5 lessons from a house that generates more energy than it uses

"With utility bills rising faster than inflation, a house that produces more energy than it consumes might sound appealing. Robert Fortunato's "Green Idea House" has been doing that for over a decade. He remodeled his family's 1959 house into a 2150 square foot environmentally friendly home, and he says he did it for less than the cost of a traditional remodel."

""It's one of the first net-zero energy, zero carbon case study houses that was built for less cost than standard construction," he says, and the remodel involved "standard construction materials and off-the-shelf technologies that anyone can use." Shepherding such a project requires a lot of time and energy from the homeowner. There's research and planning, some stubbornness when it comes to working with contractors and suppliers and now some updates for a climate that's warming faster than expected."

"In planning for the remodel, Fortunato wanted to stop using climate-warming fossil fuels as much as possible. "We had just seen so many instances where the oil companies were not being responsible for the environment," he says. But reducing fossil fuel use was a challenge. "We had a gas hot water heater. We had a gas furnace. We had all gas appliances," he says."

Hermosa Beach homeowners converted a 1959 house into a 2,150-square-foot net-zero, zero-carbon home that has produced more energy than it consumed for over a decade. The remodel cost less than a traditional renovation and used standard construction materials and off-the-shelf technologies. The project required significant homeowner research, planning and persistence with contractors and suppliers and later updates for accelerating climate change. The result is a stylish contemporary four-bedroom, two-bath home. The household disconnected from the gas utility, replaced gas appliances with electric models including an induction stove, and installed 26 solar panels on the roof.

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