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Entries from July 1, 2007 - August 1, 2007
Blower Door Test
A Blower Door Test is a sensational way to discover points of air infiltration into your home -- you can literally feel the flow of air from leaky outlets, windows, cracks, etc. This test will cost you between $200 and $400 but can pay for itself in energy savings within two years. A certified Home Energy Rater (HERS) like The Hoots Group of Atlanta can perform this important step to a greener home. You can find more certified Home Energy Raters for your area online at the Certified Rater Directory.
Don't do a remodel without a Blower Door Test.
Burke Sisco
Click here for a Forecast Earth video link to local green home building practitioners Carl Seville and Jeremy Draper doing the blower door thing in Atlanta, Georgia.
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PrintWilliam's Windmill
The guy pictured above is the antithesis of Don Quixote. His encounter with a windmill is anything but an exercise in futility -- it's an exercise in electricity. Instead of tilting at windmills he's building them.
William Kamkwamba of Malawi, Africa had to quit school when he was 14 because his family couldn't afford it anymore. Instead of sinking in despair, William DIY'd a windmill using his ingenuity and a book on electricity, scrap wood, a bicycle, and other found objects. As a result, he was able to supply electric lights to his household, replacing the cheap candles they used for lighting that cause eye irritation and respiratory problems. Soon he was charging batteries for other folks in the village.
Two weeks after being introduced to the Internet, he started his windmill blog. He is now receiving donations from all over the world. This has empowered him to start new projects. His next goal is to build a solar- or wind-powered water pump to supply water to his home and irrigate the family crops.
In an age where the need is a lot less talk and a lot more action, William Kamkwamba is an upward call to us all.
Authenticity and Adaptive Reuse
I'm suddenly getting requests for interviews from various publications. I suppose it's only natural with the saturation of all things "eco" in the media of late, and me being an EcoBroker®. One question that is consistently asked is one I can appreciate. Reporters want to know if I live in an eco-friendly home. Now that green is the new black and ecological is fashionable and trendy, we are bound to be hit with waves of greenwash. My fellow EcoBroker® Aaron Doyle gives some good advice on watching out for greenwash.
It's great that people want to test my authenticity. Don't get me wrong. I've got a lot of room for improvement, but I do live in an eco-friendly home. My home is ecological primarily as adaptive reuse, the use of an existing structure for a new purpose. It's the ultimate in recycling – the recycling of buildings. I live in an excellent example of adaptive reuse. Hampton Lofts is a 100 year old sewing mill, converted to condominiums. My brother bought an old vacant building, got it re-zoned from commercial to residential and transformed it into 20 homes. No land was clear cut. Less new infrastructure was required and a minimal amount of new wood was used – we've got the original wood floors. The old ones could have been torn out, but they're just fine. It took 100 years to add the character they have.
The people that built these buildings before electricity was common knew what they were doing. They employed some natural energy-efficient principles to good effect. My home benefits from the principle of thermal mass. The brick walls are about three feet thick so they soak up heat like a battery, releasing it into the home when it cools and retaining it when it's warmer. We also have large windows so we take advantage of daylighting. And of course we've got the energy-efficient appliances, light bulbs, we composte, etc.
Don't be afraid to test the authenticity of the purveyors of green products and services. They need to be "walking the walk" not just riding the gravy train.
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Sendin' out an SOS
"Not alone at being alone..." So sang The Police frontman Sting at the close to Live Earth. That's the theme to the band's classic "Message in a Bottle" and a key concept behind Live Earth. The concert is over, but the work has just begun. The goal is to unite "100 million" or more as an environmental force and to send out an SOS to the world.
Millions pledged to change their actions and hold our leaders accountable. How about you? If you haven't done so already, please join the movement to solve the climate crises. Start by going to www.liveearthpledge.org and make a personal commitment.
One of the pledges is to use public transportation more. Why not live near MARTA? There's some awesome homes that have sprung up within 1/2 mile of MARTA stations in the last couple of years. It especially makes sense if you work near MARTA. And the plan is for MARTA to connect with the coming BeltLine at five points on the loop. This will allow thousands to live with a dramatically reduced reliance on cars.
Best of all, if you're in the market to buy a home near MARTA, you can save thousands with myEnergyLoan + my Rail Estate Rebate.
Composting Combats Climate Change
Did you know that a significant contributor to climate change is coming from our landfills? The millions of tons of food and organic waste we send there every year belch huge amounts of methane into the atmosphere. We also spend $5 billion a year on fossil-fuel-derived fertilizers that leak chemicals into the soil and accelerate the release of nitrous oxide -- another greenhouse gas.
