Kathy & Jeff’s Pt. Reyes Station Home

ABOUT THE HOUSE:

Kathy and Jeff moved to Pt. Reyes Station with the goal of growing and raising their own food. Green upgrades to their home soon followed, to leave fossil fuel behind and be more energy independent.

RENEWABLE ENERGY:

  • Rooftop solar, 4.95 kW, installed 2015 by a company that is no longer in business

  • Franklin WH household storage battery, 13.6 kWh - installed 2023 - with interface that allows us to manage loads in power outage. Installed by EFI Electric (very knowledgable).

ELECTRIFICATION:

  • All-electric! We removed the propane tank in 2022.

  • Heat Pump HVAC: Replaced our propane central heat with electric heat pump HVAC (heat/AC) in 2022. Used Simpson Sheet Metal of Santa Rosa as installers.

  • Electric heat pump water heater (replaced propane unit in 2016)

  • Replaced gas stove/range with electric (conventional, not induction) in 2021.

  •  Electric clothes dryer

  • Electric vehicles: a 2013 Nissan Leaf and a 2023 Tesla Model 3

  • EV Charging: We trickle charge the Leaf on 110V and we charge the Tesla on 240 V using the mobile charging kit.  We do not have an EV charging station - no need!

ENERGY EFFICIENCY:

  • Insulation: Before we installed the new central electric heat, we insulated the basement/crawl space ceiling with batt insulation. (Several years previously, we had removed that insulation for a termite treatment.)

  • Passive Solar:Main living area of home faces southeast, so we get good passive solar warming on winter mornings.

  • All our windows are double paned.

  • Mostly LED lighting

  • Ceiling fans in living room and bedroom, installed 2021

WATER CONSERVATION:

  •  Drought-tolerant, mostly native landscape watered by drip irrigation.  (Vegetable garden is hand watered however).  

  • Rainwater is harvested from our chicken coop roof - just 330 gallons of storage, used in the vegetable garden, but every bit helps.

LANDSCAPE:

  • We grow most of our produce (vegetable garden and fruit trees) and do lots of seasonal drying, preserving, and canning to eat the food we grow year-round.

  • We raise hens for eggs

  • We compost our kitchen waste and chicken manure for the vegetable garden; all of our other organic waste goes in the green bin

  • Two sheep to keep our orchard mowed

  • Electric battery-powered weed-whacker and lawnmower