Big Thunder, small effort

Their dogs Erin and Mica follow them across the back yard - still in its nascent stages. A large patch of grass that will turn green in the spring is fed underground by gray water, water which comes from the bathrooms sinks, showers and washing machine.

It is the first home in Washoe County to be permitted to use such water, the owners say proudly.

Large rocks, excavated from the 1.25-acre plot when building began, are piled a short distance from the master bathroom and meant to provide privacy to those indoors and natural habitat for those outdoors like the jackrabbit or cottontail bunny.

The most striking feature of the back yard is two immense photovoltaic panels aimed directly south and able to adjust mechanically to take maximum advantage of the sun's heat.

John Sagebiel who built this home with Mary Cablk, both Ph.Ds, said if you listen you can hear a clicking sound as the panels move.

The panels collect heat from the sun, which is converted to electricity and this provides power to the home. The panels do not need to be close to the home as electricity travels well through wire - and therefore the panels are deep in the back yard.

It's a different story for the six solar roof panels, which also face south. Those panels heat the water in the home and because proximity affects conversion efficacy, they are as close to the home as possible.

Sagebiel and Cablk, both assistant researcher professors at the Desert Research Institute, moved into the home in November 2003. They started work in February and used Don Clark of Cathexes Architects for basic design.

The decision, at first, had been to buy a home in Reno, but the high prices combined with antiquated features in homes, kept them looking. Cablk kept finding1940s-style brick homes in need of plenty of revision.

"I just sort of had a meltdown at that point and said we're going to look at property," said Cablk. " ... Some of it was things just fell into place for us."

They found a piece of land off of Mount Rose Highway, not far up from the 'G' that mounts the hillside for Galena.

A dirt road leads into their home and they have a few neighbors nearby. The Honda in the driveway, in front of the two-car garage, boasts a bumper sticker that reads "I get my electricity from the sun."

When the home was first built, the couple would occasionally find notes attached to their door, asking who built the home. Sometimes they would end up taking people on tours of the outside.

"There isn't anything yet that I would necessarily do different, but from my perspective that comes from the planning and thought we put into the home," Cablk said.

The 3,100 square-foot home, known as "Big Thunder," has three bedrooms and two baths. On either side of a stairway leading to the upper level are masonry Trombe walls, which are designed to collect heat during the day and release it overnight. The Trombe wall is shorter on the side near the windows, which face the south and allow the sun's rays in to heat up the walls.

"We're not wealthy people in the big scheme of things in Reno," Cablk said. "I do think a lot of people could achieve this."

The living room is open two stories high. Large Douglas fir timbers are visible stretching through this area, and off to the side is a kitchen. The floors are of cement and have been stained different colors to set off the areas.

Underneath the floors are metal tubes that circulate water, water heated from the sun and collected by the solar panels on the roof. They keep the floors warm and provide heat through the house. There is no air-conditioning system.

"It's all about design," Sagebiel said.

The master bedroom is downstairs, as is a side room near the garage that contains all the mechanical elements that make this home run. To the novice eye, this side room is where a jumble of home systems come together, but to Sagebiel, who has a laptop set up to monitor the systems, it's obviously the heartbeat of the building - a home which the couple describes as Tahoe Chalet meeting Southwest Desert with a Pacific Northwest influence.

"We wanted the house to represent the zone between the Sierra Nevada mountains and the Great Basin," said Cablk.

Upstairs, are two bedrooms, a bathroom and a loft. The rail along the loft is made from juniper. There is still some work to do on the home, like finishing up the mantel behind the wood stove and work on the landscape. All of what Cablk has planted outside so far includes native plants. She still wants to complete the shower system in a outdoor place she calls the 'sanctuary,' essentially a private patio edged by large rocks and connected to the back of the home and meant for de-stressing after work.

The small touches in Big Thunder were done by one or both - including the tile in the master bathroom, the barn-like door in the master bedroom, even a lamp in the living room. They've worked on many of the fine details in the home to create a certain feel - the colors and textures in the master bathroom, for example, are meant to evoke the Merced River in Yosemite Valley.

Much of their time is spent in the living room or the loft where the expansive windows allow for pleasant gazes of the Sierra Nevada. While the home might seem like a monumental undertaking to some, the couple says it represents who they are. It's a home they think anyone can build with the right frame of mind.

"It depends how much effort you want to put into it," Cablk said. "For us, it wasn't that much effort really."

-- Contact reporter Maggie O'Neill at moneill@nevadaappeal.com or 881-1219.

No cost/low-cost tips:

• Clean or replace furnace and air conditioner filters once a month during heating/cooling season.

• Use cold water for laundry to save up to $63 a year - today's cold water detergents do a good job of cleaning - and wash when you have full loads.

• Turn off your computer and electronics during long periods of non-use to cut costs and improve longevity.

• Obey the speed limit because speeding cuts fuel economy to 23 percent as gas mileage decreases rapidly above 60 mph.

• Keep tires properly inflated to improve gas mileage as much as 3 percent.

Fast facts:

• Compact fluorescent bulbs (CFLs) use about two-thirds less energy and last up to 10 times longer than incandescent bulbs. Replacing four 75-watt incandescent bulbs with 23-watt fluorescent bulbs saves $190 over the life of the bulbs. If all our nation's households did the same, we'd save as much energy as is consumed by some 38 million cars in one year.

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• Installing appropriate insulation for your climate and sealing air leaks can increase your comfort, make your home quieter and cleaner, and reduce your heating and cooling costs up to 20 percent - and can generate a tax credit.

• Consider wrapping in energy-efficiency home improvements when refinancing your home. Your interest may be tax deductible.

• If all of the nation's households used the most efficient refrigerators, electricity savings would eliminate the need for about 20-30 power plants.

• Each year, Americans spend more money to power home audio and DVD products when turned off than when actually in use.

• By 2015, consumer electronics and small appliances will be responsible for almost 30 percent of all household electricity use.

Source: The Alliance to Save Energy. To request a free copy of Power$mart, call 1-888-878-3256.