1. I was engulfed by “all-hands” company meetings. Although it was a mad rush to get ready for the meetings, I loved it and it was neat to see all the people that I work with in one place.   It was also great to hear that the things that I think are so important are important to the people that I work with as well.  300+ people working towards a higher cause is a pretty powerful thing.  (Net Gain:  Emily + Western U.S.)
2. I found an apartment and I’m moving.  It all happened very quickly but it took me about 5 minutes to decide that I wanted the place… it’s lovely and spacious and has so much character.   I feel really lucky to have found such a great apartment just in time for summer – it’s effectively been 3 years since I had a home in a neighborhood of my choosing, in a city that I feel comfortable in.  So obviously, that’s been a process.  (Net Gain: Emily)
3. I’m house-sitting for some very attention-starved animals, one of which I am allergic to. I love animals and for the past year I have lived in an apartment in a house with a dog and two cats.  I am house-sitting in this same house while the owners are away.  One of the cats got attacked a few weeks ago, so he is recovered at an undisclosed location;  as a result, the dog and the other cat have been following almost my every move in the house.  And as much as I like the cat, I am allergic to him!  So it is hard, especially considering the move.  But I am really going to miss the dog.  (Net Loss:  Emily’s 4-legged roommates)
4. Which brings me to the oily, ruined Gulf of Mexico. Referring, of course, to my love of animals as stated above, what really gets me about this mess is the animals that are being killed as a result.  Not just turtles anymore, but birds, fish, the entire ecosystem.  And as a result of the loss of part of the food chain, people’s livelihoods are being completely obliterated.  I am so disgusted and saddened by the situation, that I have – frighteningly – been rendered numb.  After all, what can I do?  What can YOU do?  We can only sit back and watch as the oil keeps coming out, and beaches keep closing, and more and more ecosystems are destroyed.   It’s totally overwhelming.   I feel, truly, that the best thing I can do is to keep doing my job, and to do the best job I can, so that I can help improve energy efficiency in buildings and hopefully reduce our dependence on oil.    (Net Loss:  Humanity, The Earth, dolphins, etc.)
5. “Privatize the Losses, Socialize the Gains”. Speaking of losses and gains, someone recently told me that there was a movement afoot to push this type of economic system in our country.  And I have to express how dispiriting I think this is.  I am overcome lately with the sheer number of people who are not doing what they are supposed to be doing, so many of whom are trying to take advantage of others, game the system, or flat out cause this country to fail.   BP, Goldman Sachs, Halliburton, nearly every politician running for office this year…. It’s exhausting.  I am amazed that anyone can even watch the news anymore.  I can only watch fake news on Comedy Central and even there, I sometimes can’t handle it.  So, that’s a little bit of where I’m at right now.  (Net Loss:  my sanity)

I'd like to think this dog will miss me when I'm gone

Anyway.  That’s where I’m at.  I will try to get back to you sooner, rather than later.   Good luck everyone…

“But why?”, you say.  (Or maybe you don’t, I don’t want to put words in your mouth, ha.)  Well consider this:  although you can’t see it, using a good amount of insulation and installing it properly is one of the greatest differences between having an energy efficient house and having a drafty, cold, money-pit of a house.  Observe:

From the GDC's Green Your Home tool

Now, knowing that you need a lot of insulation is one thing; know what KIND of insulation to get is entirely another.  In my diagram above, the pink part of the wall section is pink because I assumed that a lot of people associate that color with Owens Corning’s Pink Panther, aka “The Historical American Emissary of Insulation.”  And it’s true that Owens Corning has a lot of insulation products that are useful for homes, including a new product called Foamular, which is a rigid and moisture-resistant exterior insulation.  I’ve seen how this stuff is made – at the Owens Corning LEED Gold Manufacturing Plant just outside of Portland, no less – and it’s a heck of a lot easier to use than the old pink fiberglass stuff.  No offense to the Pink Panther, of course.

