Minnetonka house is a showcase for green living

Peter Lytle has gone to extraordinary lengths to set an example.

To show other people how to live in harmony with the environment and lighten their footprint on the Earth, Lytle has spent more than $1 million to buy and revamp a 1948 Minnetonka rambler as a "green" home.

By equipping it with four kinds of alternative energy and the best available insulation, windows and indoor air system, he has made it a lesson in how to operate an ordinary home with far less energy and expense.

Now he and his wife, Vivian, have moved in with furniture made with recycled wood, carpets of natural fibers and energy-saving kitchen appliances, all to model the green life. Their goal is to make the house -- and the lifestyle -- look inviting, attractive and easy enough to inspire other people to follow their lead.

Lytle, 58, is a management consultant and founder of Live Green, Live Smart, a Wayzata-based environmental organization.

"I have always had, since college, a really great concern about what we are doing to our environment," Lytle said.

"As you get older, and especially as you have children, you start to think about what you are going to leave them."

Lytle wants to leave a healthy, sustainable environment.

Although Minnesotans live in a part of the country that is now lush and green, Lytle said, "I just came back from Atlanta, where they have three months worth of water left."

Energy and water shortages are already a problem in many states, and there isn't much time left to fix the way houses are built so that they use less energy and water, Lytle said.

After searching several states, he chose the rambler -- at 3502 the Mall, a tree-lined street off Minnetonka Boulevard west of City Hall -- to make his statement because the corner lot makes the house easy to see and it is close to public transportation, a hospital and a grocery.

On the outside and in

From the street, the house looks like a nicely updated rambler with shiny new windows, an attractive roof and design details highlighted by decorative stone. But the design of the yard makes it clear this is no typical rambler.

The hollow pools of two rain gardens, outlined with stone and native plantings, occupy most of the yard. Less obvious is the tubing that directs rainwater collected by roof gutters to an underground cistern, where it can be pumped out later to water the yard. The cistern has a big round metal cover on it -- another curiosity.

Inside the front door is the center of the house -- a great room with kitchen, an eating area, and space for a couch and chairs. On either side are compact bedrooms and baths. The basement has a third bedroom, plus more living space and a utility closet with a dazzling lineup of alternative energy technology. The generator, heat pump and solar-powered hot water heater are principal features.

Lytle built the house as a showcase, and tours are going on constantly. The local chapter of the Harvard Club alumni group visited Tuesday morning. TV and movie documentaries of the project are underway. And Lytle has created learning modules for schools.

Rick Bauerly, a St. Cloud businessman and Harvard Business School alumnus who toured the house, is thinking of building his own green home. "It struck me as very livable and aesthetically pleasing," he said.

Another member of the Harvard group, Ram Ramakrishnan, said he found the house full of ideas for saving water, energy and money. "For example, solar water heating," he said. "With energy costs going up, those things are becoming more economical."

Now that they have set up their house as a laboratory, Lytle and his wife plan to live there for at least two years to see how the energy- and water-saving technologies work. They will compare which heating sources work best in the Minnesota climate: solar heat, geothermal heat pumps or heat generated in the house by turning natural gas into electricity.

Pluses and minuses

Lytle acknowledges that a green home takes some getting used to.

At 2,300 square feet and a single story, it is relatively snug so it can be heated and cooled efficiently. "Which means you have to be organized," he said.

To save water, the house's showers have limited-flow shower heads. The sink faucets operate automatically like those often used in public restrooms, and they generally aren't on long enough for the water to get hot. Water from the sinks and shower will be filtered and reused in the water-saving toilets -- which require flushing twice to clear solids. And the kitchen will have no garbage disposal.

But Lytle expects the pluses to outweigh the drawbacks. For one thing, his water and energy bills will be a fraction of a traditional home.

"The gentleman from Xcel was out to read our meters, and he said our meters are spinning backwards." Because Lytle and his wife are generating their own power with solar panels on the back of the house and with a natural gas-powered generator, "we are selling power back to the power company, so we are reducing our cost of energy dramatically," Lytle said -- at least for now, while the weather is warm. And at this time of year "the house is so well-insulated that even the lights generate enough heat to keep it warm." The lawn will be much easier to maintain, too.

Lytle said the two main audiences for the green home are young people who are just out of college and highly motivated to do the right thing for the environment, and people in their 50s preparing to downsize.

The cost can be a barrier for some now. But as homeowners and builders learn more about building green, more people will incorporate green features into their homes and the costs will come down, Lytle said.

"Like any piece of technology, the first ones that come out are expensive. But it will become mainstream."

People don't need an entirely green house to benefit. Most people will add green features slowly, as home improvements are needed, he said.

As Lytle hears the visitors' enthusiasm, he said he knows he has set something in motion. After the Harvard Club tour, "two people left saying they are going to build green homes.

"You get that kind of stuff and think, 'I can have an impact."'

Laurie Blake • 612-673-1711

ON THE WEB: www.livegreenlivesmart.org

Laurie Blake • lblake@startribune.com