Eco-home is where heart is / Such houses cut energy consumption, but out of reach for many

Attention is increasingly focused on environmentally friendly eco-houses, which are designed to reduce energy consumption. But such dwellings remain out of reach for the general public, as government measures to promote such houses are insufficient. Let us examine the cost and energy-saving effect of eco-houses by looking into a few examples built by ordinary people.

Toru Takagi, 44, and his four family members live in a valley in Kawanehoncho, Shizuoka Prefecture, where a whistle from a steam locomotive can be heard from the nearby Oigawa Railway. He works for a company that makes machines used at poultry farms.

Takagi's two-story wooden house, rebuilt in February last year, has total floor space of 170 square meters. Double-glazed windows and outer walls formed by heat-insulation panels stuffed six centimeters thick with polyurethane both meet the latest government energy-saving standards. A highly efficient electricity-powered water heater and a 42-kilowatt output solar-powered electricity generator also were installed.

Takagi decided upon the solar-powered electricity generator after seeing a similar panel installed on the roof of a house. "I thought it would be fun to generate electricity at home and sell it," Takagi said. The extra electricity can be sold to Chubu Electric Power Co. The power company buys as much electricity from Takagi as it sells him. The power company transferred monthly payments--ranging from 2,409 yen in March last year to 5,943 yen in April last year--to his account at a local bank. At the same time, monthly utility bills ranging from 8,754 yen (in March last year) to 29,546 yen were withdrawn from his account.

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