By Stowell P. Watters
Staff Writer
    William Lord and his wife Debbi are so proud of their Kennebunkport home they launched a Web site about it. The 2,900-square-foot home, seated on 2.25 acres overlooking the wildlife, tributaries and shoreline of the Rachel Carson National Wildlife Refuge is a picture perfect New England home, complete with cedar siding and large windows granting them panoramic views of the sunrise and moon fall. Their home has been featured on countless television programs, including a piece by NOVA.
    It also should be mentioned that the Lord house is completely powered by the sun and the family pays $8 a month (average) for their electric bill. The house uses 300 kilowatt-hours of AC (alternating current) power a month, one-third less than the average household, and has become a solar icon, according to the Maine Solar Energy Association.
    How, one might ask, is this possible? The answer, according to Lord, is simple.
    “This house is the full monty. For too long society has been drifting along with this dream of utilizing solar energy, well, I am here as living proof that you can live this lifestyle, it is not a dream, it is real and it is happening now,” Lord said.
    The roof of the home is completely covered in paneling. One half is made up of a thin copper sheeting, painted black, that uses the heat of the sun to warm pipes of water that in turn serve to heat the home through a process called “radiant floor heating.” Basically, Lord said, the system takes advantage of heat’s innate capacity to rise.
    “The solar-heated water also provides the basis of our hot tap water as well as circulating through the radiant tubing in the first and second floors of the house. Propane provides any necessary backup as well as gas for cooking and clothes drying,” Lord wrote on his Web site, which has more than one million visitors.
    The water is stored in two 500-gallon tanks in the basement, and pumps 90 degree celsius water through the home.
    “You wake up in the morning and walk into the kitchen, well let me tell you, the floor is always warm on your toes,” Lord said.
    The other side of the roof is covered in a series of photovoltaic panels, or solar panels, that harness the heat of the sun and convert this energy to DC (direct current). A transformer in the basement changes this current from DC to AC, thus making it usable in the home.
    During the summer months the energy produced by the sun is extremely high, so much so that the Lords cannot possibly use it all. At times the temperature on the roof reaches 300 degrees celsius, but the water heating system shuts off around 180 degrees celsius to prevent the water from evaporating. The excess energy is sent to Central Maine Power who then credits the family. They can use this credit in the winter months to make up for the seasonal lull in solar energy.
    “Even in winter the sun is brilliant. While our neighbors worry about their heating bills we accept the sun’s gift without taxes,” Lord said.
    The thick walls of the home keep the heat in, so much that the family has to open the windows in the winter, but the construction is quite expensive. Lord said on average a completely solar home such as his costs about 15 percent more than a similar, non-solar house. While he emphatically affirms everyone should have at least a passively solar home (meaning, some percent of the power is provided by photovoltaic paneling), he does not recommend a 100 percent solar conversion unless the homeowner plans on staying in the house for at least 10 years.
    “It can be costly, but after about 10 years you start seeing the money come back and you realize, wow, this really works,” Lord said.
    Floyd Severn, owner of Maine Solar, has been designing homes that function without the use of fossil fuels for 32 years. His company provides the systems similar to the one in the Lord home.
    “This kind of construction is just a no brainer, people need to be building these homes, staying off the grid and ceasing the construction of typical energy-guzzling homes,” Severn said.
    Severn also made the point that although solar power is an initially expensive venture, it saves money over time by providing the homeowner with a static bill.
    “Power companies are always hiking the bills up, if you go off the grid you are your own financial entity, and I really think that is key for cost effective and environmentally friendly construction,” Severn said.
    Steven Strong of Solar Design Associates in Massachusetts is the architect who built the house. After working on the Alaskan pipeline and seeing the expanse of land, materials and manpower that go into transporting oil, Strong had an epiphany. He immediately began working on architecture that used the environment for energy, and looked practically at moving forward with solar power.
    “Strong set it all up, his design is beautiful. What used to be a rather unknown field is now fully practical and completely doable,” Lord said.
    Lord, who has lived in Maine all his life and currently works as a professor of journalism at Boston University, approaches the problems of climate change and oil consumption practically. He takes the train to work, he drives a hybrid Toyota Prius (60 miles to the gallon), and his wife drives a Volkswagen Jetta that runs on bio-diesel. They compost. They recycle.
    “Many people do not seem to get it. Climate change is real, we must all be part of the solution,” said Lord, who encourages anyone interested to visit his Web site www.solarhouse.com.
    “In this day and age, there is no excuse to be ignorant of these issues, it is time for people to wake up, take what is given to them free by the sun and the earth, and end the mass dependence on oil,” he said.
    Five Emmys stand on a bookshelf in his house, a testament to the 31 years he worked at ABC as both vice president and executive producer. His wife of 41 years has spent her life as a social worker and a mental health counselor in Boston.
    “This house,” said Lord, “of all the things we have done, is our pride and joy.”