About 30 years ago, when A.J. Patrick was building his home in the Fallen Timbers addition just south of Dupont Road on Fort Wayne’s north side, neighbors were aghast when they saw steel beams rising from the ground.

“My neighbors thought I was building a warehouse,” he recalls. “It looked more commercial than residential.”

What Patrick was building, however, was what he considered the house of the future.

The oil embargo of 1973 to 1974 – with its spikes in oil prices, fuel shortages and lines at the gas pumps – was still fresh in his mind. And to him, the rest of the 20th century promised more of the same.

“I anticipated the price of energy going up and up, and I didn’t want to be ‘fuelish,’ ” Patrick says, wryly quoting a popular slogan of the era.

“I wanted a completely energy-efficient home.”

So, with the help of designer Scott Patton, now owner of Angola-based Shelter Supplies and Sheltercraft.com, Patrick embarked on an ambitious plan – building a house using what were then cutting-edge energy-conservation technologies.

Today, Patrick seems like an energy prophet and his two-story, 3,200-square-foot home remains an energy miser.

Last year, according to records the work-at-home insurance consultant has kept for three decades, the house averaged only $95 a month for heating, cooling and electricity – despite having five bedrooms and a cathedral-style ceiling in the main living area.

“This was green before it was fashionable,” says Patrick, 66. “I want to encourage people to do what I did.”

The secret to Patrick’s house, which does not look that different from other contemporary-style homes in its subdivision, began with positioning it so the main living space faced south, Patton says.

He then came up with active and passive solar features for the home’s design and provided for an open-loop geothermal heating and cooling system that taps thermal energy in groundwater.

An air-exchange system was also built in for comfort and to ensure that the home’s tight building envelope wouldn’t lead to indoor air quality problems.

“If the air gets too warm in the house, louvers open on the roof that allow air to pass out, and if that isn’t enough, there’s a two-speed fan that kicks in to power-exhaust the whole house,” Patton says.

At the time, he says, all were innovations that have since been adopted by many green architects and builders. He recalls building inspectors weren’t sure what to make of the place.

“It was all built to code, but when we had an inspection, they brought every inspector in the department, or it seemed like it,” Patton says. “They had never seen anything like it.”

Patton says the home’s “infamous” webbed steel skeleton – and concrete interior walls – allowed for layers of insulation that brought the house up to at least R-50. The home’s plumbing and the electrical wiring were all laid in conduits built into the concrete interior walls, he says.

Solar technology heats the hot water for the home’s kitchen and three bathrooms without alien-looking panels on the roof or in the yard.

Instead, there’s a copper absorber under the shingles on part of the roof, and storage tanks in the garage and in a mechanicals room on the second-floor loft.

Heated water runs through the pipes in the walls to faucets, and the walls then radiate heat as the house cools.

Passive solar technology also was incorporated. Patton designed overhangs and roof angles and window placement to maximize sun exposure.

A wall of south-facing windows runs the entire back of the house’s first floor and is topped with more windows on the second floor, allowing for natural light in every room. Only one small decorative window faces the house’s cold side, the north.

Windows are equipped with programmable window shades and a special film that diffuses ultraviolet rays to cut down on hot spots and fabric fading, Patrick says.

By closing the shades at night in the winter, heat is retained. In the summer, the shutters remain down during the heat of the day and are raised at night to allow for cooling.

The main living area also boasts eight tons of California drift stone in two walls that serve as heat sinks. One of the walls provides a backdrop for a wood stove that gives a heating boost when needed.

Even the property’s landscaping was designed with energy conservation in mind. After consulting a university wind specialist, Patrick strategically placed an arc of blue spruce trees on an earthen mound so prevailing winds from the west would sweep up and over the house instead of hitting it straight on.

In recent years, the house’s heating and cooling system was upgraded to one using two-speed technology and a touch-screen control panel to further increase efficiency. Patrick also has installed low-flow faucets and showerheads and dual flush toilets to save water. He’s gradually replacing conventional light bulbs with energy-saving CFCs.

When it was built, the house cost about $300,000 – and Patrick says he recouped about 65 percent of the cost over three years through an energy-conservation rebate program during the administration of President Carter.

He says he paid cash for the house because bankers weren’t too keen on his ideas. The home’s energy investments made him able to recoup the rest of the cost in about five years. For years, it cost him only $35 to $40 for energy, he notes.

Other than updating the geothermal system, “because I wanted the latest and greatest,” maintenance costs have been minimal, Patrick says.

Now, he says he’s facing the dilemma of many folks his age – downsizing. He’s considering selling the house to move closer to his married son, Mark, and his two granddaughters.

But real estate agents he’s consulted have had trouble pricing a home that doesn’t really have comparable ones nearby, he says.

Still, Patrick says he has no regrets about building and living “green.”

“The trouble with ‘green’ is that no one has enough data long term to show you that you can save money. Well, I do. … I have a 30-year history,” he says. “I tell people I can heat this house with a candle and cool it with an ice cube.”

Visitors tell him they can’t believe the house, with its features, is 30 years old.

“I don’t feel I’m sacrificing anything. It’s been extremely comfortable house,” Patrick says.

“I’ve enjoyed living here. I’ve always liked to come home because it’s a welcoming, very serene place. I feel embraced by this house.”

rsalter@jg.net