BUT, there are other, perhaps more sustainable options for insulation, ones that use less manufacturing energy or recycled materials, for instance.  Lloyd Alter over at Treehugger recently posted his thoughts on the debate between spray polyurethane foam insulation and recycled denim insulation.  There are advantages and disadvantages to both, and since Lloyd covered them already, I won’t repeat him.  But, depending on what the application is, you might find the fact that the spray foam is easy to install and covers up any gaps appealing; or, you may want to avoid VOCs and use the recycled denim, which helps eliminate material from the waste stream.

Obviously, I am not paid to endorse any product here at the GDC, nor do I personally have a preference as to what people use – perhaps one day when I buy a house, I will decide!  In the meantime, I DO encourage people who have homes and the money to renovate to check out the insulation in their homes and maybe consider upgrading … in almost every climate zone in the country, it will help you save energy, which will help you save money.  Hooray for saving money! 

But I digress.  I firmly believe that the Earth is one mega-giant geophysical system and so I’m predisposed to think that movement in the Earth’s crust in one area is likely to affect movement in the crust in another area.  Maybe this is the case, maybe not.  But, like it or not, there are fault lines all over this planet, and a very good number of us live in an area that would be affected by seismic activity.  Including myself, living in the Pacific Northwest, with the Cascadia subduction zone, where “the seismic clock is ticking.”

Which is why I’ve finally decided to take the creation of my earthquake kit very seriously.  Observe:

The beginnings of my earthquake kit - old clothes and lots of coffee

Having never put together an earthquake kit before (despite living in Los Angeles for two years), I looked up how to make a proper preparedness kit on the internets.  I found one, appropriately, on the site for the San Francisco Chronicle’s SFGate. It includes a lot of head-scratching items, like a small fire extinguisher and sunglasses, but for the most part it is all super valuable stuff that would be useful in the event of a catastrophic earthquake.

*I*, on the other hand, am preparing a bag that would in theory allow me to survive for a day or so trapped underground OR allow me to get out, get on my bike, and go find other people.  It will include important stuff like a super-cool solar-powered/hand-crank radio and LED flashlight, as well as a first aid kit, rain gear, a warm jacket, matches and extra food.  I have, however, taken some liberties from the SFGate site – for instance, they say to include bleach, which I get, but I’m trying to come up with something portable, thus the little bleach pen (good in a pinch, literally).  Also note the copious amounts of coffee; hey, I have a portable French Press, might as well put it to good use!

All in all, my earthquake kit is stocked with things I have but don’t use on a regular basis, but still don’t want to get rid of.  I’m finding that this is not only a great way to get prepared for an earthquake but also an in-house recycling exercise.  Being aware of how you use and perhaps waste products in your home is as integral to living more lightly on the earth as realizing that you live on a giant rock that is subjected to forces of geophysics beyond our control.

Do you have any suggestions for putting together an earthquake preparedness kit?  Post them here!

Well, that may soon change, at least a little bit.  Enter the HOME STAR Jobs Bill.   HOME STAR provides two paths for consumers to save energy in their homes (from their Web site):

