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§ 02 — The Systems · For the Sustainability-Minded

Off-grid for seven years. Net-positive. Ready.

Aerial view of the property: black-roofed home set into a 2.2-acre food forest of bananas, papayas and avocado, jungle rolling toward the Pacific
2.2 acres · 44-tree food forest · Net-positive

Not a brochure for low-impact living. The working answer — built by Graham Hill, founder of TreeHugger and LifeEdited, and refined over seven years of actually living in it.

Solar
14 kW
net-positive, oversized
Rainwater
20,000 gal
UV-filtered, ozonated
Food forest
44 trees
producing year-round
Refined over
7 years
of off-grid living
Featured in
TreeHugger lifeedited TED dwell inhabitat The New York Times HGTV
§01 — The Walkthrough

Eight minutes with Graham.

Graham Hill on the TED mainstage, seated on cardboard boxes in front of the red TED logo
§02 — The Story

The talk that became this house.

In 2011 Graham Hill walked onto the TED mainstage and asked a deceptively simple question — how little do we actually need, to live well? Seven million views later, the answer was framed in steel and cedar on a ridge in Ha‘ikū. Designed for low-impact living from the ground up, then refined over seven years of actually living in it.

None of this is theoretical. Every system has been tuned by use — by storms, by guests, by mistakes corrected. What's for sale is the seven years.

Views
7M+
Talk
Less stuff,
more happiness.
Runtime
5:48
§03 — The Systems

Three systems, oversized on purpose.

Path through the food forest, bananas and papayas overhead Producing now
§ 01 / 03Edible
44trees
A 40-tree food forest, in maturity.
Most "permaculture" homes are still waiting for the trees to come in. This one isn't. The forest was put in seven years ago and has been producing for five. Walk the path with a basket and come back for breakfast.
  • Papaya
  • Mango
  • Avocado
  • Lychee
  • Jackfruit
  • Sapote
  • Starfruit
  • Citrus
  • Banana
  • Coffee
  • Soursop
  • Mountain apple
Trees planted
44
Producing since
2020
Raised beds
3 · off the kitchen
Irrigation
Drip · catchment-fed
The mechanical bay: a rack of inverters and Blue Ion battery banks feeding the off-grid system Net-positive
§ 02 / 03Oversized
14kW · 48kWh
Solar & battery, built for surplus.
Sunflare thin-film panels integrated into the standing-seam roof — no racking, no shading. They generate more than the house consumes. Blue Ion lithium-iron batteries provide days of autonomy. A backup propane generator handles the once-a-year edge case.
Solar capacity
14 kW · roof-integrated
Battery storage
48 kWh · LFP
Inverters
OutBack · 2× FXR
Backup
Propane generator
Grid hookup
None · zero by design
Generation
Net-positive · year-round
Twenty-thousand-gallon rainwater cistern with a rainbow arcing behind Rain-fed
§ 03 / 03Oversized
20,000gal
Drinking water from the sky.
Ha‘ikū gets seventy inches of rain a year. The roof catches it, a particle filter cleans it, ozonation and UV polish it to potable. Twenty thousand gallons of storage means the dry months are a non-event. No well, no municipal connection, no chemicals.
Catchment
20,000 gal · concrete cistern
Treatment
5-stage · ozone + UV
Source
Roof catchment only
Annual rainfall
~70 in / yr
Greywater
To food forest
Sewage
On-site septic
§04 — Passive Design

No air conditioning.
None needed.

RIDGE · 812 FT 14 KW SOLAR 6 FT 6 FT 12 FT CLG NE TRADES HOT AIR ↑ SUMMER SUN HIGH FIG · SECTION CUT · NW–SE · NOT TO SCALE

Six-foot overhangs, twelve-foot ceilings, and the trade winds.

The house sits on a northwest-facing ridge at 812 feet, directly in the trade-wind path. Six-foot overhangs keep the high summer sun off the glass; twelve-foot ceilings let hot air rise and exit the leeward side. On the hottest day of the year, you open the doors and the house cools itself.

  • 01Six-foot overhangs on every elevation — winter sun in, summer sun out.
  • 02Twelve-foot ceilings with operable clerestories — hot air vents itself.
  • 03Cross-ventilation aligned to the prevailing NE trade winds.
  • 04Low-E glazing on the western face — softens the afternoon load.
  • 05Zero AC required. Zero AC installed.
§05 — Why For Sale

A new chapter, for both sides.

Graham's sustainability practice — The Carbonauts — has grown into a full-time operation based in New York. The Maui house has done its job: it became a public proof of concept, a case study cited in a dozen publications, the living laboratory behind a decade of work.

It is offered now not to a flipper but to a steward — somebody who sees what was built here, understands the seven years it took to refine, and wants to carry the experiment forward.

Showings are by appointment. The conversation begins below.

§06 — Other Angles

See it from a different angle.

The house at the front, black cladding against the jungle
§ 00 — Overview
The full property.
The complete picture — gallery, land, floor plans, the longer walkthrough, and price.
Enter
The kitchen, marine plywood and Richlite counters
§ 01 — The Design
The architecture.
For the reader of Dwell. Materials, plan, the editing discipline.
Enter
Pegboard headboard detail
§ 03 — The Transformative
The compact life.
For the minimalist. Transformable rooms, peg-board systems, every object kinetic.
Enter
Workspace overlooking jungle
§ 04 — The Remote
The founder's office.
For the operator. Starlink, multiple offices, conditions for good work.
Enter
Water tank with rainbow
§ 05 — The Resilient
The true autonomy.
For the prepared. Off-grid through storms, outages, fires.
Enter
§07 — Inquire

A serious conversation.

$2,350,000

Showings are by appointment. We ask that interested parties provide a short note on what draws them to the property — stewardship matters here in a way it does not in a standard transaction.

Address
3127 Ua Noe Place, Ha‘ikū, HI 96708
Parcel
TMK 2‑2‑7‑004‑021
Listing
Representation TBD
Email
hello@3127uanoe.place