CHRIS BACKLEY/Daily Bruin Professor Scott Bartchy's two-story house sustains itself using solar power. The house, which he calls the "Earthship," comes from his own design and imagination.
By Sophia Whang
Daily Bruin Senior Staff
swhang@media.ucla.edu
It looks like a normal house at first glance.
There’s a front porch entrance, fireplaces in the bedrooms and a kitchen.
But it has a name, the “Earthship,” and it possesses powers that belie its humble exterior.
Created by history professor Scott Bartchy, the house sustains itself entirely on solar power and is designed to produce more energy than it will ever use.
Bartchy just moved into the creation he’s been working on for years; a house unique to the world in its complete eco-friendliness - inside and out. Since his move, environmental awareness guides his lifestyle.
After living in a Hollywood condominium with his wife, Nancy Breuer, and his dog, Pasha, the three of them packed their bags to move to the hills of East Ventura County, where Bartchy has put his engineering smarts to use.
His innovative environment-friendly exterior and interior designs came after being introduced to the concept back in 1991 from veteran architect Michael Reynolds’ company, “Solar Survival Architecture,” in Taos, New Mexico.
“(The house) is basically the way I designed it,” Bartchy said. “I studied (Reynolds’) principles in his book, but it wasn’t really rocket science. It’s pretty straightforward if you have a sense of space.”
UCLA history professor Scott Bartchy stands in front of his eco-friendly house which he designed to create more energy than it uses.
Bartchy, however, believes the house does more than just realize his environmental vision. As a business venture, he sells his surplus solar energy back to Edison and he can be a consultant for others with an environmental conscience. “What I’m prepared to do now is to be a consultant to people building a house like this,” Bartchy said. “I would like to give a little bit of what I’ve paid a lot of money to learn. And if someone doesn’t have money, I’d do it for free.”
Some features include the house’s 10-inch thick concrete walls, covered by dirt, that pick up the earth’s surrounding ambient temperature. Double-pane glass windows, rare in Southern California building construction, and honeycomb blinds, can be manipulated to control heat. In addition, the ceilings’ numerous skylights can create a draft to cool the house.
The walls facing the sun are colored with dramatic reds and blues to absorb more heat than traditional lighter colors. The house was also purposely built at a south/southeast angle to pick up the sun’s rays.
The kitchen looks like any other kitchen, except that this one can boast appliances with Energy Star symbols, a special qualification for conserving energy. The washing machine, for instance, has a spin that drains more water, eliminating the need for a dryer, and uses 70 percent less water.
“Most of the salespeople thought I was crazy ... they didn’t know when I asked them about the energy ratings on their appliances,” Breuer said.
Bartchy is also using PVC pipes to hold wine bottles. He has created a root cellar for potatoes and onions to conserve energy and space in the refrigerator. The house has no garbage disposal; he has compost bins where he puts trash that will naturally decompose into fertilizer.
Although these features were created and installed with relative ease, delays in approvals have come from wary Southern California officials, who were initially ambivalent about the unprecedented project.
CHRIS BACKLEY/Daily Bruin Bartchy, also a jazz piantist, includes his instrument in the Earthship's unique interior design. Both interior and exterior are designed to be eco-friendly.
“One of the major disappointments I had (in making this house) was that I didn’t get any help from anybody,” Bartchy said, mentioning government agencies in particular.
Bartchy estimates that his house would have cost the same as a comparable one without the environmental features. Yet, he spent more because of ad hoc governmental regulations that forced him to add costly features to his home, which was perceived as a risky project. Even with these additional costs, electricity bills will be far from a problem for Bartchy.
“We’re going to save all kinds of money because we don’t have to pay anything for fossil fuels, and eventually, we’ll be making more electricity than we can use and will sell it back to the grid,” Bartchy said, mentioning the 24 solar panels they will install on the roof within a year.
Even with all the changes in lifestyle the house’s three inhabitants have had to face, major comforts were not sacrificed.
“Pasha loves it here. She wants to hang out outdoors and seems to enjoy the house,” Breuer added about their 13-year-old dog that the couple got through pet adoption.
Enjoying this new way of living, however, can be deeper than it seems. For Bartchy, who is the director of the UCLA Center for the Study of Religion, the Earthship is also influenced by his spirituality, which draws from many religions.
“All the great religions, in some way, try to address the ego problem. And in the same way as our life comes to us as a gift, the earth comes to us as a gift,” Bartchy said.
His house is also a response to the increase in fossil fuel use, which he sees as the most troubling environmental problem, and a response to the lack of any significant developments in solar energy since the beginning of Reagan’s presidency.
Despite initial government skepticism, the completion of his house keeps him optimistic that the government will take him, and others with similar goals, seriously.
“A model is worth 10,000 words,” Bartchy said. “Once it’s here, nobody can say it can’t be done.