Living with Energy

CHRIS BACKLEY/Daily Bruin Professor Scott Bartchy’s two-story
house sustains itself using solar power. The house, which he calls
the "Earthship," comes from his own design and imagination.

By Sophia Whang
Daily Bruin Senior Staff
swhang@media.ucla.edu

It looks like a normal house at first glance.

There’s a front porch entrance, fireplaces in the bedrooms
and a kitchen.

But it has a name, the “Earthship,” and it possesses
powers that belie its humble exterior.

Created by history professor Scott Bartchy, the house sustains
itself entirely on solar power and is designed to produce more
energy than it will ever use.

Bartchy just moved into the creation he’s been working on
for years; a house unique to the world in its complete
eco-friendliness – inside and out. Since his move, environmental
awareness guides his lifestyle.

After living in a Hollywood condominium with his wife, Nancy
Breuer, and his dog, Pasha, the three of them packed their bags to
move to the hills of East Ventura County, where Bartchy has put his
engineering smarts to use.

His innovative environment-friendly exterior and interior
designs came after being introduced to the concept back in 1991
from veteran architect Michael Reynolds’ company,
“Solar Survival Architecture,” in Taos, New Mexico.

“(The house) is basically the way I designed it,”
Bartchy said. “I studied (Reynolds’) principles in his
book, but it wasn’t really rocket science. It’s pretty
straightforward if you have a sense of space.”

UCLA history professor Scott Bartchy stands in front of his
eco-friendly house which he designed to create more energy than it
uses.

Bartchy, however, believes the house does more than just realize
his environmental vision. As a business venture, he sells his
surplus solar energy back to Edison and he can be a consultant for
others with an environmental conscience. “What I’m
prepared to do now is to be a consultant to people building a house
like this,” Bartchy said. “I would like to give a
little bit of what I’ve paid a lot of money to learn. And if
someone doesn’t have money, I’d do it for
free.”

Some features include the house’s 10-inch thick concrete
walls, covered by dirt, that pick up the earth’s surrounding
ambient temperature. Double-pane glass windows, rare in Southern
California building construction, and honeycomb blinds, can be
manipulated to control heat. In addition, the ceilings’
numerous skylights can create a draft to cool the house.

The walls facing the sun are colored with dramatic reds and
blues to absorb more heat than traditional lighter colors. The
house was also purposely built at a south/southeast angle to pick
up the sun’s rays.

The kitchen looks like any other kitchen, except that this one
can boast appliances with Energy Star symbols, a special
qualification for conserving energy. The washing machine, for
instance, has a spin that drains more water, eliminating the need
for a dryer, and uses 70 percent less water.

“Most of the salespeople thought I was crazy … they
didn’t know when I asked them about the energy ratings on
their appliances,” Breuer said.

Bartchy is also using PVC pipes to hold wine bottles. He has
created a root cellar for potatoes and onions to conserve energy
and space in the refrigerator. The house has no garbage disposal;
he has compost bins where he puts trash that will naturally
decompose into fertilizer.

Although these features were created and installed with relative
ease, delays in approvals have come from wary Southern California
officials, who were initially ambivalent about the unprecedented
project.

CHRIS BACKLEY/Daily Bruin Bartchy, also a jazz piantist,
includes his instrument in the Earthship’s unique interior design.
Both interior and exterior are designed to be eco-friendly.

“One of the major disappointments I had (in making this
house) was that I didn’t get any help from anybody,”
Bartchy said, mentioning government agencies in particular.

Bartchy estimates that his house would have cost the same as a
comparable one without the environmental features. Yet, he spent
more because of ad hoc governmental regulations that forced him to
add costly features to his home, which was perceived as a risky
project. Even with these additional costs, electricity bills will
be far from a problem for Bartchy.

“We’re going to save all kinds of money because we
don’t have to pay anything for fossil fuels, and eventually,
we’ll be making more electricity than we can use and will
sell it back to the grid,” Bartchy said, mentioning the 24
solar panels they will install on the roof within a year.

Even with all the changes in lifestyle the house’s three
inhabitants have had to face, major comforts were not
sacrificed.

“Pasha loves it here. She wants to hang out outdoors and
seems to enjoy the house,” Breuer added about their
13-year-old dog that the couple got through pet adoption.

Enjoying this new way of living, however, can be deeper than it
seems. For Bartchy, who is the director of the UCLA Center for the
Study of Religion, the Earthship is also influenced by his
spirituality, which draws from many religions.

“All the great religions, in some way, try to address the
ego problem. And in the same way as our life comes to us as a gift,
the earth comes to us as a gift,” Bartchy said.

His house is also a response to the increase in fossil fuel use,
which he sees as the most troubling environmental problem, and a
response to the lack of any significant developments in solar
energy since the beginning of Reagan’s presidency.

Despite initial government skepticism, the completion of his
house keeps him optimistic that the government will take him, and
others with similar goals, seriously.

“A model is worth 10,000 words,” Bartchy said.
“Once it’s here, nobody can say it can’t be
done.

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