I gave a PowerPoint presentation on the five houses finished in the grant program funded by HUD and administrated by the Top of the Ozarks RC&D Inc. in a partnership with the University of Missouri Extension Center in Douglas County.

Afterward Tom showed a PowerPoint featuring slides about the strawbale house he built in the grant program. The group asked questions about the process, indicating considerable interest in strawbale construction as an alternative to conventional building.

The Rotary Club served us a real good meal at the Los Potrillos Mexican restaurant where the luncheon was held.

A little bit about Tom.

Tom has a degree in Psychology, a long way from construction, but he did not let that stop him.

He did his homework before starting. His research included strawbale construction and alternative energy resources that would work for his building situation.

He received $15,000, payable when the house was finished, from the grant program, which some of was used to pay for a little extra help framing. He did most of the actual work himself, but was helped by friends as were many of the other homes in the project. The result is a well designed and constructed, energy efficient, common sense house with four foot roof overhang on the sides and a porch on each end for maximum weather protection.

The home is approximately 1000sq.ft. on a crawl space, the only one in the program that was not on a concrete slab. The foundation is CIF blocks with drain pipe inside and out to keep the underside dry. The attic is foam insulated. Approximately 70% off the windows are facing south. When additional heat is needed Tom has a small air tight wood stove with an outside air duct to pull oxygen for combustion. A solar PV panel array is on the roof, charging a battery bank, that produces most of the electrical power. Any extra power goes to the grid through an Outback inverter.

Tom also catches the rain off the roof into an underground cistern for domestic use. At this time he is still waiting for the SunFrost, high energy efficient, A/C refrigerator that will top off a very efficient house.

Hats off to Tom for researching and putting the findings into action wherever he could.

When he learned of the availability of the $15,000 grant offered by the Top of the Ozarks RC&D Straw Bale Construction Initiative, he quit thinking and started to act.

Tom first contacted me in 2007, but it was the spring of 2008  before he could get his land for certain.  He put things in motion.

As we come into April 2009. he is close to finishing a nice one bed, one bath, approximately 80% solar straw bale home.  The main heat source is a very small wood stove.

Tom has been his own builder/contractor, doing a lot of the work himself. He told me he had little building experience but was not afraid of work. As I have been overseeing the house from the ground up, I find it difficult to believe he started out inexperienced.  Tom has one straw bale house the big bad wolf won’t blow down.

The house is well built and protected with four foot roof overhang on the sides and porches on the ends.  I am big on the theory of  Big boots and Big hat for straw bale construction and Tom has accomplished both.

Alternative energy holds great interest for me, especially solar. The sun’s power is there for our use, free, except for the cost of the equipment to harvest it.

As a result, I am taking great interest in Tom’s solar efficient project. I intend to do some follow-up in the future on this house regarding energy consumption.

Starting out Tom is using six 175watt Kyocera panels and eight Trojon T-105 6volt batteries. This is basically a 1kw system, which may sound a little small but he has a super efficient Sun Frost electric refrigerator, an on-demand tankless gas water heater and will cook with gas. He has a grid connection so when he is producing more power than he is using it will reduce the cost of power purchased from the power company.

Tom is also concerned with water conservation so he is collecting the rainwater from the roof in an underground cistern and then pumping it to a pressure tank with a small DC electric pump for household use.

Tom may be only one person but it only takes one person at a time using good sense determining how much house is really needed to be comfortable, designing for passive solar and energy efficiency and building it to be nearly maintenance free. To me this is “green”.

Keep your straw dry,  Richard