Solar panels on Peder Norby 's zero energy home in Carlsbad called the Heron house. It was made with about 98% recycled material and surrounded by native low water plants.
JAMIE SCOTT LYTLE Staff Photographer

CARLSBAD ---- For those who live in this upscale seaside city, it's hard to miss Peder Norby. He's the big, jovial, 40-something guy who tools around in an open-air, oversized golf cartlike car to the beach, church, bank, post office and grocery store.

And he never has to go to a gas station.

"My gas is our sun," his license plate frame explains of the solar energy that powers the batteries that run his car.

Norby, 46, the former executive director of the Downtown Encinitas MainStreet Association and who is now coordinator of a Highway 101 restoration program, plugs into the sun through an outlet in his garage.

That outlet taps into the 4.4 kilowatts from 21 solar panels on his roof that also provide energy for the home that sits on a half-acre overlooking Agua Hedionda Lagoon.

"It's a zero energy home," Norby said. "That means it produces as much energy as it uses."

With 4,600 square feet of floor space, the home that Norby built with his brother, uncle and the help of a few contractors is much bigger than the 1,900-square-foot home it replaced. He and his wife, Julie, principal of Solana Santa Fe Elementary School in Solana Beach, have lived there since April 2006.

Cheaper to save energy
The solar panels carried a net price tag of $23,000, after $11,000 in state and federal rebates were subtracted.

The lumber for extra-thick walls, a tankless hot water heater, extra insulation and compact fluorescent light bulbs collectively came to $15,000.

But the Norbys aren't just saving electricity; they also are conserving water. That's because most of the front and backyard are planted with native shrubs, grasses and trees that aren't very thirsty.

The property has 40 different types of manzanitas, as well as Cleveland sage, deer grass and lavender-blooming ceanothus.

The couple have rose and herb gardens, but they take up little space. And their vineyards ---- the Norbys love to make their own wine ---- are irrigated by pipes that funnel rainwater directly from the roof to the vines.

"Our water bill is $15 to $20 a month, which is nothing," Peder Norby said.

The Norbys aren't entirely off the power grid just yet.

In January, their electric bill was $50; this month, they expect it to be $35.

"Next month it'll be in the $20 range," Peder Norby said. "And then it'll go away for the summer."

During the summer, the couple will be giving power back to the utility and getting credit for generating more electricity than they use.

He figures the system is saving them $160 a month.

Water and electricity aside, Norby said they saved some landfill space by salvaging 98 percent of the materials left behind when they tore down the existing house.

"We had guys sorting concrete, sorting bricks, sorting wood," he said.

Energy excellence
All their efforts landed the couple a San Diego Energy in Excellence award earlier this month from the California Center for Sustainable Energy.

The center's chairman, Bob Noble, said that the Norbys' home, one of 26,000 the California Energy Commission says are equipped with rooftop solar panels, is more than a shining example to be admired.

"What they're doing is going to be the norm in a very short time," Noble said.

Several states are moving toward zero energy homes, and even "positive energy" ones that produce more electricity than they consume, Noble said.

Indeed, the California Public Utilities Commission recently told the state's major urban utilities to adopt policies that encourage home builders to frame only zero energy homes beginning in 2020.

At the moment, though, according to Tim Merrigan, senior program manager at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Golden, Colo., and a national expert on solar power, less than 20 homes nationwide generate as much power as they use in a 12-month period.

Herons' House
The Norbys have dubbed their home Herons' House in honor of a blue heron that landed on the property the day Peder first stepped foot on it.

"It was on the corner of the roof of the existing home and it took my breath away when I saw it," Norby said.

The other day, he said he watched in amazement as a red-tailed hawk scooped up a rat in one smooth swoop after taking off from a neighbor's roof.

"Aw, dude, he just rocked," Norby said. "He just kind of stepped off the chimney, never spread his wings and went down."

Norby was just as enthusiastic about building Herons' House.

"Most people think you have to build something ugly when you build an environmental house," he said.

Not him. Norby built the home lavishly with generous amounts of stone, copper and high-quality wood.

"We didn't skimp," he said. "We have all the electronics, all the toys."

A sophisticated stereo system spreads music throughout the two-story home. There's an elevator that enables friends and relatives with wheelchairs to go up and down effortlessly.

Thick walls fashioned out of Douglas fir wood help maintain a desired temperature. Roof overhangs let sun in during winter, when it is wanted, and screen out the sun's rays in summer.

Rolling glass doors on a track allow ocean breezes to penetrate deeply. And the "shotgun" configuration, with a continuous hallway from one end to the other, allows those breezes to blow all the way through.

The solar panels are designed to provide all the electricity that those items use ---- including his electric car.

"It's cheaper to save energy than to make energy," Norby said.

When Norby pulled up in his driveway after the half-hour whirl around Carlsbad, his thoughts turned to the future.

"Think of the day when a homeowner produces his own energy and never has to go to the gas station," Norby said. "That day is coming. And it is not that far away."

Contact staff writer Dave Downey at (760) 745-6611, Ext. 2623, or ddowney@nctimes.com.