And that’s exactly what they did. When their Realtor found the place on ten acres and told them to drive by, they had to kick the back door in to look at it. Abandoned and uninhabited for many years, the house needed a lot of work, but Ford, an environmentalist and activist for the Sierra Club, a grassroots environmental protection agency that has been in existence since 1892, saw an opportunity to turn it into something unique.
“One of the first things we found out was that you can’t get water on your property out here,” Ford said. “There is a well here that was 18 feet when it was dug, but it is only 12 feet now, so pretty much most everyone out here has water trucked in.”
So against the advice of most everyone, Ned and his fiancé decided to buy the house on because they saw a “diamond in the rough with good bones” and the price was right. And they got to work.
Eighteen months later the transformation is incredible.
“We drink mostly rain water,” Ford said. “So not having a well available isn’t an issue. They have multiple filtration systems and solar panels for heating and cooling the water and the swimming pool. The home is now a zero-energy home.
“I knew it was important to me to go green,” Ford said. “But the big thing about this home is the insulation. This is a super insulated home. I looked at different R-values and how much it would cost to heat this home and it has a double wall. What really makes this house different is the insulation.”
Ford is passionate about renewable energy sources, and is working to help move communities beyond current forms of dirty and more dangerous energy sources, such as coal.
“We ought to have twice as much renewable energy sources as we do by the year 2025,” Ford said. “Photo voltaic sources continue to drop in price and we will keep coming closer. And Ohio is number two in the US for building wind turbines.”
Ford points out that a good use for many of the empty factories in Ohio would be building wind turbines, which he said are already picking up in popularity. “I’ve seen more of these appearing across the state.”
Meanwhile, he and his fiancé continue to enjoy their zero-energy home, and hope that others will learn from their example. “Most people are benefiting from the many rebate programs that are out there now with the utility companies and are updating their outdated heating and cooling systems to more energy efficient ones so that’s good news,” Ford said.
Contact this columnist at (937) 475-8212 or banspach@ymail.com.
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