Even Vacation Homes Come in Green

(I'm trying to publish this in Do It Green! Minnesota)

Whether canoeing on the lake or using the hot tub on the top floor of the cabin, residents relaxing at Rainbow Lake Cabin are still productive. It’s one of only a few green-certified homes in northern Wisconsin, producing much of its own power with 500 Watt solar shingles.

When ingenuity and a commitment to using recycled and on-site materials combine, you get grant-winning architecture like this cabin by the Minneapolis-based Archithesis firm. By developing land in rural Wisconsin, the firm got a rebate on its flexible photovoltaic shingles through the state’s Focus On Energy program, participating in the national One Million Solar Roofs project. The cabin is a candidate for the cap and trade program proposed under the Wisconsin Safe Climate Act. The state is now 5^th in the nation in commitments to energy efficency, according to a study by the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy.

We can learn a lot from Wisconsin. Just visiting for a weekend at an affordable green cabin can teach the virtues of resourceful, on-site construction, like with Rainbow Lake Cabin’s native oak floors and stone foundation and redwood trim recycled from Napa Valley wine tanks.

The small and wild Rainbow Lake fills the view from the second-story living room’s expansive south-facing windows at tree-house-level. The slate floor on the ground level is warm in the morning, radiating the heat stored in the large thermal mass below the building, which also gives off autumn’s heat throughout the winter. This radiant slab utilizes cheap off-peak energy in the night to circulate hot water from the boiler throughout pipes in the ground floor. With the wood stove and vertical ventilation along the vintage spiral staircase, it’s easy to heat and cool the home without electricity, even if that’s not what you’re used to.

The green revolution can extend to every part of modern life, including Minnesotans’ hobby of getting away from it all “up north.” Vacationers who don’t want to “rough it” can still comfortably experience wild prairie and lake habitats without being rough on the environment. Architect Jim Widder thinks that this is part of America’s sustainability revolution: living in balance with nature—even in vacation homes with wireless Internet access.