In Adrian, Mich., it appears the apple doesn't fall far from the tree -- at least for the Baker family. Following in the footsteps of his father, the owner of a construction company, 17-year-old Mark Baker, a junior at Lenawee Christian School, landed his father's company an $8,000 state grant from the Ohio Divison of Energy Resources to design an energy-efficient home.

With the help of a few computer courses, Mark designed the prototype for the home on his computer. The newly built model will bring an astounding decrease in energy costs for its future owners. The one-story home Mark designed contains 1,681 square feet, three bedrooms, and two baths, with a wood foundation, a wet-spray cellulose insulation, and an average annual heating bill of $162 -- a drop in the bucket compared to what home owners are accustomed to paying.

"Most people are used to that in a month,'' Mark told the Toledo Blade, his hometown newspaper, while standing outside his just-finished model.

Mark's father, Dan Baker, is the owner of Dan Baker & Sons Construction, credits his son for bringing his company the grant, one of five allocated this year from the Division of Energy Resources, and the only one in southeastern Michigan.

"He brought [the application] to me, and I said: 'Go for it,''' Dan told the Toledo Blade. "He put a lot of work into it. He did most of it, the investigating and talking to different suppliers."

Although Mark had only taken a few local weekend computer courses prior to designing the prototype on his home computer, his background actually goes back a little further -- to January 1995, when he began designing homes for his family's Baker Estates subdivision and other local properties. In the span of three and a half years, Mark has designed 150 homes.

His latest and most significant design, however, took him a mere month -- despite being a full-time high-school student. In addition to designing the home, Mark contacted numerous suppliers in his community to find out if they could help him locate the equipment he needed to curb energy use to the extent he wanted. His juggling act -- and his persistence -- appear to have paid off.

The newly opened, energy-efficient model will be open for at least six months at Baker Estates, located just west of Adrian, Ohio. Visitors are shown displays which demonstrate the home's energy-efficient features. One such display is a Plexiglas wall which enables visitors to see insulation; and another is found in the home's basement: a 94-percent-efficient Rudd furnace, the first such furnace installed by Dan Baker's company. The home also includes a special water heater and roof trusses featuring additional insulation.

Reaping the benefits of such an energy-efficient home requires the buyer to put forward extra money initially. While most of the homes in the Baker Estates subdivision range from $120,900 to approximately $160,000, Mark's energy-efficient model will cost you about $10,000 more than a similarly sized model without the same cost-cutting features.

That up-front additional expense, however, seems well worth the money. State officials have ranked Mark's model home the highest rating -- a five -- during an energy-efficiency inspection, says John Sarver, a unit supervisor for the Division of Energy Resources in Lansing, Mich. Sarver's department conducts energy-efficiency inspections on request. Homes are rated on a scale of one to five stars, with five being the highest determination of energy-efficiency.

Despite our national interest in curbing energy use, five-star homes are hard to find, Sarver says, adding that his division is aware of only about 30 to 50 five-star houses currently being constructed the state of Michigan.

"It's probably quite rare,'' Sarver told the Toledo Blade. "Hopefully, that will change. We're hoping the energy-efficient builders will someday all participate. This way they'll have a third party telling buyers they are energy-efficient homes.''

And as if lower energy bills weren't enough incentive, the state of Michigan has sweetened the deal for prospective energy-efficient home buyers: According to Sarver, the state is offering $1,000 to the first 200 people who buy five-star houses.

Published: May 27, 1998

Use of this article without permission is a violation of federal copyright laws.