgets that lend the eco-house much of its charm
can be made by anyone handy, using spare bike or exercycle parts and a
little electrical equipment. Check the eco-house Web site for tips.
    -- Biodiesel fuel might take a bit of chemical bravery, but the eco-house
Web site gives tips for how to make it, and house directors can put you in
touch with experts. The gunky fuel, made for free from cast-off restaurant
oil,
    substitutes directly for diesel fuel in cars or generators.
    -- Ardent gardeners might consider building a greenhouse attached to the
southern side of the house. Cut a vent in the floor of the main hallway to
let cold air get sucked through a vent into the greenhouse. There, sun and
plants heat the air. The warm air can then be returned to the house by
opening the windows.
    For more information on how CCAT shaves energy costs, visit its Web site
at:
    sorrel.humboldt.edu/~ccat.

    E-mail Kevin Fagan at kfagan at sfchronicle.com.
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Copyright 2001 SF Chronicle