Home Efficiency – Falmouth Couple Sets Standard For Green Living

By CATHERINE FRONDORF

Green homes and buildings have been sprouting up across the country and around the world to combat the climate crisis and to save the planet, one home at a time. The word “green” is used as a verb by climate activists, environmentalists, building contractors and anyone else seeking “to make a less harmful (impact) on the environment.”

Saving the planet is precisely why Earle Barnhart and Hilde Maingay have operated their uniquely designed green home in Falmouth since 1998. Their green approach is an example of how others can do it, too. There are plenty of reasons to “go green” and save both energy in your home and money in your pocket.

In the last 1960s, scientists from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution were concerned about global warming and developed the New Alchemy Institute, a now-defunct research facility on climate change. Earle and Hilde met there while researching the effects of greenhouse gases on our planet and where they developed their extensive knowledge on home energy efficiency.

New Alchemy thrived for years before it eventually ran out of funding and disbanded in 1991, but that did not stop Earle and Hilde from pursuing their own creative carbon-reducing endeavors. They purchased the property with other green-minded individuals as part of a compound, and today the research facility, which was actually a large greenhouse, is now connected to their private home.

The couple launched The Green Center Inc., a nonprofit educational institute that evolved from New Alchemy with a mission to “support projects that demonstrate ecologically derived forms of energy, agriculture, aquaculture, housing and landscapes, and living in harmony with nature.”

During its heyday, New Alchemy produced journals on the planet’s ever-changing environment, which Earle and Hilde have copied to their website at www.thegreencenter.net for anyone to view for free. Additionally, they produce educational videos on indoor and outdoor green practices.

What can people do to make their homes “green”? Initially, one might assume “going green” means making a space greener by planting some trees or a vegetable garden, freshening up the lawn and maybe adding a greenhouse. However, while adding a garden is “a nice idea,” it is secondary to what one needs to do to make a space more energy-efficient and environmentally friendly,” Earle and Hilde said.

According to the couple, a home becomes “green” when the energy sources—specifically, anything that uses electricity, water and heat—are used as efficiently as possible. In addition to energy-conserving appliances in the home, the second most important factor in going green is that the people in the home must change their lifestyles. Earle and Hilde could not emphasize enough that we as a society must “REDUCE, REDUCE, REDUCE,” which is to conserve the energy (electricity) we use in our home and to reduce the greenhouse gases we emit into the world.

Examples of resource reduction include taking showers instead of baths; using less plastic; riding a bicycle; taking fewer trips to the grocery store; scaling down to one car; taking public transportation or getting an electric car; and using a toilet that has separate flushes for urine and feces.

In a perfect world, a green home would have net-zero emissions and produce more energy than it consumes. Earle and Hilde reduce their energy through the use of LED lights, advanced power strips, Energy Star-approved electric appliances (as opposed to using oil and gas), airtight walls to avoid heat loss, low-flow shower heads, faucet aerators, a heat pump (also known as a split or heat exchanger) and covering windows with insulation film and curtains during winter. Furthermore, the couple uses solar panels to create a surplus of energy that gets stored into a large battery in their home and acts as a generator if the power goes out. They receive a check in the mail for the excess energy from the solar panels, which is purchased by Eversource, the company that supplies electricity for Cape Cod.

Additionally, Earle and Hilde have a greenhouse called the Cape Cod Ark that allows for a year-round garden kept warm through the use of aquaponics: a system of aquaculture in which farmed fish produce nutritional waste to fertilize plants that in turn purify the water. The couple reduce their water consumption by composting their human waste, as compared to flushing it with fresh water. Outside their home, they raise chickens for fresh eggs, tend to their garden and do not eat meat, apart from fish, as cows and pigs create more greenhouse gases. In many respects, they go above and beyond what the average American may be willing or able to do, but they said they do not believe that greenhouses are “necessary” to make your home green.

Not everyone’s interpretation or definition of the word “green” is the same, nor is it a universally defined concept.

An interesting perspective comes from Briana Kane, the residential program manager for Cape Light Compact. The energy services organization is operated by the 21 towns on Cape Cod and Martha’s Vineyard and Dukes County and provides energy-efficiency programs. Going green may seem like a daunting and colossal task that raises a plethora of questions such as where to start, how much it will cost, the amount of time it will take and how to go about such a process. This is where Cape Light Compact steps in, as they offer free energy audits to identify where in your home you are losing energy and the ways in which to mitigate loss, as well as identify energy-efficient upgrades that will reduce your energy use.

“Lots of people talk about ‘green’ in terms of energy efficiency,” Ms. Kane said, “but there are tons of ways in which you can save energy and there is not one right way to go about it, as every home, person, family, and financial situation is unique.”

In conjunction with the state of Massachusetts, Cape Light Compact provides a multitude of incentives, rebates, savings and pay-back programs from residential homeowners to commercial businesses. If you are new to the game, “your journey will likely start with the basics by making your home energy-efficient, then working toward building upon renewable energy and strategic electrification, and then eventually coupling that with battery and storage so that you’re operating your own microgrid,” Ms. Kane said.

Furthermore, you’ll want to get a professional opinion because, as Ms. Kane said, “beginning your energy journey can be overwhelming, and the entry-point for everyone is different.”

“People have competing priorities like time, family obligations and other goals for their home such as getting a new kitchen, and so we try to meet them where they are. Also, producing net-zero emissions is difficult to achieve,” she said.

Everyone has different reasons for making their home greener—from people wanting to reduce their electrical bills to those who have environmental incentives behind their desire to reach net zero. Whatever the reason, Ms. Kane said, “I like to say that whether you make a penny a year or a million dollars, we have ways to help you on your energy journey and it’s never too late to start.” See www.capelightcompact.org for more information.

However you start your green home and energy efficiency journey, today’s programs and resources available to residents have been inspired by carbon mitigation pioneers like longtime Falmouth residents Earle Barnhart and Hilde Maingay.