Loren Amelang is a pioneer in C++ programming, and his homebrewed live/work space is a monument to sustainable geekery, says Fair Companies.

The entire south side of his home is covered in solar capture devices: 1600 watts of photovoltaic power, solar hot water panels, a sunroom/greenhouse and a solar hot air collector.

This isn’t just your usual passive house or living building, either: Amelang can control the entire thing from a smartphone.

Amelang wrote over 10,000 lines of code so that his home’s water and electric systems could be operated more efficiently and automatically.

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The home includes other innovations, such as a vehicle-style “central locking system” that locks all of the building’s 12 doors and windows when Amelang turns a single key.

The entire house is custom and DIY, so god knows what hoops he had to jump through to get it certified as safe. Which speaks to a larger issue: As often as not, it’s building codes and the conservatism of homebuilders that hold back green homes.