A house that lives, breathes,
and saves energy
By Donna Evans-Deyermond; photos by kc kratt
Like many other people, Linda Hoffman and her husband, Dr. Martin (Marty) Hoffman dreamed of someday having their own “cabin in the woods.” In 1989 they purchased sixty-seven wooded acres near Springville. For five years Linda read what she calls “back to the land” and house design magazines, collecting a thick file of features she wanted to have in her new home. “Our three kids were involved in energy conservation and I had bad asthma,” she says. “I wanted a house that used as little energy as possible, was easy to clean, and had the least mold and pollen.”
A wall of south-facing windows
collects winter sunlight.
From cabin to contemporary
They ended up with a 4,000-square-foot one-story contemporary house. It is far from a cabin in the woods but is a very energy-efficient passive solar home with two heating options, lots of natural light, and minimal water use. The home was designed by Karen (pronounced “Karn”) J. S. Tashjian, an architect with a private practice who is also an adjunct professor in the Department of Architecture at the University of Buffalo.

“Karen had just designed and built her own eco-friendly house and she was very receptive to our ideas,” Linda says. Those ideas, Marty says, included three principles for making their home green. “We wanted it to be energy efficient, taking into consideration the initial cost versus what we would get back over the years; it had to be one floor and handicapped accessible because Linda’s parents would be living with us part-time; and—since we were going to be on a well and didn’t know how much water we’d have—we wanted to conserve water.”
Earth
The first consideration was the positioning of the home. The owners wanted to overlook one of the three creeks on the property, but because the home was to be passive solar, they had to have major windows facing south. “When you drive in, the house almost looks like a bunker. That’s the north, ‘service’ side and it’s mostly wall with small windows,” Marty says. “It doesn’t get much of a breeze either because there’s a jag in the driveway so that the trees make a windbreak.”

Many of the features of a passive solar home, Tashjian says, are simple common sense. As you enter the Hoffmans’ house from the front door, you come into a large welcoming entry hall and close the first door before you open the door that goes into the house. This creates a heat-saving “air-lock.” The entry from the garage leads to a mud room that gives the same effect.

The south side of the house has the wall of windows that collects winter sunlight. “Sun angles change. In the summer they are at about 69 degrees, in winter around 24 degrees,” Tashjian says. “By having a wide overhang—in this case four feet—the winter sun heats the floor (which must be a heat-retaining tile or concrete finish), but the summer sun doesn’t get in.”
Fire
There are two active heat sources: propane (because the house is not tied into the natural gas line), which heats plastic tubes set into a four-inch concrete slab beneath the tiles providing radiant heat. There is also a layer of rigid insulation beneath the slab and high-efficiency drainage that prevents moisture from wicking up and stealing heat from the slab. The Tulikivi fireplace was manufactured in Sweden.

“The fireplace literally weighs one ton—it’s all soapstone except for the firebox,” Linda says. “There are baffles inside so you make one small fire which burns hot and fast, then you close the flue and the intake and the soapstone holds the heat, radiating it out into the room. Unless it’s below zero degrees outside, two fires a day will keep the house warm. And it’s very efficient; there are barely any ashes and very little creosote collects in the chimney.”

This counter-current heat system was discovered years ago in Russia and Sweden. Because the stone radiates the heat, no electric blowers are required and the house doesn’t dry out the way it would with a traditional wood stove.

The house is also built to be extremely air-tight from top to bottom, which called for some construction methods that are not typically used in Western New York, Tashjian says. Almost two-thirds of the house is built on the concrete slab, with basement under the remaining third. The exposed basement foundation walls are wrapped in an extra half-inch layer of insulating blue board, which increases the R-value and reduces cold spots where there are wooden studs. “The basement walls then have stucco over the blue board, which the contractors don’t really like because it’s not as stable as concrete. The basement pretty much holds the same temperature as the ground, which is a constant 55 degrees,” Tashjian notes. Since the house is so air-tight Tashjian also included a ventilation system that removes stale air and filters dust from the house, while retaining the heat.
The home's state-of-the-art ventilation system.
And finally, water
Linda took the lead on researching water-saving appliances that go way beyond shower heads and toilets. “The washing machine is Swedish. It’s a front-loader that uses eleven to thirteen gallons of water per load instead of the usual fifty gallons,” she says. “The dishwasher uses four to five gallons instead of eleven to twelve.”

As Marty says, the initial investment for some of these features was significant, but when you consider the cost of electricity used to heat the water for laundry and dishes, that cost is soon recouped. The Hoffman house is far from a cabin in the woods, but it is extremely comfortable for their casual lifestyle and, as Linda wanted, inexpensive to maintain and easy to clean—and she has never been healthier. It’s a win/win for the Hoffmans and for the environment.

“When you think of it, a house is an organism. It has to live and breathe and connect to nature,” Tashjian says. “This house does it all.”

Donna Evans-Deyermond is a local freelance writer and public relations consultant who actually lives in a cabin in the woods—well-connected to nature and to the utility companies.


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