Suncatcher Solar Homes is a family business and, like many family businesses, everyone contributes and has a role to play. Also, like most family businesses, where work life ends and home life begins is a bit of a blur. The founder, Angie Ortlepp has taken this concept a step further. She literally lives what she sells. Her home, an off-grid, wind and solar powered marvel, was designed by Angie and built by her family in 2004 and used to satisfy the requirements a Masters degree in electrical engineering that Angie completed in 2007.
Because of its super efficient design and the use of energy efficient appliances, this home uses 5 times less power than another house of similar size. The passive solar design of this house means that a significant portion of the heating comes directly from the sun. Cooling is achieved by ingeniously situated overhangs so overheating is not an issue during the summer. Incredibly, passive solar designs are no more expensive to build than a conventional home design.
Even in Saskatchewan, there are some calm and cloudy days so a back-up generator kicks in once in a while. Propane is used for the cookstove, on demand hot water heater and a small radiant space heater for backup. The propane bill for the year is approximately $400 (720 liters of propane) producing about 1000 kg of GHG emissions. That’s about 10 times less cost and fewer GHG emissions than an average home.
