How Green Is My House

[XemaSab]

Consumers are trying harder to do what they can to reduce their carbon footprints — from switching to fluorescent light bulbs to recycling more refuse — though it’s not always easy. New technology isn’t perfect, and expectations can be unrealistically high.

For homeowners, what are some simple and cost-effective ways to make houses (including inefficient old houses) greener and more ecologically sensitive?

http://roomfordebate.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/03/27/how-green-is-my-house/

[Mind_your_head]

1. Not very.....although I would love to be.....

[Yavapai]

2. We live off the electric grid, so solar power is a necessity.

But that was our choice.

Our solar system powers our well for water, everything in our home, and for watering our veggi garden. The first thing you do when on solar is make everything efficient as possible. That means florescent light bulbs, energy star appliances, and turn off the lights when you leave a room. Unfortunately, we must have a 4 wheel drive with high ground clearance here, so we have two large pick-up trucks.

We are thinking about a more efficient small vehicle that we could use for sunny weather use. Don't know how well it would last though, as we live 15 miles down a rocky dirt road. Also we have a very efficient wood stove and try to use only dead wood in it, So our heating is zero carbon balance also.

We are also considering solar water heating. I have heard that the solar water heating pays back the initial cost fast than all other projects.

[marybourg]

3. South of you, we're already on our 2nd solar H2O system

This new heat-exchanger one is more efficient, but doesn't give us water as hot in the winter as the old (circa '79) one. It's adequate however.

[Yavapai]

5. Was looking online and,

happened upon a New Zealand real estate site. Was looking at their listings and found several that touted that the house comes with a "wetback". Of course it really caught my attention and upon further research, it revealed that this was a heavy metal device that attaches to the top or back of the wood burning stove. It runs water through it and captures the heat to give hot water. Thought that this is an idea I should investigate further, as it sounds like a great idea. But I don't have any idea where to find a "wetback" in Arizona. (pun kind of sorta intended, Ok, I am sorry!):evilgrin:

[marybourg]

6. The low tech version of this is simply a pot or kettle on top.

We used to do that in NM and always had a small supply of very hot H2O. Also served to humidify a bit. Here in so. central AZ we don't use a wood stove altho we still have ours and put an electric log set inside for sentimental reasons.

[coastalgal]

4. We are VERY green. Happy to say. Heck, we don't even go to stores except to buy food.

We go to used clothing stores and if we need an appliance there are many ways to buy secondhand.
It's a much easier life in a strange way....

[cbayer]

7. Very, very green. But it's a boat not a house.

Most of my power is solar. If I need a little more, I have a diesel generator that is highly efficient.

My home is completely watertight and holds heat or cool air very efficiently.

Most of my power is 12 volt and every thing that uses electricity has to be turned on from a central panel. Nothing runs unless it is told to, except the refrigerator.

Wind supplies most of the power needed for moving from one place to another. Once "parked" somewhere, a small, efficient outboard gets me to land.

Solar showers provide hot water, but I can also heat water whenever the engine is on. It uses passive exchange to transfer the engine generated heat to the the hot water heater. Once heated, it stays hot for one or two days.

Between the two of us, we use about 150 gallons of water a month. That is not much and involved lots of skimping and using salt water for some tasks, but the new water maker, which will be installed this week, will produce 2 gallons an hour from sea water. This will be an unbelievable treat!

But the greatest thing about all of this is being off the grid. Other than buying diesel fuel every two months or so and cell phones, there are no monthly bills.

It's not for everyone, but for those of us that like things very simple, it is heaven.
:hi: