This Ultra-Green House Needs No City Water Or Sewer Service

These visitors are come to see the only house in town that does not require being hooked up to city water and sewer.  This home instead uses two large tanks which gather rainwater from the metal roof.  The stored water is filtrated to be used for bathing, cooking, and even drinking.  Furthermore, the Welch’s home has two bathrooms with composting toilets.

As the Bellingham Herald reports, “Those are just a few of the many features included to make the house a net-zero water and net-zero energy residence. There’s so much advanced technology and design that the house recently won the “Best Building Science” award from Green Builder Media. Judges called Welch’s house “the ‘moonshot’ of green building.”

The father, 39-year-old Dan Welch, is the founder of [bundle] design studio; a construction and remodels business that focuses on environmental preservation.  His hopes were to construct his 2,000-square-foot, three-bedroom, two-bath house so that it would comply with the Living Building Standard, a challenge that promotes “energy efficiency, waste reduction, sustainable materials and wise land use.”

The family is still installing many more sustainable technologies, like solar panels.  Welch originally wanted to filter waste domestic water in the several feet of dirt and gravel in the sun room. So far, the city hasn’t allowed him to do that, he said.  However, his tank system, which flows through two sediment filters and a carbon block, and is then exposed to ultraviolet light to kill microorganisms tastes great, Welch said.

“It’s better than city drinking water,” he said.