Mission Accomplished: A Superefficient Texas Home

Enlarge Image Image Gallery Cooling breezes pass through carefully placed windows and up through tall spaces, creating a chimney effect. Stained concrete floors collect the sun's heat by day and release it when it cools down at night. Photo By Paul Bardagjy

Heather Ferrier grew up around green building. Her father, Don Ferrier, was crafting earth-sheltered homes in the Dallas/Fort Worth area in 1982. Heather began helping out around the construction company’s offices at age 9. When she graduated from college and later became general manager of Ferrier Construction, Heather wanted to build a deep green house. Not only did she crave a sunny, healthy place to live, but she was determined to show the world it could be done on a budget.

Because of mortgage stipulations and real estate minimum size requirements, Heather found she would have to build a roughly 2,000-square-foot house. That left her with a modest budget of $115 per square foot—and she wanted a house with some flair. “Most clients have much larger budgets, needless to say,” she says.

Her accomplishment is astounding. Her 2,028-square-foot passive solar home, built for $235,000, is the first home in Texas (the third in the United States) to get the U.S. Green Building Council’s highest Platinum ranking. It’s a prototype for the U.S. Department of Energy’s Building America program; was named the 2007 Dallas Builders’ Best Green Home; and won the Gold Energy Value Housing Award, which honors the nation’s energy-efficient elite. Nearly 4,000 people have toured the home.

“Heather wanted to dispel people’s grumblings that only the elite can afford a green home,” Don Ferrier says. Her goal of using the home as an educational tool has worked. “This house has really hit a nerve locally and nationally,” Heather says. “It’s caught the attention of a lot of people.”

Of no less importance, Heather has a bright, natural home to share with her sister, Lacey. She’s created a nontoxic, light-filled environment that doesn’t trigger her asthma or allergies, and she’s spending about $200 less per month on utilities than her neighbors.

“When people visit, the first thing they say is that this place feels happy,” Heather says. “I believe there’s a psychological impact from living in a green home. Having this experience, I wouldn’t live in any other type of house.”

Finding the right site

Heather set out to build a small home, which isn’t easy in the Fort Worth suburbs. She spent a year and a half looking for the perfect lot, but most subdivisions required her to build a 3,000-square-foot or larger home. An urban infill lot in Lake Weatherford, an architecturally significant lake community 15 miles west of Fort Worth, proved to be exactly what she wanted. The parklike 1-acre lot accommodates a south-facing home and offers several large oaks to provide summer shade.

Because Heather didn’t have cash for expensive green features, good design was crucial to her vision. She turned to Dallas architect Gary Gene Olp, who specializes in passive solar design, to take advantage of her site’s natural bounty. Ferrier Custom Homes was building Olp’s home at the time, and Heather requested a smaller version. “This is really a Mini Me—a smaller, more-efficient version of my home,” Olp says. “We wanted to show you can build responsibly for your region using passive solar, good design and efficient use of space. And it’s affordable—that’s the key.”