Peder Norby’s energy-saving Carlsbad house received a San Diego Energy in Excellence award this month from the California Center for Sustainable Energy. The Carlsbad home is powered almost entirely by the sun. Robert Benson

Bountiful house

The sun powers Peder and Julie Norby’s comfy, environmental-award-winning home

By Pat Sherman | pat.sherman@tlnews.net

Thursday, March 27, 2008

Whether he’s building a cedar chest, baking bread or tooling around town in his electric car, when it comes time to pay for the energy Peder Norby consumes, Mother Nature quietly picks up the tab.

Norby’s energy-saving Carlsbad house, powered almost entirely by the sun and cooled by ocean breezes blowing off the adjacent Agua Hedionda Lagoon, received a San Diego Energy in Excellence award this month from the California Center for Sustainable Energy. Though Norby and his wife, Julie, skimp on fossil fuels, they aren’t exactly living an austere existence. As Peder likes to point out, green architecture and environmentally conscious living has come a long way since sandal-clad conservationists flocked to the desert to inhabit yurts.

A cursory glance at the Norbys’ majestic Prairie-style home, fronted by rows of cabernet grapes and adorned by copper sculpture and mosaic tile art, shows no evidence of a compromised quality of life. Inside, the 4,600-square-foot home is equipped with a state-of-the-art stereo system, plasma screen TV and elevator.

“We’ve actually started recycling more, which is something we hadn’t done a lot of, but I think any of the changes we did, none of them … changed our quality of our life or the way that we live,” said Julie, principal of Solana Santa Fe Elementary School in Solana Beach.

The Norbys’ backyard is landscaped with drought-resistant sycamore, deer grass, coyote bush, ceanothus, white sage and a gently rolling brook, humorously titled “Sheawhaanah Creek” after Julie’s impassioned appeal for it.

“You hear folks saying, ‘I don’t want to do native landscaping because it’s dry and ugly and it’s just rock,’ ” said Peder, 46. “I think it’s beautiful. There’s nothing ugly about it.”

After about $11,000 in rebates from state and federal agencies, it cost the Norbys about $23,000 to install 21 rooftop solar panels, several of which soak up the sun’s rays behind an attractive, ledger stone parapet roof.

Peder and Encinitas architect Bart Smith framed the house with thick wood studs and doubled up on insulation to prevent energy loss.

The Norbys rebuilt the original 1,900-square-foot structure in 2006, dubbing the remodel “Heron’s House” for the winged visitors that frequently drop in from the lagoon — a theme that is consistent throughout the house, from copper baseplates to a sculpture gracing the upstairs balcony.

The Norbys used 98 percent of the demolished, single-story portion of the original house in the reconstruction, diverting lumber, wall board, concrete and copper wiring from the landfill.

A tankless water heater produces hot water only as needed.

“It’s insanely stupid that we heat 60 gallons of water, seven days a week, 24 hours a day,” said Peder, a former executive director of the Downtown Encinitas MainStreet Association and current coordinator of the Highway 101 restoration project. “A tankless water heater is not on until you turn the hot water on, and then heats the water directly as it comes through (the pipes). … You’re saving about 30 (percent) or 40 percent in gas or electric costs.”

Standing beside an electric meter at the side of the house, Peder beamed.

“This is the meter going backwards … turning in the wrong direction — or what I consider the right direction,” he said, pointing to the dial.

At about 8 a.m. each day, as the sun begins to beat down on the Norbys’ home, the dial gradually begins spinning backward, meaning that the home is producing more energy than it is consuming, what Peder considers the “zero energy” effect.

“It will do so until about 5 p.m. or 5:30 p.m.,” he said.

At 2:30 p.m., the solar panels were generating about 3,400 watts, enough energy to power 340 compact fluorescent bulbs (10 watts each) or 1,000 light-emitting diode (LED) lamps, such as those used in the Norbys’ home. The same amount of energy would power only about 34 traditional incandescent bulbs or a pair of conventional microwaves and hair dryers, Peder said. The couple also uses energy-efficient compact fluorescent lighting, or CFL, which cast a warm amber glow on the walls.

“It’s not the solar that is the big energy savings,” Julie said. “You want to do all the other things that you can do first, and then put solar in to finish that last little bit. The light bulbs are a huge (savings).”

The couple’s vineyards, which include Sangiovese grapes in the backyard, are watered by an irrigation system that uses rainwater flowing from the roof. Their water bill is about $15 to $20 per month. “I pay $240 a year and I get $6,000 of wine from it,” Peder said.

The house includes a wine cellar to store the couple’s prized and homemade vintages, which keep cool naturally below ground level. The couple spent $25,000 on the cellar, in lieu of a pool, which can cost upward of $100,000 and wastes water through evaporation.

“We had a contest with all of our friends to name the vineyards,” Julie said. “My son’s name was ‘It should have been a pool vineyards.’ ”

Though Julie’s 14-year-old son, Jake Burke, didn’t get his coveted pool, the solar panels power his Xbox 360. Jake gladly jumped on the energy-saving bandwagon when the couple offered to pay him 10 percent of any money saved on the annual utility bill, as much as a $4,000 savings, or $400 for Jake.

“We’ve created a little monster,” Peder joked. “He’s going around turning off all the lights. “We’re like, ‘Hello, we’re in here!’ ”