This unique and beautiful sustainable home is one that in many ways exemplifies the natural building movement. Built of strawbale walls and earthen plasters, the home utilizes low embodied energy local building materials throughout. The foundation uses minimum quantities of concrete (a high embodied energy building product) with the use of structurally designed rubble trench foundations. The timber structure is composed of wood products harvested on site from the surrounding forest in a sustainable manner. The passive solar orientation of the home and the high thermal mass design elements (interior adobe walls and thick earthen plasters and durable finish earthen floors creates a temperature controlled environment which has been measured to remain comfortably in the low seventies during the blazing New Mexico Summer without mechanical cooling and a moderate 50 degrees in the harshness of the mountain winter without any mechanical heating system. With the quick light of a single wood stove the ambient temperature quickly rises to a comfortable 65-70. The home heats its hot water with a solar thermal batch heater mounted to the south facing roof, and powers itself with a 1.0 kilowatt off grid photovoltaic solar electric system. The home requires no fossil fuel based energy other than a propane fired cooking stove, and occasional back-up water and space heating with an on demand propane heater. The home produces more power than it consumes in a year making it a zero energy home, built of sustainable natural materials.
