Adobe House Designed To Be Self-Sufficient

Typography
A Los Angeles entrepreneur who divides his time between Taos and the West Coast has created what he calls a prototype for sustainable-energy homes of the future.

TAOS, New Mexico — A Los Angeles entrepreneur who divides his time between Taos and the West Coast has created what he calls a prototype for sustainable-energy homes of the future.


Robert Plarr designed his Angel's Nest Retreat to be totally self-sustaining, using rainwater and energy supplied by the sun and the wind.


"This is the future for young people," Plarr said.


Work on the erratically curved adobe house near the bridge over the Rio Grande began about a year ago. Plarr is still making modifications.


Electricity comes from a ring of photovoltaic panels mounted on the roof. A 10,000-gallon roof-mounted cistern collects rain and snow to supply water for the house. The hot water boiler runs on vegetable oil.


Outside the house, a wind generator that spins on a vertical axis powers a device that strips hydrogen from water. The hydrogen provides backup power for the house at night and fuel for Plarr's Hummer limousine.


Plarr designed the house to recycle water using a drainage system that carries gray water from showers, sinks and tubs into soil that nourishes an indoor rain forest producing lemons, dates and mangoes.


Pipes carry "black" water from toilets outside the house to another garden that produces non-food plants and flowers. Plarr said he has installed toilets that use less than a gallon of water per flush. Most toilets designated low flush use 1.6 gallons.


The greenhouse also helps regulate the temperature in the 8,000-square-foot house.


He has developed floor plans for smaller sustainable-energy homes of about 1,000 square feet that he believes could become the affordable housing of the future.


"It's a way of weaning ourselves off our dependence on foreign oil," he said.


Plarr said he is developing Angel's Nest as an educational and healing retreat center to teach people about renewable energy. He believes New Mexico could lead the nation in developing and building communities that incorporate sustainable-energy principles.


Plarr has pitched designs used at Angel's Nest to Diego Mulligan, a renewable energy consultant with Full Circle Cultural Connections in Santa Fe. Mulligan is advising a group of Santa Fe developers seeking to build an urban community that would incorporate renewable energy and water-saving design principles.


Mulligan said Angel's Retreat demonstrates "some very exciting technologies" that the group could adapt for use in their plan for Oshara Village.


If built, Oshara Village would be on 470 acres near Santa Fe Community College.


To see more of the Albuquerque Journal, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.abqjournal.com. Copyright (c) 2005, Albuquerque Journal, N.M. Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.