1. The Silver Star prescriptive path provides a near-term incentive for specific energy saving investments that is simple to administer and easily introduced into the existing marketplace. Homeowners receive between $1,000 and $1,500 for each measure installed in the home, or $250 per appliance, with a benefit not exceeding $3,000 or at least 50% of total project costs (whichever is less). Covered measures include air sealing; attic, wall, and crawl space insulation; duct sealing or replacement; and replacement of existing windows and doors, furnaces, air conditioners, heat pumps, water heaters and appliances with high-efficiency models. The legislation will utilize existing standards for qualifying products at a level sufficient to significantly increase consumer demand for highly energy efficient building materials and mechanical systems.  SILVER STAR improvements may be implemented by any appropriately licensed and insured contractor, but all participating contractors will receive information about opportunities for accreditation and training programs.
2. The Gold Star performance path offers an incentive to households that choose to conduct a comprehensive energy audit and then implement a variety of measures that are designed together to provide greater total returns in energy savings. This performance path represents the future of home efficiency: state-of-the-art building science is used to identify problems, present solutions and deliver verifiable energy savings, generating confidence among homeowners and investors alike. This technology-neutral approach is based on performance, not specific products, so market forces will direct funds to solutions that achieve the best results. A certified professional with accreditation from the Building Performance Institute (BPI), the Residential Energy Services Network (RESNET) or an approved equivalent conducts an energy audit before work begins, and a test-out when the performance retrofit is complete. Consumers receive $3,000 for modeled savings of 20%, plus an additional $1,500 incentive for each additional 5% of modeled energy savings, with incentives not to exceed 50% of project costs. Contractors implementing the GOLD STAR performance path must be BPI accredited.

What this means is that, essentially, if this legislation passes, millions of people will very quickly have several options available to them by which they can implement energy-saving measures in their homes by actions as simple as upgrading appliances or by doing an all-out renovation.  The bill primarily hopes to quickly create as many jobs as possible, while providing energy efficiency on a massive scale, which not only will ease the burden on our aging energy infrastructure, it will ultimately reduce carbon emissions.  (Both of which, incidentally, were the goals when I started this Web site.)  Additionally, anyone wishing to implement these measures will have financing options available to them that are guaranteed through the provisions of the bill.

Pretty neat, eh? Now we just need to hope that the legislation gets passed! If you’d like to learn more about HOME STAR, visit their Web site here.  If you’d like to join the coalition supporting it, visit the Efficiency First Web site to sign up and find out how you can contact your legislators to voice your support.  Even if you don’t own your own home or aren’t in a position to change your living situation to make it more efficient, I think we can all agree that adding a couple hundred thousand jobs during a recession to a very depressed construction market is a good idea, and making several million homes more efficient is an even better idea.   So CHECK IT OUT!!!

First of all, you may want to know what a “home energy rating” consists of.  The funny thing is, there’s actually LOTS of home energy ratings.  There’s the HERS, which is given by ResNet, which is the group hosting the conference I’m attending this week; there’s a BPI rating; there’s the ENERGY STAR designation; there’s the LEED for Homes; there’s the NAHB Green Home Standard; and I’m pretty sure there’s a few that I’m forgetting.

An example of a HERS score: image courtesy of ResNet

Each of these rating systems use a set of standards that are either administered during the construction or remodeling of the home, or they are checked after the home is completed.  To adhere to these strict standards, your home needs to have properly installed insulation, tight construction (so that your home doesn’t leak too much air),  an air/moisture barrier (again with the leakage), properly sealed ducts, and it wouldn’t hurt to have good windows, weatherstripping, very efficient HVAC equipment, and … basically your home should be a well-constructed, high-performance house.

I would regale you with the details of the various sessions that I’ve been attending but I can almost guarantee that you would get bored and fall asleep reading.  I’ve been having a hard time staying awake myself, which I attribute to the warmth of the rooms and the fact that I’m operating three hours ahead of my home time zone.  Nevertheless, it’s an incredibly informative conference and I’m getting to meet a lot of very knowledgeable people who are working to help homeowners save energy.

Now, back to watching the Olympics! 

Image courtesy of Inhabitat

File this under “better late than never”… I just learned about this house and knew I had to talk about it here because it embodies many of the things that I love in one tidy, very livable package.  Observe:

1. It’s a house, which is great, since I love house design;
2. It’s made of straw bales, which are sustainable, renewable, AND energy efficient with proper installation;
3. It’s pre-fab, which is super cool because pre-fabricated designs cut down on job site waste and allow for easier manufacturing recycling;
4. It’s small, and compact, and cute, which means it’s got a lower carbon footprint (although the cuteness doesn’t contribute to that, it’s just a bonus);
5. AND it meets PassivHaus standards, which is about as close as you can get to a net-zero energy house.

