Building 'Green,' A Dream at a Time
Owner's New Bungalow to be Powered by Earth, Sun

By Brigid Schulte
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, February 1, 2007

Terry Hill -- a big, burly, 63-year-old Aussie -- is a dreamer.

To the naked eye, 9 E. Walnut Ave. in the Rosemont section of Alexandria is just a big, ugly hole and a pile of construction debris enclosed by a chain-link fence. But through Hill's eyes, the site represents the future, the next big thing, his legacy. Hill is building what he hopes will be Alexandria's first "zero energy" house.

For 31 years, Hill worked as a budget analyst at the International Monetary Fund. Ages ago, when offices still used mimeograph machines, he pushed for copiers. He brought in the first word processors. He won some battles but lost many more.

"I spent most of my life at the IMF telling people what to do and no one listened," he said. There was no vision. People couldn't see further than the next year's budget. "Now, I've got the opportunity to do something creative and forward-thinking. I spent 30 years banging my head against a wall in frustration. And who knows, with this, I'm going to leave a legacy."

When all is said and done, his new house will look a lot like the old one, a boxy 1918 bungalow, except larger. What's revolutionary is how it will work. The new house will be as green and as energy-efficient as a building can be.

Hill's project comes as "green" and "energy efficient" have become the new buzzwords amid fears about global warming and the United States' dependence on foreign oil. Arlington, one of the first in the area to encourage energy-efficient building through its Green Home Choice program, started a major initiative in January to lower the county's greenhouse gas emissions. The Alexandria City Council is looking at legislation to promote energy efficiency. Several energy bills have been introduced in the Virginia General Assembly.

Alexandria's new $90.4 million T.C. Williams High School, under construction, incorporates design and construction features that are environmentally friendly, and the school is among the first in the country to apply for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design certification, awarded by the U.S. Green Building Council. Arlington's new Washington-Lee High School, also under construction, plans to apply for the designation, too.

By 2020, the U.S. Department of Energy wants all new houses to use 70 percent less energy than existing ones do. A zero-energy house is designed to not only be energy efficient, but to produce most, if not all, of its energy needs from alternative sources such as geothermal heating and solar power.

To heat and cool his house, Hill plans to dig four 100-foot wells to tap into underground reservoirs of water heated at Earth's core. He plans to spend big bucks on photovoltaic cells so the roof will be able to generate power from the sun. And he plans to strike a deal with Dominion Virginia Power for "net metering" -- meaning that on sunny days, when Hill's house produces more energy than he uses, his excess will go into Dominion's system to supply power to other customers. At night or on cloudy days, Hill may need to draw from the traditional grid. He will pay for the net of what he uses, less the amount of energy he has produced.

He also has plans for a system that will trap and filter rainwater for use in the house. "That'll save 50,000 gallons of runoff water from going to the storm sewer and the Chesapeake Bay every year," he said.

Instead of conventional framing and insulation, Hill will use a factory-built system of Structurally Insulated Panels, called SIPs. With rigid plastic foam packed between interior and exterior surfaces, the panels fit together seamlessly, "like an ice cream sandwich," he said.

The materials used to finish the house will be "green"-- or eco-friendly -- including reclaimed timber and low-emission paint. And when he is done, Hill hopes, he'll prove wrong those who have doubted him.

California already has communities of zero-energy houses, but Hill's promises to be one of the first such dwellings in the Washington region.

The project didn't start out to be so visionary. "It's taken on a green tint as it's gone along," he said.

Hill has lived in his two-bedroom bungalow since 1981. At first, Hill just wanted a bigger place, to make room for his books. In 1996, he hired an architect to draw plans for a two-story addition, which would have given him a long, narrow library on the second floor and a little more living space on the first floor.

He was planning to retire, and he had helped friends with construction projects, so he figured building the addition himself would be a good use of his time.

