Building a stand-alone house also gave Mr. Hill the opportunity to play with the sort of green technology featured on Treehugger but almost impossible to deploy in a Manhattan apartment. The standing-seam metal roof is covered with thin-film solar panels fromĀ SunflareĀ that are nearly invisible. They generate enough power not only to run the house but to charge Mr. Hillās car (a 1973 Volkswagen Thing that he had Hawaii Off-Grid convert to an electric vehicle with recycled Tesla batteries) and his electricĀ Magnum bicycles. The roof, gutters and rain chains channel water to a 15,000-gallon tank used for irrigation. TheĀ Separett composting toiletsĀ use no water.
The house was completed in January for just under $1 million. āItās not as inexpensive as I had hoped, but itās a prototype,ā Mr. Hill said, explaining that trial and error drove up the cost. āWe know we can make it a lot less expensive on the next one.ā The comfort of the finished house seems to have surprised even its owner. āIāve been doing environmental stuff for almost 20 years, and I had no idea how cool it would feel to be living off grid,ā he said. āDone right, green can actually be more luxuriousā than a conventional house.
Just remember, if youāre in Maui and happen to see Mr. Hill zipping past in his electric Thing with a surfboard strapped to its roll bars, he isnāt on vacation ā heās just doing his job. āEveryone in Manhattan thinks Iām being a slacker, and everyone here thinks Iām being a workaholic,ā he said. āThe truth is probably somewhere in between.ā
