Atop a rise in a 7-acre field in rural Roebuck, S.C., just past the grazing horses, two white mounds glisten in the morning sun.
This is where Klaus Kolb lives. A native of Germany and a retired textile executive, he built his geodesic dome home – actually a dome complex with a dome garage, dome shed and dome doghouse – to thumb his nose at utility companies.
His protest, his home, his way of life, is a product of his German upbringing.
“In Germany, we’ve had high energy prices always,” Kolb says.
“We grew up switching off lights when we left the rooms. We kept thermostats low. We didn’t waste.”
When he moved to the United States in 1965, he found waste, inefficiency and pollution. It insulted his sensibilities.
He lived in a mobile home in the countryside for years, but didn’t feel comfortable living like an American. He knew he had to change when the opportunity arose.
After retiring in 1996 from a textile firm known for its draperies “with gold thread” – the 70-year-old had the time, money and will to make a difference. He began looking into building an energy-efficient home.
“For 20 years,” he says. “I had every catalog.”
In Florida he visited a geodesic dome home. He bought a kit. He put up the shelter back in Roebuck. Still, it didn’t seem like enough.
Kolb wanted more.
He installed an energy-efficient water heater that heats water as it is needed. His heating and cooling system runs by geothermal power, thanks to 1,000 feet of three-quarter-inch black, plastic pipe set 6 feet underground in the field next to his house. In the winter the pipe is warmed to the constant 59-degree temperature at that depth. In summer, Kolb uses the pipe to drain heat from the house to the field.
Lights are compact fluorescents. Kolb saves money since his house is outfitted with Energy Star appliances, which meet strict energy efficiency guidelines set by the Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Energy. He saves even more by covering his windows with reflective tint to cut back on the sunlight that would enter his home and drive up the need for tapping his cooling system.
It works. While Kolb says last winter his neighbor paid $250 a month to heat his 1,600-square-foot home, the former engineer paid $49 a month for utilities – propane and electricity – for his two-bedroom, 2 1/2-bath, 1,600-square-foot house.
Geodesic structures have one-third less outside surface area – walls and roof – exposed to the elements than traditional homes. A dome also has a smaller perimeter to its overall square footage than a traditional home, and that means less heat loss. Overall, those differences mean greater efficiency for heating and cooling.
Another advantage is the efficient airflow inside the dome since the curved surface provides a natural circulation of internal air.
Kolb, for example, can heat the entire interior of his home with a small, propane-fueled gas log fire.
“I turn that on low,” he says, pointing to the fireplace in his spacious and airy great room, “and in less than an hour, the entire home is so hot I can’t stand it and have to turn it off.”
Kolb’s home was built from a kit by American Ingenuity Inc. of Rockledge, Fla. (aidomes.com). The exterior is covered with a three-quarter-inch, concrete shell laced with a metal mesh. Inside of that is 7 inches of polystyrene foam. And on the dome’s interior walls is a wood laminate that can be painted.
Kolb largely built the dome home himself. He rigged a tractor to lift the 150-pound triangular factory-built panels into place and needed a nearby building firm for some of the more difficult construction.
A kit for a 40-foot dome home, which results in 2,176 feet of floor space on two levels, costs $22,610.
Kolb is realistic about the energy crisis. He drives a Toyota Prius hybrid, which gets 50 miles a gallon, and revels in going easier on the planet.
“We have more and more people, and less and less resources,” he says. “We have to conserve in order to enjoy living on this planet. This has been a pure joy for me from the beginning.
“This roominess and light is just precious to me. When the wind and stars come, it’s a comfort.”
