Jerad Capp never pays a utility bill.
The Spearfish resident, who goes by Cappie, lives off the grid, an increasingly popular choice for environmentally conscious homeowners, and one Cappie hopes to share with his fellow community members.
Off-grid living means not relying on traditional municipal water supply, natural gas, sewer, electrical power and other utility services.
"There are many misconceptions about what an off-grid house means," Cappie said. "That was my hope with this house, was to show people you didn't have to live in a cave, you didn't have to live in a hobbit house, you didn't have to live this austere lifestyle where everything was so arduous."
Cappie's home is a 650-square-foot load bearing straw bale house, which runs completely on solar power. The straw bales, which are stacked on top of one another like Legos, serve as the structural support for the home. Straw bales are natural building elements that help immensely with the heating and cooling of the home. Straw bales are also easily obtainable, renewable and naturally fire-retardant.
It took about four years to get approval to build his off-the-grid home, but Cappie has lived sustainably most of his adult life.
"I always felt I needed to be responsible for me and the impact I make on humans and the planet," Cappie said.
He built his first off-the-grid home in 2004, a modified 1993 International school bus with PV solar, solar hot water and a composting toilet. However, his fascination with sustainable building peaked through travel. Cappie has visited 61 countries and all 50 states.
"I've seen every kind of building you can imagine from mud walls three-feet thick in the Middle East to log cabins in Oregon built with logs I can't even reach around down to Central America homes built out of cinder block and tin roofs," he said. "It's about using what you have."
Cappie, who has built conventionally with his dad and grandfather most of his life, now owns Pangea Design Group in Spearfish, a natural building company using local materials and sustainable techniques to build homes.
The U.S. Energy Information Association (EIA) cites that in 2015 less than 2 percent of homes in the United States ran on solar power. But the trend is picking up momentum.
In a recent report from the Solar Energy Industries Association, enough solar energy is produced in the U.S. to power 6.2 million homes. The report also states there were 1.1 million residential solar installations nationwide in the second quarter of 2016.
While South Dakota is not a leader in solar energy, it's making progress. The South Dakota Public Utilities Commission shared data from the EIA stating 9,734,000 MWh of energy was produced in 2015, with approximately 1,000MWh of that coming from solar power. The total was a 29.3 percent increase in solar generation from 2014 in the state.
Cappie runs with a 1.6kw array solar panel mounted on his roof. The solar system, which Cappie said is modest in size, provides all of his electricity, which is enough electrical power to wash his clothes, cook food and binge watch his favorite television shows like any homeowner in Spearfish.
And in the event the solar panel didn't produce enough electricity, which Cappie said it never has, he has 14, 12-volt deep cycle batteries stored beneath his living room floor for backup.
Cappie said overcast days do not hinder energy production; it simply takes self-conscious decision-making to conserve electricity.
"I pay attention to things," he said. "I don't do four loads of laundry at midnight because it uses a lot of the battery bank. I do a load of laundry at 9 a.m. or over lunch when the sun is high and there is a lot of electricity being produced."
Aside from producing electricity, the sun heats Cappie's home for most of the winter, and a ceiling fan, coupled with fresh air, cools it.
The floor and walls of his house are made from straw, clay and sand. When the sun beats through the windows, the 10-inch thick floor creates a heat sink, storing the heat and warming the home much like concrete on a hot, summer day.
When the temperatures do start to drastically drop, Cappie has two wood stoves to heat the home. The wood used is left over from his construction projects; he has enough wood to heat his home for eight years.
An irrigation ditch runs through the property supply Cappie with all his irrigation water. A paddle wheel, called a screw pump that Cappie designed, pumps water into a tank 20 feet above the ground. The water is used to water his 10,000 square foot vegetable garden, eliminating another charge from a utility company.
Cappie enjoys sharing his passion for sustainable building and off the grid living. Last March, he spoke at the International Straw Building Conference in New Zealand on practical sustainability.
"People talk about these smart homes with smart thermostats, why can't we just be smart homeowners," Cappie said.
Homeowners can make small changes to reduce their carbon footprints such as opening a window to heat the house or using a ceiling fan rather than running an air conditioner. Cleaning the back of the refrigerator, using more sustainable light bulbs and even riding a bike to work helps reduce the carbon footprint, he said.
And while South Dakota is not a leader in solar energy, Chris Nelson, South Dakota Public Utilities Commissioner, said the state has created much energy from wind and water. In 2015, 50 percent of the state's energy was water generated and 26 percent was wind generated. And 14 percent of the hydro energy was used, while 10 percent of the generated wind energy was used.
"And now for the first time, we're seeing solar power projects in the state," Nelson said. "A 1 megawatt solar facility in Pierre recently developed through the Missouri River Energy Systems, providing electricity to municipal energy facilities."
While the South Dakota Public Utilities Commission doesn't keep track of individuals using solar energy, Nelson said he suspects the option will become more popular as the economics make more sense.
The U.S. Department of Energy estimates the cost of photovoltaic solar panels dropped 60 percent between 2008 and 2014. In 2014 the median installed price for residential systems was approximately $4.3 per watt DC, costing a homeowner approximately $43,000 to install a 10 kW PV system.
Cappie said Spearfish is progressive enough to make sustainable changes in the future.
"It's exciting to bring something to light where your kids, my kids, will be like, "Well, why wouldn't you have solar panels on your house?' I think we can get there," Cappie said. "It just has to go mainstream and it has to be practical."
