DECORAH — Ten northeast Iowa families who have harnessed the wind and sun to make their own power say they are cutting down on pollution and conserving energy.
``We want to live in harmony with nature,'' said Steve McCargar, 57, who started building his energy self-sufficient home in 1983 and is still working at it.
He lives in a rural area northeast of Decorah that has the highest concentration of non-Amish homes completely unhooked from the power grid in Iowa, said Dennis Pottratz, proprietor of Go Solar!, a Decorah firm that sells and installs alternative energy equipment.
He said environmental awareness flourishes in the scenic valley of the Upper Iowa River.
``Our goal is to live as sustainably as we can,'' said Perry-O Sliwa, 66, who with her husband, David, 63, raises organic fruits and vegetables and lives in Decorahs off-the-grid community.
The Sliwas designed their home to fit its site, with an earthen berm to the north and 80 percent of its windows facing south to maximize passive solar input. With well-insulated walls and windows, their home provides 75-degree comfort on sunny winter days — even without a fire in the wood-burning stove.
They built the home with recycled materials, including 30 dumptruck loads of limestone reclaimed from an abandoned farmhouse.
Two windmills — one for pumping water, the other for generating electricity — tower over an array of solar panels in the yard.
``I get a real sense of peace living in this house,'' said Perry-O Sliwa, whose morning routine includes lighting a candle, starting a fire and putting on the tea kettle to boil. ``We do depend on others. We just dont depend on utility companies.''
The state does not keep statistics on how many people live off the grid.
About 5 percent of the 400 members of the Iowa Renewable Energy Association live off the grid, but as many as half of them say they would like to be, said Michelle Kenyon Brown, the groups membership coordinator.
People who rely on solar power ``look at the sun with a whole new sense of appreciation. They see the sun and they think, 'Now I'm going to get myself some electricity','' Pottratz said.
He estimated that a $15,000 investment in solar panels, a wind turbine and storage batteries would enable most families to generate all their own electricity.
The payback for going off grid accelerates for people who build homes in remote areas not served by utility companies.
Dale Kittleson, 45, and his wife, Frances, 44, figure they saved between $10,000 and $40,000 in utility hookup fees when they built their off-grid home four years ago on a remote bluff overlooking the Upper Iowa River.
``Its worked out great. We have every appliance you can imagine and the energy to run them when we need to,'' said Dale Kittleson, who built the home largely of wood salvaged from a Catholic church in Ossian.
McCargar said living off the grid takes some effort — such as manually moving solar panels three times a day to catch the sun at its most favorable angle and monitoring storage batteries to gauge whether to use or save power at any given moment.
