Amory Lovins, founder of the Rocky Mountain Institute, an environmental research and consulting organization, calls his home “the Banana Farm,” after the tropical fruits grown in its greenhouse. Located on a mountainside near Aspen, Colo. — where temperatures sometimes plunge to 30 degrees below zero — the home has no heating system. Instead, it was constructed with 16-inch-thick walls made of concrete, locally harvested sandstone, and a middle 4 inches of polyurethane. In the arid mountainous area, the sun is strong during the day so the walls store and retain heat throughout the day and overnight.
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