‘Green-House’ Effect
April 7, 2009
by Hannah Northey, Daily News Record
HARRISONBURG — A group of "green pioneers" hopes to settle in the hills of Harrisonburg by August.
But instead of horse and buggies or cloth-covered wagons, explorers will have solar panels, wind turbines and other sustainable technologies.
On 5 acres along Interstate 81 about a mile north of Harrisonburg, Zach Fettig, a 24-year-old graduate of James Madison University’s College of Integrated Science and Technology, is financing and building a self-sufficient, environmentally friendly house.
Four JMU students, who will pay rent to Fettig, will complete their CISAT senior thesis projects by studying clean technology in the 3,000-square-foot, two-story house, Fettig said.
Fettig hopes the house also will be a model for his new business, Shenandoah Sustainable Technologies, and a catalyst for creating a market for sustainable housing.
"I hope to create a paradigm shift in the way we build houses and cater to the environment," Fettig said. "It’s about the commercialization of sustainable technology."
Applying Technology
In December, Fettig graduated with a bachelor’s degree in science from CISAT and launched his business in May.
This summer, Fettig obtained a loan from Summit Community Bank in Harrisonburg to build a single-family rental property for JMU students.
Ronald Kander, a professor and CISAT department head, said several JMU grads have started businesses in the Valley. But Fettig’s project is unique, Kander said, because students will live at the site and learn about starting up a business.
And the project, he said, is a great example of CISAT’s focus, which is applying and integrating existing science for saving energy and conserving resources.
"[Fettig is] using commercial, off-the-shelf technologies that he learned about while he was here," Kander said. "The scholarship in this project is the application and integration of [those] technologies."
Students will keep logs and use other techniques to collect data from the fuel, electric, water and wastewater systems installed in the house, said Jim Barnes, the city’s assistant economic development director for technology and a professor at CISAT.
The results, compiled during the students’ year in the house, will be compared to more traditional homes. Research will continue once new students move in.
"Zach wants to prove the energy savings of this type of structure versus traditional type structures," Barnes said. "In the future, you’ll see communities that are totally sustainable and using this type of technology."
Waste, Water And Energy
The house, Fettig said, will have four bedrooms, a study, dining room, living room, kitchen, four bathrooms, a "mechanical room" where machines will be stored, and a finished attic that could serve as a bedroom in the future.
The students will use, drink and bathe in water collected and purified in a high-tech cistern.
Low-flow toilets and showerheads also will be used to reduce water usage, thereby offsetting what the house would normally draw from a well or water system, Fettig said.
Waste from the house will be pumped into an underground tank to be treated with microbes and released into a drainage field set back on the property.
The system, Fettig said, works more efficiently than normal septic systems by adding oxygen to the waste, which allows microbes, or bacteria, to digest waste faster.
A fuel cell will produce most of the house’s electricity, Fettig said. The cell will use the chemical energy of hydrogen from natural gas and oxygen from the air to produce electricity cleanly, with water and heat as the only byproducts.
A wind turbine on a hill behind the house, and several solar panels on the south-facing roof, also will produce energy at the site, Fettig said.
Heating And Cooling
The house also will be heated and cooled with energy-efficient systems, Fettig said.
A geothermal heating-and-cooling system will be installed that transfers heat to and from the ground, Barnes said.
Because the temperature of the ground is constant a few feet below the surface, Fettig’s geothermal unit will transfer heat more efficiently than conventional systems, Fettig said.
Also, Fettig said "passive solar design" will be used, and sunlight entering windows on the south side of the house will be stored in heat-storing tiles on the floors.
The house also will include window and ceiling fans to circulate the heat and a solar-thermal heating system to warm water naturally.
Barnes said the city supports Fettig’s entrepreneurship and hopes to retain a higher percentage of its college graduates.
"[We’re working] so students take what they’ve learned and stay in the Valley," Barnes said. "This is a perfect example of someone taking what they’ve learned and transferring it into the community."
To learn more about JMU’s College of Integrated Science and Technology, visit www.isat.jmu.edu.
Contact Hannah Northey at 574-6274 or hnorthey@dnronline.com