Couple Building Energy Efficient Dream Home

If you were fed up with higher and higher utility bills, and you were building a new home, wouldn't you build the most energy efficient home you could? The answer was yes for a Bartlesville couple.

Tuesday, October 9th 2007, 4:45 pm

By: News On 6

If you were fed up with higher and higher utility bills, and you were building a new home, wouldn't you build the most energy efficient home you could? The answer was yes for a Bartlesville couple. The News On 6â€™s Rick Wells reports the Wingardâ€™s have employed every energy saving building technique they could find.

Jim Wingard and his wife are building a new house on Circle Mountain, southwest of Bartlesville.

â€œWe knew we wanted to build a house that was gonna be more energy efficient," homeowner Jim Wingard said.

They were sick of escalating energy bills so when they knew they were moving they started planning.

"We bought a software program so we could actually design the house," said Wingard.

He says his new house is design number 59. Wingard says things kept changing and the more they researched, the more they found out.

"We tried to eliminate any possible thing we could find to cut down energy loss," Wingard said.

The slab of the new home is insulated around the edges with foam, and there is an insulating blanket under the slab that reflects heat back into the house. The outside walls are 12-inch thick styrofoam sections that snap together. They are reinforced with rebar then filled with concrete, and the window's are rated at R-10, three times the Energy Star Standard. The energy savings extend into the attic, which is encapsulated by a spray on foam making the attic as cool as the rest of the house. Wingard says it is costing him and his wife 20 to 25% more to build this way, but his energy bill will run about $50 a month.

"People aren't going green yet, we went as green as we could go with this house to get the max benefit of everything," homeowner Jim Wingard said.

Everything includes a steel roof, radiant heated floors in the master bedroom and bath and a solar water heater. The 6,100 square foot, super energy efficient dream home is scheduled to be finished by the end of the year.

Watch the video: Couple Goes Green On Their New Home