by Krystal Paco

Guam - At 800 square feet with two bedrooms and one bath it sounds like the typical Guam home, but it's not. According to energy technician, Antonio Endaya, House #32 located on Dean's Circle on the University of Guam campus serves as the office for the Center for Island Sustainability. It also only uses $9 worth of electricity per month.

"Actually, we're not using power from GPA, but we are using the power that we produce from our solar panels," he explained.

Aside from six kilowatt solar panels, Endaya says the entire building is retroffitted for energy efficiency, including double-paned windows and doors, energy star rated appliances, and high sear rating air conditioning units. "Currently since we installed our renewable power system in House 32, we actually save around 3,700 pounds of CO2 - that's 3,700 pounds of CO2 removed from the atmosphere. That's only one house, so imagine if we're going to have a lot more houses saving CO2. We're not only looking at power saving but we're looking at saving our planet," he said.

The office is not only producing its own energy, but fresh fruit and vegetables, including squash, herbs, dill, lemongrass, Thai basil, tomatoes, okra, eggplants, and corn. All the vegetation is supported by water from the building's water catchments. For those at home looking to cut their power bill costs, Endaya recommends to start small before investing in costly green technologies, like opting for the island breeze verses turning on the A/C because air conditioning usage attributes to 30-40% of the average home's power bill.

Endaya also says it pays to sweat the small stuff, saying, "Those small gadgets that we have we leave them plugged and once we leave them plugged, those are the vampires. They suck in small energy – take, for example, your electric toothbrush. It's plugged in every day guess what? It sucks in about $1 worth of energy per day."

Endaya invites the public to visit and ask questions from 8am to 5pm. The open house ends Friday.