Midcentury modern goes green

But today, all that history means an unrenovated midcentury home may turn out to be an energy sieve. With little to no insulation, the homes can leak air conditioning in the summer, lose heat in the winter, and rack up July and August electric bills of $1,000 or more.

McCreesh had originally hoped to make the Meiselman a zero-energy building — modeled on homes in Germany that are designed to need little or no heat or cooling — but found it would be impractical in Palm Springs.

The backup plan was to rip open the walls to add 3 ˝ inches of soy-based foam insulation, plus another 2 inches of rigid foam on the back, west-facing wall where afternoon sun could make the back rooms unlivable.

“We needed an extra barrier to keep the air conditioning in,” he said.

The roof got 4 inches of rigid foam, which required a small alternation in the roof line, raising it a couple inches to make room for the insulation, Lucas said.

With a super-tight house frame, or envelope, Lucas and McCreesh also installed a range of green appliances and fixtures, from a tankless water heater and low-flow toilets to low-e glass that reduces heat from sunlight coming through the windows.

One thing they didn't replace was their air conditioning system. It worked well, the two men said, and the new insulation meant a high-efficiency system was not an immediate need.

They also installed a small air conditioning unit, called a mini-split, in their bedroom to keep it cool on hot summer nights.

Even at the peak of the summer last year, their highest electric bill was about $180, McCreesh said. They won't install any solar until they've been in the house a year — with 12 months of electric bills — so they can keep the system size to a minimum.

The house is wired for solar, he said, and a spot on the garage roof, not visible from the street, is being reserved for a future installation.The couple cut costs by doing most of the work themselves, but said the renovation would otherwise have run about $350,000.

Architectural integrity

Solar is a sensitive topic for some preservationists who feel any addition to an Alexander or Meiselman roof is an unacceptable.

Nickie McLaughlin, executive director of Modernism Week, supports energy-efficient upgrades, but only if they can be done without affecting the design.

“If I had an architecturally significant home, I wouldn't be in favor of putting on solar panels,” she said. “It alters the integrity of the house.”

J.R. Roberts, who owns the Edris house designed by E. Stewart Williams, agreed that architectural integrity comes first.

A partner at Menrad Roberts Design, a firm that specializes in midcentury renovations and modern architecture, he's in favor of improving a home's insulation, especially on the roof, but draws the line at windows, fixtures and solar.

“Very often the old windows and sliding doors give the house character. If we change those, we strip a lot of personality out of houses,” he said.

Original midcentury tiled bathrooms, with color coordinated sinks and toilets also ought to be preserved if possible, he said.

Chris Becker, a project manager for Build It Green, an Oakland nonprofit that has developed a green rating system for existing and new homes, said his organization has a list of options but no specific guidelines for making historic homes more energy-efficient.

Going green while preserving original fixtures is possible, he said. Sealing window frames and adding low-e film on the old glass can lower electric bills, while putting aerators in vintage faucets also will cut water use, he said.

A good place to start is with a building performance audit that will show a homeowner where the insulation leaks are.

“All those cracks can be the equivalent of one large window,” he said.

Going green in stages has worked for Dr. Nathaniel Diaz, an anesthesiologist who found his midcentury dream home on North Rose Avenue. The Alexander, once owned by author Sidney Sheldon, came with a breathtaking stone fireplace, as well as gasp-inducing summer electric bills — as high as $1,600, Diaz recalled.

To make the house more energy-efficient, Diaz started with a well-insulated “cool” roof and a 6.9 kilowatt solar system.

Future improvements will include a high-efficiency air conditioning system, tankless water heater and variable-speed pool pump, all aimed at further lowering power use, he said.

“We were pretty careful to site (the solar panels) so that they're not visible from the street,” said Diaz, who counts himself as a strong preservationist. “You can see the panels from the back, but they're very architectural-looking.”

The solar installer, Hot Purple Energy of Palm Springs, has put solar on several midcentury homes, owner Nate Otto said.

“We have (homes by) Cody, Williams, Wexler and Krisel,” he said, referring to some of Palm Springs' most famous midcentury architects.

Installing solar panels on midcentury homes can mean placing aesthetics before electrical output, he said. For a William F. Cody house with a flat roof, Hot Purple installed the panels flat as well, which meant an 8 percent drop in generation, he said.

“Our approach is to understand the point of the house, the aesthetics. Many of them are considered works of art. You don't want to destroy that, putting something new on a work of art.”

K Kaufmann can be reached at k.kaufmann@thedesertsun.com or (760) 778-4622.