Home & Garden

Earth Day Invite: Toaster House, a Picture of Energy Efficiency

Transition Wayland and the Wayland Green Team are organizing a series of open houses April 27-28, that will celebrate Earth Day and allow residents to get to know the green efforts of their neighbors.

Editor's Note: This is the fifth in a series of articles contributed by Transition Wayland and the Wayland Green Team inviting residents to an Earth Day weekend with Open Houses all over town. Each week until then, you'll learn about another event at a different location. The fifth house in this series is at 17 Waltham Road. The following article was written by Andrea Case.

Over the Earth Day weekend, many Waylanders will open their homes to neighbors and townspeople. Many will share their new solar arrays purchased through last year's successful Solarize program. Some will show their gardens, rain barrels and composting efforts,or geothermal heating and cooling systems. Others may discuss conservation, local food, or show a movie. But only one house is a true from-the-ground-up original: Win Mallett’s "Toaster House."

His company designed, and then he and his wife Peg, moved into this new home which is LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Gold certified and was a 2012 National LEED Finalist for New Home of the Year. This unique home’s look and function make it a must see.

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Visitors will be charmed by its playful look from the constellation of LED lights that shine out from the wall along the front stairway to the bright 2nd floor master bedroom under the “popped-up” roof. Those little corners of wasted space under a peaked roof are gone. Unlike in a traditional Cape, that peak is popped up like a toaster with a windowed-aerie at the top of the house. The design allows maximum utility in a minimum of space. This is the only lot in Wayland where a dilapidated older home was replaced by one with a smaller footprint and less square footage.

It is full of American-made innovations that enhance its efficiency and style while decreasing its maintenance costs and carbon footprint.

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“We want to demonstrate that new sustainable materials and technologies allow a change in the aesthetic possibilities. They have their own kind of beauty,” says Mallett. “The future of design can be as beautiful as the most venerable styles of the past.”

From siting through design and execution, energy efficiency and livability were priorities. Like early New England Saltbox homes which were oriented to expose a broad front toward the southern sun and a steep roof to shield the house from the north wind, this home was sited for solar panels which provide half the home’s energy needs.

Heating and cooling costs are low compared with more traditional similarly-sized homes because “Toaster House” is well insulated and “tight.” This starts with the basic structure. The foundation is dry and warm, made from insulated, concrete-filled, foam blocks (ICF’s) that assemble like Legos. To demonstrate their user-friendly qualities, Mallett and his young design team assembled the foundation themselves. The walls and roofs are constructed of structural insulated panels (SIPs) created by a New Hampshire supplier. The manufacturer creates panels from house plans which are digitized. Then all the components are “printed” on massive slabs of a foam and recycled plywood “sandwich.” The house is shipped on a flat bed, and assembled in a few days. 

Toaster House is filled with light from American-made, triple-pane windows that employ thin films between the outer panes of glass. This innovation reduces the weight and lowers the cost compared with other triple-pane windows and raises the insulating value compared with the double- or single- pane windows most of us have in our homes today.

The countertops and fireplace “stone” were made in Brooklyn, NY from recycled glass and concrete. The material absorbs heat from the gas fireplace and slowly warms the living area. Radiant heating coils are distributed through an aluminum-clad subfloor to distribute heat efficiently across the warm floor. Using less energy to heat and cool this home is no sacrifice.

What’s surprising is that this type of building is not more expensive per square foot than the typical custom home going up in Wayland today. In fact, over time the cost may be considerably less. The materials are innovative and low maintenance. The design allows more living in less space and more warmth with less energy use. Visit “Toaster House” to see the future of home design.

Earth Day 2013 is organized by Transition Wayland and the Wayland Schools PTO Green Team (www.waylandgreenteam.org). You can find more information about Earth Day 2013, as well as a map and schedule of the Open Houses, by visiting www.transitionwayland.org. If you would like to host your own Open House, let us know at info@transitionwayland.org


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