Home of the future already in valley

Tucked in the hills of a quiet Boulder City neighborhood sits the "Apollo-Soyuz House for the New Millennium" -- more affectionately known as the "Space House."

Powered by solar energy, a battery-operated generator and a hydrogen fuel cell, the house is virtually self-sufficient.

Scott Fisher of Fisher Space Pen Co. designed and built the house with the help of friends and contacts from 14 countries, including Iury Makarov of the the Moscow Aviation Institute, who designed the home's aerodynamics.

Scott's father, Paul Fisher, creator of the Fisher Space Pen that NASA uses in space, will move into the house after the first of the year.

"This is kind of an experimental house," Paul Fisher said standing inside the spacious home with windows offering a view of the surrounding mountains. The neighborhood overlooks Lake Mead.

At a cost of nearly $1 million, the house is considered to be a prototype of the house of the future.

Built out of polystyrene and steel, the house has a ceramic coating serving as a fire barrier and large windows that are double-paned and filled with argon, which serves as insulation.

A 12/24 volt solar panel spread like a mat on its roof powers all communications. To maintain its own water supply, a specially treated portion of the roof collects rain and purifies the water. Because of the lack of rain in Southern Nevada, however, the house is hooked up to city water.

Hydronics, with the pipes running underneath the floor, are used to cool and heat the house. Each room has 6 inches of foam insulation and is temperature controlled.

Even the toilet has its own sewer system that will convert waste into charcoal.

Aside from its contemporary architecture, the one-story, 2,800-square-foot house barely stands out from the other luxury homes in the neighborhood.

Its redundant systems and a few luxurious perks are reasons for the high cost, Scott Fisher said. "If we put everything in the same house we can accurately compare how well each system works."

The Fishers built two similar, yet much smaller homes two years ago in Mexico, then founded B.O.I. (Built on Integrity). The company would like to continue designing such houses, focusing on Third World countries.

The United States burns 65 percent to 70 percent of all the energy consumed in the world, Fisher said. If other countries meet the same criteria of usage, there's going to be a serious problem, he added. This type of house eventually will be cheaper, according to Chuck Saunders, B.O.I. vice president, said. "As with any new technology, the more it is available the more the cost will go down.

"What we want to deal with is off-grid (meaning not connected to electrical facility), low-cost housing for the world. Our homes are completely self-sufficient with self-processing toilet systems and solar, wind generated fuel."

B.O.I. is developing a solar-powered fuel cell system that could run five homes in Mexico.

A 450-500-square-feet home in Mexico would sell for probably $14,000 to $15,000, Saunders said.

Such innovation is nothing new to the Fishers. The Space Pen writes in zero gravity, upside down, under water, over grease and at temperatures exceeding 400 degrees Fahrenheit. The family and the company have been in Boulder City for 23 years.

Two years ago the family created the Fisher Museum Foundation, a nonprofit organization, that is building the Nevada Air & Space Educational Center at the old Boulder City Airport.

The center, designed to generate math and science interest among Clark County students, will feature an interactive aerospace museum, a planetarium and a Challenger Learning Center -- a franchise of the Challenger Center for Space Education.

The original mock NASA orbiter used to train astronauts will be loaned indefinitely to the center.

Friends in town this week to celebrate the completion of the Space House include Anatoly Solovyev, the Russian cosmonaut who made repairs on the space station Mir; NASA astronaut Mike Mullane; and Tasillo Romisch of the Raumfahrt International Museum in Munich, Germany.

"We're basically introducing it internationally to inspire people to build more energy-efficient homes," Fisher said

Makarov's efforts on the house include the aerodynamic wall that leads to a hallway between the living room and master bedroom where air circulation was poor. The curved wall with one-foot "wings" extending beyond its connecting walls, creates a draft in the hallway and picks the air out of the master bedroom.

Local companies, such as Collins Building Systems, participated by making the polystyrene panels.

An environmentally friendly drink dispenser built by Carse Engineering eliminates the use of aluminum cans. Being mechanical, the dispenser also eliminates the need for electricity.

The house offers a selection of other perks. Its lights, temperature, audio and clocks can be adjusted by a remote control in the kitchen.

The stove, attached to natural gas, propane and electric power, knows automatically which power source is available.

The vacuum cleaner is built into the house, only requiring attachments. Near the bottom of the wall near the front door is a six-inch slot. When dirt is tracked in, it can be swept to the slot, which sucks the dirt outside when a switch is turned on.

A wall-sized entertainment system in one room offers a surround-sound monitor creating a movie theater effect.

"Everything is backed up completely by the sun," Fisher said. "If you lose everything else you can watch TV."

archive