Visitors have traveled for miles to see David and Laura Sill's new garage in Reisterstown. What makes this three-car garage worth the trip is that it was made out of about 200 bales of straw and features a toilet that heats waste into environmentally friendly ash.
The Sills' garage was finished last week, just in time to be part of the B-more, B-Green Solar Tour on Sunday sponsored by the American Solar Energy Society, Potomac Regional Solar Energy Association and several energy-related companies. The self-guided tour featured 10 homes and businesses in Maryland that use green techniques to cut carbon emissions.
Building a green garage was a natural for the Sill family. The family's Victorian home has solar panels, which supply about 40 percent of the family's electricity. So when David Sill, a physician at Mercy Medical Center, wanted a heated garage so he could work on cars year-round, he looked to the sun again.
"The power is raining down on us as we stand here, yet we don't use it," Sill said.
One of the first things a visitor will notice about the new garage is that it doesn't have a paved driveway that causes run off. Instead, the driveway is a "permeable pavement," sort of like a thin metal grid that's barely covered by dirt but allows vegetation to poke through and rain to be absorbed.
The garage relies on three solar panels for heating. The panels heat a tank of antifreeze-like fluid, and when the garage needs heat, the fluid will be circulated in a grid under the floor. The garage can be heated up to 80 degrees, Sill said. "These walls are tremendously insulated because they are so thick," Sill said.
Looking at the garage, there's no evidence of the bales that make up the 21-inch walls other than a square of plaster purposely cut out to reveal the golden straw. The bales are covered with plaster. The exterior features cement-product paneling, said Polly Bart, owner of Greenbuilders in Butler, which constructed the garage.
The straw came from a farmer about five miles away from the Sill home, Bart said.
Other features of the garage include a small bathroom with an electric toilet. Waste is collected in a bag, and at the press of a button, the bag drops to the bottom of the toilet, where an electric coil incinerates the waste and leaves behind an eco-friendly ash.
On the roof are two small gardens that will keep the garage cool in the summer and extend the life of the roof, Bart said.
