Practical idea exchange about sustainable building development and living
From the category archives:
It was not so long ago that we had an enormous amount of momentum to make real progress fighting climate change. But the Republican party & conservative movement have mobilized all their resources against us, and for the moment, we are loosing. It is David vs Goliath, and we are David…
Watch Climate of Doubt on PBS. See more from FRONTLINE.
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…And the winner is Occupied Sustainable!
Gas and Electric Comparisons 2009-2010
Hey, Andy here with another post – After analyzing months of PG&E bills from two houses, I put them into excel in order to compare their data. Below you will see a graphical comparison of monthly gas and electric bills between a house on Marietta Drive that is unoccupied and the sustainable house on 39th Ave occupied by a family of four…(To enlarge the graphs, click the image)
As you can see, the house occupied on 39th Ave is constantly paying less for their gas each month, a result of its efficiently and sustainability.
You will see in this graph that the electric bill paid in the occupied house is far less than that of the vacant. The 39th Ave. household has very steady payments not because it uses less, but rather because it has more efficient installations such as high efficient insulation, energy star appliances, energy star lights, and energy star windows (just to name a few!).
These numbers do not lie and show that sustainable changes do pay off!
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Solar power is so hot right now it is easy to forget about alternate sources of home power. But just as the thought of rooftop photovoltaic panels probably sounded uber green 10 years ago, in 10 years we may well see more houses with these:
I have been watching this windmill spin in the Forrest Hills Extension neighborhood of The City for some time now. I think it takes some big hairy balls to be willing to erect one of these on your block, and I approve. This is radically unknown territory for your average home owner, and not every contractor, electrician or even inspector from the Department of Building Inspection is going to know what to do with a home windmill. Obviously though, it can be done, and in windy locals it makes sustainable sense. One big disadvantage to Solar Panels like the ones I have on my house is that they do not work at night. But the wind can blow 24/7, so having the capacity to generate at all times is great. Now my electrical bills with a 2.3 Kilowatt solar system is $11.22 for this past month (PG&E bill just came) but this has been summer with longer days and up to 2,000 watts generate each hour. I know it will drop when winter comes, and something like a windmill would is a tempting addition. Not 100% sure what the wife will say though…
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