12/2/2008 10:25:01 AM

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By Mary Whalen

Post-Bulletin, Rochester MN 

The idea of "going green" often raises red flags in people's minds. The thought of coming home after a long day of work to a rustic, perhaps even primitive, dwelling does not appeal to the typical American. Energy efficiency co-existing with comfortable living, however, is a feasible concept to Christian Milaster.

Home vs. home The contrast between Christian's home and most American homes: • Electrical usage: 30 kWh per week vs. 30 kWh per day for the average American household. • Water usage: 40 gal/day for 2 adults vs. 50-75/gal per person for the average American household. • Heating usage: no fossil fuels (such as gas, oil, or coal) are used, only the sun and 1-2 cords of wood per year.

Residing just outside Lanesboro, Christian has designed and built a modern home which, utility-wise, is 99 percent self-sustainable. Instead of relying on services provided by public or private utility companies, the household uses renewable energy sources like sun, wind, rain, and trees.

Christian's modern 2,400 square foot, 1-1/2 story home receives its electrical power from a small 1 kW wind generator and a 1.26 kW photovoltaic array. A large deep-cycle lead-acid 24 Volt battery stores the energy generated by the wind and the sun, which is then converted to standard 120 volt household electricity.

Featuring four bedrooms, four bathrooms, kitchen, dining room, living room, laundry, pantry and a completely finished basement, Christian's home has all the modern conveniences, however even with four toilets, three showers and a bath tub, no well or city water exists on the property. To satisfy the dwelling's domestic water needs, Christian designed a system to collect rainwater using a steel roof, gutters and three 2,500 gal cisterns in the basement.

To keep the house at 72-plus degrees during winter, this home makes use of three heating systems: a passive solar design, a masonry stove and a radiant in-floor heating system that gets its hot water from the sun and the masonry stove.

With his energy-efficient home filled with 21st-century comfort, Christian seems to have taken the concept of conservation to a new level. Yet Christian does not want others to simply applaud the house he has constructed, which is complete with modern amenities like a whole-house audio system, a whole-house vacuum, wireless Internet, washing machine, dish washer, garage door openers, etc., he wants to inspire and assist others to employ energy saving techniques in their homes and businesses.

"An energy-efficient home can save its inhabitants $300,000 in utility bills over the next 25 years," Christian said. "I would like to share my experience and knowledge with others helping them to achieve similar savings."

He stresses that the first step taken must be to become aware of the energy usage of the household in which people dwell.

"Making improvements can be accomplished in any residence; but the first step is to understand how much energy you actually use to see how much you can save," Christian said. "So many people don't know what their energy consumption is and, therefore, aren't aware of how they can reduce it. One simple way to figure out how much you are using, is to use a device such as the 'Kill-A-Watt' meter that shows you how much energy each electrical appliance is using."

This inexpensive device with a large LCD display counts electrical consumption by the Kilowatt-hour very much like utility companies meters register energy usage. As part of his quest to help other people, Christian is now re-selling the device through his business, "The Because Shop" (because-shop.com).

When people take ownership of the energy they consume, Christian believes they will waste less energy. By using technologies to automatically turn off lights, computers and televisions that are not in use, energy can be saved. By using efficient electrical consumers such as compact fluorescent lights, LED rope lights and low-energy appliances and devices, a noticeable difference in the watt hours used can be seen.

"Everyone wants to save money." Christian said. "I would like to help people save money and help make America's energy use sustainable."

On the back of Christian's car a bumper sticker with a quote attributed to Mahatma Gandhi summarizes how Christian intends to encourage others to make a difference: "We must be the change we want to see in the world." By walking the talk and sharing his experience, Christian hopes to give others the courage and knowledge to make the change they would like to see.

During the past two years Christian has given his presentation about his house and the lessons he learned to over 1,000 people and more than 750 people have toured his house on open house days.

For more information about the house or his consulting services, you can go to his Web sites at lichtnstein.org, because-group.com or e-mail him at questions2008@lichtnstein.org.

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