A big, green mansion with small utility bills

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Writer: Audrey Cross Keown

Photography: David Jenkins

“We tried to tuck the home into the landscape rather than have it sit above it; at its tallest point, it’s only fifteen feet,” says Wheeler.

For many, the mention of an ecofriendly home brings to mind an expensive structure covered in solar panels with a couple of wind turbines in the backyard. But architect Trey Wheeler, vice president of TWH Architects, and Ethan Collier, president and CEO of Collier Construction, set out to prove a green home can be built with ordinary construction materials and at an affordable price for the average homeowner. The result of their experiment, Wheeler's own home, is the 3,200-square-foot, Signal Mountain residence they completed last summer. As a testament to its efficiency, the home's average utility bill is about 65 dollars a month.

In Wheeler's design, form mostly follows function. "Every decision we made in designing and building this house was for a reason, and those were typically not aesthetic," he says. Decorative elements like crown molding and exterior trim are absent from the home because they increase maintenance and building costs. Based on logical, practical livability, the one-level home has a simple floor plan, with the home's public areas—the kitchen, dining and living room—forming one space, surrounded by the bedrooms and baths in a "U" shape.

What the Wheeler home sacrifices in beauty, as traditionally defined, it gains in efficiency and significance. The construction and maintenance of the home have a minimal impact on the environment, a well as the Wheelers' pockets. Early in the home's construction, Wheeler says he and his wife heard unpleasant comments about its appearance and were even apprehensive themselves about how his vision on paper might translate into a physical structure. Perhaps the home's rigid angles and lack of conventional adornments made a negative first impression on neighbors and passers-by, but after painting and roofing were completed, Wheeler encountered a visitor taking her own tour of the home who voiced a sentiment that has been repeated: "I think I owe you an apology. Now that I've seen it, I really like it."

The kitchen and dining area’s sliding glass doors and windows blur the distinction between indoors.

While active technologies like solar panels provide renewable energy sources, Collier's forward-thinking construction methods can cut a home's energy consumption by minimizing conduction, radiation and convection while simultaneously reducing construction costs. These methods stem from an understanding of the relationship between energy and building materials as well as how to manipulate the R-value, or heat flow resistance, of typical building components. Among the nonstandard practices Collier employed, advanced framing techniques—which are neither new nor complicated, he says— almost doubled the R-value of the exterior walls and cut the amount of lumber used in half, while continuous drywall applications eliminated airflow. A standing seam metal roof with tech shield sheathing underneath stopped 99 percent of the roof's radiant heat from seeping into the home.

The Wheelers, as responsible stewards of the Earth, pay less in energy bills, but just as importantly, their home is comfortable for them. "Moving into a new home is sometimes hard," says Wheeler. "It can take a while to adjust, but this immediately felt more like home than our old one." Sliding glass windows and doors face the flat driveway where Wheeler's children can play in view of the kitchen. A mountain bike trail on the two-and-a-half acre property gives Wheeler and his sons a skills development and training area.

While Collier and Wheeler have met their goal in building a green home with easily obtainable materials and uncomplicated techniques, creating a model for future residential construction has been no less important to the team. "We are very confident that any builder can apply sustainable building practices to the construction of any house. Our hope is that these building practices become a standard for new homes throughout the Chattanooga area," says Collier.

Passive solar lighting is used throughout the home to reduce energy consumption.

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