Home Sweet Home: Living Solar

Photos courtesy of Living Solar

HOME SWEET HOME

Living Solar: Life on the sunny side By Zach Hively

For much of their life together, Eric Krieckhaus and Margaret Patterson taught math overseas, traveling the world one school at a time with their two children. So when it came time to plan their forever house, they had a particular vision: “The impetus was to make a home that was energy efficient, as much as possible, with the kids,” Krieckhaus says. “That’s where we started.”

So they found their land on the west side of Durango, heading up Junction Creek. The whole family took time off from school to construct their home together, which they did using classic passive heating and cooling techniques. But even the most efficient modern home still needs power, and the city requires all homes to be connected to the grid. Maintaining their home’s spirit of responsible energy consumption inspired the family to connect with Ben Jason, founder and owner of Living Solar, to help their energy needs match their motivations.

“They reached out to me in the early stages, when they hadn’t even started construction or broken ground,” Jason says. “They asked me, ‘Do you think we can do this all electric with solar?’ And I said, ‘You can, with the right design.’”

Jason has been helping families and businesses meet their energy needs since 1995, when he started his company in Durango. The family’s vision felt familiar to him; before founding Living Solar, he had built his own off-grid life on a piece of land in the Red Mesa area.

“I was quoted an exorbitant amount of money to bring in utilities,” he recalls. “I knew there had to be a better way.”

He started with a small wind turbine before adding some solar panels the following year. That led him to found Living Solar, which has now completed more than 500 installations in southwest Colorado and northern New Mexico.

With that kind of experience, Jason was more than prepared to design a net-zero electric system for Krieckhaus and Patterson.

The world of solar has advanced from its earlier days when every panel needed to be angled southward at the perfect angle to harness the sun effectively, or at all. Jason was able to work within the constraints presented by the passive solar design (which was the top-tier consideration for the home’s construction) not only to power the house but also to charge the family’s electric car. And he has already planned how to augment the current system when the family decides to add another vehicle.

Besides Jason at Living Solar, the family worked with builder Leon Martin at Mesa Builders, and architect Greg Madeen, to help bring their vision to reality – a lot of which the family did themselves. Krieckhaus estimates the

four of them accounted for 60% of the labor. The building experience was everything they hoped it would be, and now their home is everything they imagined it could be. It is net-zero, meaning the house’s solar array produces at least as much electricity as the house consumes—including the electric car. It’s also a low-energy house —with no natural gas hookups, and insulation that is essentially bulletproof. The home has a family feel they can enjoy every day without the guilt associated with burning fossil fuels to power their lives.

“Even though we’re not perched on a mountaintop somewhere, without connections, we’re still proud to be net-zero,” Krieckhaus says.

The family is confident that if they can build an energy-efficient home themselves, then it is attainable for just about everyone. They’re not alone: Jason understands that solar installations like this one are more accessible and feasible than ever.

“The technology has matured to the point where solar makes sense for pretty much anyone who uses electricity,” Jason explains. The break-even point on a solar installation in southwest Colorado is usually between seven and ten years, with panels that are built to last at least forty. Whether customers are looking at new construction or retrofitting their current homes, Living Solar takes care of designing the installation, pulling city and state permits, and completing all the paperwork that needs to be done — as well as keeping clients updated on tax benefits, such as the 26% federal tax credit for systems installed in 2022 (and 22% in 2023), and other incentives.

As for literally building a better world by building a better home? “Nothing is too hard to do,” Krieckhaus says. “There are books about everything. There are experts who can come and guide you. It doesn’t take vast knowledge to build what you want to build. And there is nothing more satisfying than turning on the light switch in your house and knowing that came from the sun.”