The home of a local green builder is featured on a television show this week. Renovation Nation, which airs on the Planet Green channel, will present builder Mark Marcoplos’ Orange County home this week, showing off the house’s green features.
Marcoplos’ house, which he completed in 2001, was designed with a variety of green efficiency features, including solar power and water heating, a cooling system that doesn’t require mechanical air conditioning and wood reused from the old Internationalist Books building, which Marcoplos Construction deconstructed in 1998.
Marcoplos said of the filming, “It was wild.
“It takes a lot of hard work to make a TV show.â€
Marcoplos built the house, about eight miles west of Carrboro, with help from his wife Wanda and sons Dakota and Riley.
“It was pretty grueling,†he said of the building process, but “it was satisfying to see the design manifest.â€
He describes the green features of the house as “cutting edge, but simple†and says that the green features incorporate both new technology and straightforward design principles.
His favorite feature, he says, is the cooling system, which doesn’t require mechanical air conditioning. The house is designed to reduce heat energy from the sun and appliances and then channel heat, using well-placed fans and different ceiling heights, to the tower atop the house where it can be released outside.
The hour-long show premiered yesterday (Wednesday) but will be shown again. Check your local listings.

