The Ohio University Eco House

The Ohio University Eco House is a university-sponsored and student-run project to promote sustainable living. According to the Eco House homepage, its mission statement is: "The purpose of the OHIO Eco House is to demonstrate affordable, green technology and sustainable living. It provides education and serves as an outreach platform for Ohio University, the local community and the Appalachian region."

The Eco House was developed in 2005 by a group of three Ohio University professors who wanted to make sustainable living possible in Athens. For the past three years, these professors have chosen students to live in the house. Residents are selected for the Eco House each year based on a competitive application process and a rigorous interview by the panel of professors. A preliminary statement on the application reads that "students must express interest in living in the house and must demonstrate that they will effectively contribute to the sustainable living environment."

Current resident Daniel Young, a mechanical engineering major at Ohio University, says that living in the Eco House has been a fantastic experience. He says, "Living at the Eco House has been both a challenging and rewarding experience. I have learned to make conscious, everyday choices to live more resourcefully and make use of what the world provides."

The Eco House runs on renewable energy that is generated by solar panels. These solar panels generate 2.4 kilowatt hours of energy, which is enough to produce 70% of all necessary energy needed to maintain the house for an entire year. The solar panels function by absorbing sunlight that is transferred into a meter that then generates power to the house. These solar panels are adjusted twice per year at different angles facing the sun in order to ensure that they catch the greatest possible amount of sunlight.
















Photo: Solar panels at the Eco House


Another outdoor resource used by the Eco House is this rainwater catcher. This device is a barrel that is attached to the gutters that surround the roof of the house. Rain water from the gutters flows into the barrel and is then used to water the grass, plants and gardens at the Eco House.





















Photo: Rainwater catcher at the Eco House


Residents at the Eco House grow a majority of their own vegetables, including tomatoes, green peppers, green beans and squash. In addition to providing a food resource, this garden also contributes to sustainability by using Athens-area compost. The compost used to fertilize this garden is horse manure that comes from the Last Chance Corral, a horse farm in Athens that rescues former racehorses.
















Photo: Vegetable garden at the Eco House


Residents at the Eco House have also developed a composting system for disposing of food scraps and other waste material. Resident Daniel Young says, "This project took several months to really work into a functioning compost pile, but now that we (the residents) have learned what materials can be composted and how to maintain the pile, it has served as a great resource." Young explains that the composting pile functions by using old food scraps as a source of nitrogen and things such as decaying leaves and dried grass as sources of carbon. These carbon sources break down the nitrogen in the food scraps, and then what is left is usable soil.















Photo: Compost pile at the Eco House


In addition to the composting pile shown above, the Eco House residents have also developed a worm composting system that is used in their kitchen. Shown below, this system is a pile of trays that are filled with potting soil and worms. Food scraps that cannot be thrown into the outdoor composting pile are thrown into the worm composting pile. This system functions as the worms eat food from the bottom tray up, thus making the potting soil fertile.





















Photo: Worm composting system at the Eco House