Neighbors’ Energy Use Proves Illuminating
Call it a tale of two houses--and two families who agreed to be part of a national experiment involving state-of-the-art energy-saving design.
Both homeowners got a pretty good deal on their houses, but one saved a few hundred dollars on gas and electricity--and got to meet the president.
Christy and Craig Steindorf paid about $162,000 last year for a new three-bedroom house with several innovations to conserve energy. Next-door neighbors Diane and Randy Clark paid a bit more for their house--but minus the extras. Both families agreed to participate in the experiment before buying their homes.
The test is one of 25 nationally and the only one in California--which is why Christy Steindorf was invited to join President Clinton at a news conference Monday in Sylmar to launch a national campaign to cut residential energy use in half.
“It’s the luck of the draw,” said Christy Steindorf, who chatted with Clinton at length about her family’s new home.
Researchers say the goal of the test house project, funded in part by the federal government, is to demonstrate the cost-effectiveness of design modifications.
“We wanted to show, with some simple improvements, that homeowners can increase their comfort and energy savings,” said Tim Beggs, an engineer who helped design the houses. “It’s not rocket science. It’s just the common sense approach--the best of what’s available right now.”
The Steindorfs’ house features windows specially treated to reduce the penetration of heat from the sun; a smaller but more efficient air conditioner and heater; and an air distribution system built into the ceiling rather than the attic, where ducts are usually placed.
The Clarks’ house, on the other hand, served as the experiment’s “control” by being built to standard specifications with none of the energy-saving amenities. Virtually the only element not controlled was the usage preferences of the participants.
“They approached us about being placebos,” Diane Clark said, “and we liked the idea. We’re kind of environmentally oriented, and we wanted to be part of something worthwhile.”
To reward the participants, the researchers agreed to pay both families’ utility bills for a year. To monitor the results, they equipped both houses with indoor atmospheric sensors and outdoor weather stations linked by modem to the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Golden, Colo.
“The sensor in our bedroom would go off every 15 minutes, and it sounded like little mice,” Clark said. “At first it drove our cats crazy, but eventually they got used to it. It was kind of fun.”
Sara Farrar, one of the engineers overseeing the project, said that the experiment was about taking a systems engineering approach to building a house.
“We wanted to demonstrate that you can build a better-quality house that doesn’t necessarily have to cost more,” she said.
RGC of Newport Beach, the company that built the Steindorfs’ house, is using the same techniques for 82 more houses in Santa Margarita and Irvine, and 100 in San Diego.
“It costs us very little to dramatically improve efficiency,” said Jim Murar, the company’s chief executive. “We think it makes a lot of sense, and we think today’s consumer is going to demand more and more things of this nature.”
After nearly a year of monitoring the Steindorfs’ and Clarks’ homes, the results are in: The Steindorfs used 55% less electricity and 40% less natural gas than the Clarks, for savings that averaged almost $60 a month.
“That was really cool,” Christy Steindorf said.
Even cooler was getting a call from the White House last week inviting her to join Clinton at the news conference.
“I was nervous,” she said, “until I met the president. He was so down to earth and sincere that he put me at ease. It was like we were sitting on the couch and having a beer.”
Besides energy efficiency, Steindorf said, she and Clinton talked about the environmental cleanup of Lake Tahoe near her hometown of Placerville and the fact that her height--she stands 5-foot-2--would make it difficult for her to be seen over the microphone on the speaker’s platform.
“We were discussing my height problem, and he said he would take care of it for me,” Steindorf said. He did so by finding a step for her to stand on.
Craig Steindorf and the couple’s 10-year-old son, Trenton, also met Clinton.
“He was a genuinely super-nice guy,” Steindorf said. “He asked me how I felt about my wife’s speech and where Trenton went to school.”
And what of the Clarks, who watched their next-door neighbor on TV with Clinton?
“I have no desire to meet the president,” said Randy Clark, 46, a retired Army officer. Clark said he used to work at the Pentagon, where he often rubbed elbows with bigwigs: “If you’ve met one, you’ve met them all.”