He started watching home project shows and subscribed to homebuilding magazines. He researched on the Web. When he found out about the SIPs panels, he was sold. Little by little, what had started as a traditional renovation project became highly innovative.

Hill began attending energy conferences and classes on green building. In October, he decided to "deconstruct" his old home rather than tear it down. A company that specializes in selling recycled building materials carefully bundled old floor boards, stacked doors and other salvageable items and hauled them away to be resold and reused. "The idea is to minimize the amount of junk sent to the landfill," he said.

Nothing about the project has been easy. Or fast. Or cheap. It has taken years to find companies that manufacture the new systems and a bank that would finance the nontraditional construction. City officials have sometimes been at a loss to respond to his needs, or know how to deal with the efficient systems he wants to use.

Just last week, Jannine Pennell, the city's acting director of code enforcement, called together Hill and people from the various departments and agencies who will need to sign off on parts of the unusual project. She said they are all learning as they go.

"Green technology is the wave of the future, but it's coming at us pretty fast, and our building code texts haven't kept up with it," she said. "It's a good system, and what he's doing is admirable. We just have to make sure it's done right, that the people who know what they're doing are installing it and that it's best not just for Mr. Hill, but for everyone around him."

For example, Pennell said city officials need to make sure that the rainwater Hill plans to recycle doesn't get into the potable water supply, or that the gellike coolant in his geothermal heating system can't leach into the ground and potentially contaminate the soil or groundwater.

Hill estimates the green house, which will measure about 3,600 square feet, will have cost him about $550,000. Hill's solar panels will cost $30,000 alone. But that hasn't deterred him.

"This has become my life basically," said Hill, who is single. "I don't have anyone to leave it to, so it'll take what it takes."

For all the talk from various government agencies about promoting energy efficiency, there has been little money to back it up.

"In general, the federal government has not made it easy for homeowners to go green," said Stella Tarnay, manager of Arlington's Green Choice green building program. "Except for recent tax credits, there's been precious little for homeowners or incentives for environmental and energy improvements. And despite the growing interest in green homes and green buildings, Virginia has been slow in supporting environmental innovation."

Although the federal government and a few states, including California and Florida, offer homeowners and businesses small tax incentives and credits when they install solar power, upgrade insulation or windows or take other measures to save energy, Virginia offers nothing.

"Maryland has a tax credit for the purchase of solar panels. Virginia doesn't," said Lee O'Neal, a home energy rater with NSpects in Chantilly, who conducts home energy audits and helps devise plans to make homes more efficient. "Last year, we had nine bills on energy efficiency and green building in the Virginia General Assembly, and all of them were tabled."

Actually, lawmakers did pass one bill last year to encourage solar, wind, natural gas and other alternative fuels, as well as encourage fuel and energy efficiency. But the measure was never funded, Hill said.

Still, O'Neal and Tarnay said they are seeing a growing interest in green homebuilding, especially as the housing market has slowed and contractors are looking for an edge. A year ago, Tarnay had one or two homebuilders in her program. This year, there are 10. "For a small locality with very modest new home construction, that's quite impressive," she said. "I think that's a harbinger of market trends in the region."

Although Hill's permits are stalled at City Hall, the guy he needs to sign off on the engineering lives out of state and doesn't have a Virginia license, and he has a host of other hurdles to jump, Hill has a small group of advocates cheering him on.

"It's thrilling to see someone like Terry Hill spend the time and invest the money in an innovative green project," Arlington's Tarnay said. "He's learning as he goes, and he's building his home without the benefit of a local green program to support him, without the benefit of state resources and, given that, he's making great progress."

Today, though Hill's future home is still a muddy hole, his belongings are in storage and he is living in a rental, the dreamer has a new dream. Maybe building zero-energy houses will be his next new thing.

"This has taken so much time. . . . I've made so many mistakes. There were so many things I didn't know," he said. "But once I've finished, I'll have put together a system here that could be replicated in the future. I think it's finally time for this green stuff."