Composting is nature's way of waste disposal and soil fertilization. Nature has reminded me of this with a grand flourish. A squash plant that started growing out of one of our community composte bins this Spring has taken on gargantuan proportions (see photo).
My brother set up composte bins fashioned from old wooden pallets at various places around the property of Hampton Lofts, our 20 home complex. Several of us make daily contributions to these composte heaps. The juicers among us are constantly throwing assorted fruit and vegetable pulp on the pile. To this we add lots of egg shells, coffee grounds, tea leaves, wheatgrass pulp, and anything else we're throwing out that's non-dairy, non-meat food or organic waste. My brother also throws in all the grass clippings, leaves, and other organic material from the property.
The most exotic (or icky, depending on your perspective) contribution we make is urine. I know, that's probably too much information for some, but human urine makes an excellent high nitrogen liquid fertilizer for most plants. Studies indicate that each person’s waste fluids can provide enough nitrogen, phosphorous and potassium to grow a year’s supply of wheat and corn for that person. According to some studies, human waste can be an even more effective fertilizer than animal manure. And many a 5 gallon flush of clean water isn't being wasted on purging sterile pee from our households.
The squash plant confirms how fertile these piles of decomposing stuff are. This plant has spread out literally yards in all directions, with enormous vegetables. I measured one squash at 10" diameter this morning. I watched it grow practically overnight. I'm no farmer, but I have had a few vegetable gardens in my day, and I can tell you I've never seen a vegetable plant grow like this using synthetic fertilizers.
We're using the resulting super soil for growing wheatgrass, tomatoes, herbs and other vegetables around the property. Given the fact that buying and growing more food locally is another logical step in our ecological journey makes composting an ancient practice I hope many more will revive.
And we can combat climate change in the process.
A Top Ten Cottage Community Rises From the Wreckage
Laura Bush pronounced it a community "that will be an example for the rest of the world." Now Cottage Living Magazine has chosen the developing Cottage Square in Ocean Springs, Mississippi as one of its top 10 cottage projects. The list, published in the July/August issue of the Birmingham-based magazine, includes neighborhoods that are small, walkable and connected to an urban or retail area. Their choice of Cottage Square is especially interesting since the project is still a work in progress with only 2 homes completed and 3 under construction. When the project is finished it will have 19 buildings, showcasing a mixture of commercial, residential and civic buildings.
The cornerstone of the community is the Katrina Cottage which I've blogged about in previous posts. Lowes has started offering the Katrina Cottages as "packaged material" based on award-winning floorplans and ready for construction. Interestingly, the square footage of these kits range from 600 - 900 square feet. I'm sure Lowes has done their market research so their offerings further validates the pent-up demand for small houses.
Bruce Tolar, an Ocean Springs architect, decided to build a village of them. I spoke to Mr. Tolar today and he told me that he has been inundated with calls from all over the country. The attention this little community is getting provides further anecdotal evidence that we are on the right track with plans for a village of small cottages.
Mr. Tolar isn't just stopping with green community design. He has partnered with GreenSteel Homes to provide his cottage plans as a system built home finished with all the electrical, plumbing, and custom interior finishes. As their name suggests, these homes are framed with steel instead of lumber and are environmentally friendly in a number of ways. System built is by far the greenest way to build, reducing the time and energy inputs required from months to days. Because they are built in a controlled environment, waste material is virtually eliminated with the end result being a tighter, better built home.
Many people have fantasized about building a neighborhood of the small cottages, but most municipalities don't have zoning to allow it. We're fortunate to have a municipality in the Atlanta area who has recently approved zoning that will allow for cottage housing development. I hope to partner with professionals like Bruce Tolar and GreenSteel Homes to deliver Atlanta it's first Cottage Square.
myEnergyLoan + Rail Estate Rebate = $$$
Jeff Cole, Energy Loan Guy, can save thousands of dollars for those in the market for an energy-efficient mortgage. The myEnergyLoan program from The Healthy Home Team was developed as a major improvement over the Energy Efficient Mortgage (EEM). In addition there are guaranteed lower interest rates via an energy efficiency-based rate Jeff pre-negotiates with lenders. And, automatically for all energy efficient home loans -- 50% off Loan Origination Fee! Yep, you heard right. 50% off Loan Origination + guaranteed lower interest rate.
Here's a way to save even more while enjoying energy savings: Choose an energy-efficient home within 1/2 mile of a MARTA Station and qualify for New Urban Realty's Rail Estate Rebate. With the Rail Estate Rebate Buyers can get up to 1% of the sales price of the home back at closing.
Together myEnergyLoan + Rail Estate Rebate + energy-efficient home = thousands of dollars in short term and long term savings for home owners!
