Farming couple builds a ‘passive house’, one of Wisconsin’s most eco-friendly and efficient homes
This farmhouse might look normal
By James Groh
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WHEATLAND, Wisconsin (WTMJ) — There’s a seemingly normal home on a Wisconsin farm with all the fixtures you’d expect a house to have. It has a couple of bedrooms and bathrooms. There’s an oven, sliding glass doors, and plenty of windows. Except the house is anything but normal. It’s one of the most efficient houses in the state.
This home in Wheatland, Kenosha County, is a certified Passive House. That’s an environmental certification from the Passive House Institute for a home that prioritizes energy efficiency with lots of insulation, window placement, airtightness, thick walls, and ventilation.
“The right term is tight, tightness. It’s a super tight house, so there’s not a lot of leakage in here,” Paul Maggio, the owner of the home, said.
He and his wife Marisa Wiewall had the home built on their farm in 2020. They operate an organic livestock farm called Starry Nights Farm. They run the farm in an eco-friendly way, so environmental sustainability was at the top of their minds. The home requires less energy for heating or cooling, significantly reducing the home’s carbon footprint.
“I think we both value health. We both value nature, the environment,” Marisa Wiewall said.
A few key features make it a passive home. It’s airtight, so there are no drafts. Since air can’t really escape or enter, it makes the home’s temperature more consistent. The windows are placed to maximize heat gain in the winter and minimize heat in the summer. The walls are thicker and have more insulation than a typical home. Plus, the windows are also thicker. All this significantly reduces the home’s energy bill.
“We have a surplus of energy in the summer, and we need some energy in the winter,” Wiewall said.
Making them a nearly net-zero energy consumption household. Their home was also built with reclaimed wood. They re-used hardware from an old farmhouse, and they installed solar panels.
Passive homes are environmentally friendly and more sustainable than traditional homes. However, it is more expensive to build.
“So those trade-offs for the more expensive equipment you put up front really matter as opposed to going cheap,” Juanita Ellias, a Passive Home Rater with the Passive House Institute of the United States, said.
In general, she said it’s about 15 percent more expensive to build a custom passive house. Contractors need to have specific training and supplies. Plus, there are more people involved the construction, like architects and passive home raters.
“A lot of spec homes are built, they use caulk— $1 a tube. The caulk used on this house is about $25 a tube,” Ellias said.
She added that you get what you pay for. With higher-grade materials, your home will need less maintenance.
“And (the caulk) lasts forever. It’s going to last 100 years as opposed to the $1 caulk cracking out in one year,” she said.
That’s exactly how Paul Maggio and Marisa Wiewall feel. The higher home construction price is worth it. Their home is more sustainable, it’s eco-friendly, and it will reduce their bills in the long run.
“Maybe we don’t spend money on other things, but to us this is something that we value,” Maggio said.
Another reason people like passive homes is because they create a healthier environment. A sophisticated ventilation system is necessary since the home is so tight and doesn’t let drafts in or out. It removes carbon dioxide we breathe out, chemicals from cleaning products and paints, steam from showers and boiling, or the naturally emitted chemicals humans emit. The result is a self-regulating ventilation system that can change the air quality inside a home to ensure it’s as healthy as possible.
“It’s been great. We love it. It’s super comfortable,” Wiewall said.
There are about 20 passive homes in Wisconsin. It could be the way more homes are built in the future. A passive home convention will be coming to Milwaukee in October to promote the efficacy of these homes.
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