CODY - A home built in the 1930s as housing for Husky Oil workers in Oregon Basin is getting an extreme makeover as an energy efficient "green house," designed to produce more power than it consumes.

John Osgood recently received approval from the Cody City Council to install a 10-module photovoltaic solar array at his home near Big Horn Avenue.

The house was moved from Oregon Basin in 1963, and Osgood bought it in 1980. He began living there part-time starting in 1990, and full-time starting last year.

After working as a National Park Service ranger in Yellowstone Park and Bighorn Canyon National Recreation Area, Osgood retired last year, and has since devoted much of his time to making his house as energy-efficient as possible.

"A lot of people are doing this for the same reason I am," he said. "They want to contribute to electricity production in a responsible fashion, without using fossil fuels, particularly coal."

Osgood said places in Montana and New Mexico are seeing many new residential solar systems, but his will be only the second "net meter" system in Cody, where the city operates its own municipal power system.

A net meter home can produce more power than it consumes, and thus generate a utility credit, requiring a special power meter that measures power produced as well as consumed.

Stone Soup Studios owners Elijah Cobb and Linda Raynolds were the first in Cody to install such a system. There were some hurdles in getting started with the city, they said, although things are running smoothly now.

Osgood hopes to finish installing his system by the end of the year.

He said he was impressed with the comments and questions he had heard from City Council members and Cody public works employees, and that the process has gone well so far.

Bert Pond, electrical superintendent for the city of Cody, said software glitches with a special power meter at Stone Soup caused some difficulties in accounting for power produced, but things are working well now.

Pond advised others looking to install a net meter system to "contact someone who specializes in these solar arrays or wind power. If you don't use qualified people, you can end up spending more money than you need to."

Pond said systems must produce less than 25 kilowatts of peak power to qualify for the state's net metering law.

That program allows the homeowner to use surplus power as credit against power consumed, with the balance calculated annually from the date of installation.

Osgood said his system will produce a peak load of about 2 kilowatts per hour, generating an average of around 290 kilowatt hours a month.

After super-insulating the old Husky house, a process that includes installing 3-inch phenolic foam boards along all the interior walls, he expects to use around 65 kilowatt hours per month, returning the surplus to the grid.

Though he may earn between $5 and $20 a month for the extra power, Osgood said the system's $16,000 cost will not be recouped over a typical 30-year amortization period.

"The expense I'm bearing cannot be justified economically in any way under current rates," he said.

His goal instead is to reduce demand for electricity produced by coal, and return green power to the system for others to use.

With shelves of books on alternative energy, triple-pane windows from Canada, and special insulation imported from Europe because it isn't sold here, Osgood admits to being an "enthusiast" on the topic.

"Energy conservation has been a hobby for a long time. I've taken courses on housing design and heat loss," said Osgood, who is doing much of the work himself on the solar and insulation projects.

"One of the main problems confronting us is elevated levels of carbon dioxide, and we're probably close to a time where we have to address that," he said.

One option is for concerned homeowners to tackle the issue individually, he said.

New technologies make conservation and alternative energy more efficient and affordable than during the 1970s energy crisis, said Osgood.

"Now, through energy conservation and the prudent use of energy, we can do what we need to do, without being wasteful," he said.

Former President Jimmy Carter advised people to turn back thermostats and put on a sweater.

"People then equated conservation with discomfort," said Osgood. "But if you design it correctly in the first place, you don't have to be uncomfortable."