OK, so I’ve never linked to You Tube, but this one is really great. The Fun Theory = if we made environmental ‘stuff’ fun, more people would join in. Enjoy the video here. There’s also one about trying to influence people to take stairs versus an escalator. It’s a Volkswagen initiative!
See this article from the Mansfield News Journal about a utility company who, in an effort to reduce energy consumption to comply with an Ohio law, crafted a plan to deliver two compact fluorescent lamps to each customer. The CFLs cost roughly $3.50 each, but the utility was going to charge the customer $21 for the pair.
While I’m sure lots of folks are supportive of using CFLs, the move didn’t sit well with customers. But that’s hardly a surprise!
I know I can be impatient…but the wait to hear from USGBC regarding our certification application is killing me! Our final inspection was over five weeks ago, and while I know these things take time, I keep bugging our Home Provider every week.
So, as soon as we know about what Certification level we’ve achieved I’ll post it here, and until then I guess I’ll just stay nervous!
And, by the way, I just checked the USGBC website…it looks like as of 9/23 there are still only two other Platinum homes in Dallas (although one was certified under the less stringent Prelminary LEED for Homes rules). We still have a chance to be #3 (or #2 if you look at it as I do!).
Our electric bills over the past couple of months (see this post) have validated our economic decision to not immediately install solar panels. If we assume that our usage this past month is probably peak in Dallas (month of Aug/Sept), and even if we assume that we can eliminate this bill completely by installing solar panels, that gives us a best-case return of $3,480 per year. That would allow us to get a 9 year payback on the $30,000 it would take to install the solar panels. So…realistically if we assume that our electricity will actually cost us somewhere around $2,000 per year, and that we’ll only be able to eliminate 1/2 to 3/4 of that cost, the payback becomes something more like 20-25 years.
Admittedly, I don’t know the ins and outs of the new federal tax implications of installing solar panels, but even if I get a break of 50% of the cost of the panels, a 10-12 year payback still seems a little long for us.
BUT! We did have all of the conduit installed in the guts of the house to accommodate solar panels if/when we do decide to install them.
PS: We use Green Mountain Electric, so even without solar panels we’re contributing to the promotion of green energy.
Our home has been selected by the Dallas Chapter of the American Institute of Architecture to be one of eight homes on the 2009 Dallas Tour of Homes. The event is a great way to see some of Dallas’ newest and most amazing architecture. We’re in great company – check out all of the homes that are on the Tour here (click on “Homes” at the top of the page).
Accolades go to our architect/design team of Kelly Mitchell and Garry Walling. This is Kelly’s second home on the Tour (she also contributed to a third home that was on the tour a couple of years ago). Check out Kelly’s first one here.
If you take part in the Tour, you can actually see our house first-hand! Buy a ticket!
PS: I never mentioned that the tour is November 7th and 8th!
We received our electric bill today for the period of 8/5 to 9/4. We used 2,384 kilowatt hours during this time period. Our house is 3,501 square feet, which calculates to .68 kilowatt hours per square foot. This is the most fair calculation I could think of to compare electricity usage in my own informal poll. During this time period, the average high and low in Dallas were 96 and 76 degrees, respectively.
When I compared our usage to that of some of our friends, the typical non-Green home came in at about 1.3 kilowatt hours per square foot, just about twice our Green home. It’s also important to note that the other homes I’m comparing to do not have a pool or electronics as extensive as we have…so our home is coming in even more efficient than the raw calculation shows.
Facts about our house:
On a related note, our actual bill this month was $290.62. We use Green Mountain’s “Pollution Free” plan which charges us 11.7239 cents/kWh. This per kWh pricing is a bit higher than traditional plans, but we believe it’s worth a slightly higher charge given that it’s supporting 100% Pollution Free energy generation.
I just got our gas bill for the month that straddles August/September. It is $21.29. We used 700 Cubic Feet of gas. If you’ll review my post from a couple of weeks ago, you’ll see how we keep our gas bill down.
I also wanted to note that the charge for our actual gas usage was only 43 cents of the $21.29. The rest of the charge is made up of a Utility District Charge (25 cents), Taxes ($1.45), a Rider Charge ($4.69), and a “Customer Charge” ($14.47).
Amazing how 43 cents worth of natural gas costs me $21.29!
I wanted to provide an update to the People Newspaper post that I created a couple of months ago.
The situation in Dallas remains the same: there are no rules that regulate the use of rainwater in clothes washing machines. I was informed by Lonnie Erwin, the Dallas Chief Plumbing Inspector, that the regs won’t be ready until the new fiscal year starts in October. I’ve got a note on my calendar to send him an email on 10/1!
PS: the photo is of our two 2500 gallon cisterns on the side of the house.
In a prior post I mentioned that our Home Provider (GWS) informed us that we have completed all of our documentation for the LEED certification process. I thought I’d share a few tactics that we used to document our compliance where we were required to do so. It might have been easier to compile this stuff as we went along had we understood the depth of information that was required. Generally, our Home Provider accepted the following:
Generally, assume that you’re going to have to file proof of every point that you’re trying to get. A helpful hint is that you should take a lot of photos of the house during each phase of construction. Not only will it be helpful later when you’re trying to figure out exactly where that stud was placed, it will be helpful if you’re asked a question that you can’t remember the answer to because the walls have been closed up for 6 months!
Anyone have other helpful documentation hints?
Not sure how I missed this, but here’s a great summary of our project (and the website and this blog). Thanks to the folks at The Surface Blog!
http://www.surface-blog.com/2009/07/being-green-is-gettin-easier-everyday/#more-1008