I mean, this is pretty awesome, right?  And it’s a good looking little house.  The only problem I’m seeing is that ModCell is a UK company which makes it nearly impossible to build the cute goodness in your pre-selected plot, if you live in the United States, that is.  Which is not to say that you couldn’t send the cuteness over on a giant cargo ship, it’s just that the adorable-ness becomes slightly less so when you realize how much fuel you had to use getting it States-side (think of how much carbon you burn when you get a on a plane to take a short flight, then multiply that by like, oh, 10,000*).

*(I’m exaggerating, I don’t actually know what kind of carbon footprint a trip on a cargo ship would yield.  I have to believe it’s bigger than having it built down the street, though).

So, here’s to hoping that ModCell partners up with an American manufacturer to begin more “local” production of it’s pre-fab wonder so that some of us can get our hands on this wee, energy-efficient, awesomeness.

Here's another photo of it because it's cool; image courtesy of Inhabitat

• a 20 percent mandatory reduction in indoor water use, with voluntary goal standards for 30, 35 and 40 percent reductions;
• Separate water meters for nonresidential buildings’ indoor and outdoor water use, with a requirement for moisture-sensing irrigation systems for larger landscape projects;
• Requiring diversion of 50 percent of construction waste from landfills, increasing voluntarily to 65 and 75 percent for new homes and 80 percent for commercial projects;
• Mandatory inspections of energy systems (i.e. heat furnace, air conditioner, mechanical equipment) for nonresidential buildings over 10,000 square feet to ensure that all are working at their maximum capacity according to their design efficiencies;
• Requiring low-pollutant emitting interior finish materials such as paints, carpet, vinyl flooring and particle board.

All of this and more information about CALGREEN can be found here.

So what does this mean for the average homeowner?  Well, if you live in California, you may start to see the changes immediately, especially if you are building or planning on buying a house in the next few years, as this new code will affect all new buildings.  Although on the other hand, the changes may not be as noticeable, since California has been at the forefront of energy efficient design for many years, so this code is more like an incremental step rather than a big jump.

Even gas stations in California are designed sustainably: The LEED Certified BP Helios House in LA

Now, if you don’t live in California, you should still pay attention, because you may not be off the hook:  the CALGREEN is the first green building standard in the nation, but it won’t be the last.  There are many states that are not too far behind California in discussing adjustments to their state building codes to make buildings more energy efficient, and those changes to the code might be coming as soon as this year.  States like New York, Minnesota, Florida and Colorado are no strangers to green building guidelines, while Wisconsin, Oregon and Washington have energy efficiency programs in place already.  California has many challenges facing it right now – its crazy budget problems, its constitution, and various other calamities notwithstanding – but it has always been good at leading the pack with regards to energy efficiency.  The CALGREEN program will test the system, and if it works, it will be a great model for the rest of the country.

Of course, you could just get ahead of the curve and start greening your own home without any codes or lawmakers telling you to do so… 

The good news is, in the meantime, I’ve been able to upload and catalogue all of my photos from the event and add some commentary as well.  Feel free to check out my Solar Decathlon collection on Flickr, where each house has its own set of photos and my corresponding thoughts written alongside.  Note the overwhelming gray clouds in all of the pictures – made for some pretty gloomy photography :-/

Wow, that sky is ugly

I will now wax poetic on my favorite house in the Solar Decathlon, since I haven’t done it yet.   I want to talk for a moment about Virginia Tech’s Lumenhaus. This house was truly lovely, and I am at a loss to explain their 13th place finish.  I felt that this team used every sustainable system reasonably available to a residential customer to create a truly green, net-zero energy home.  And not only that, they did so without compromising on space – the interior of house was perfectly proportioned in its public versus private areas, with some extra special touches thrown in that really sealed the deal.  Case in point: the partitions in the bedroom that not only held your closet, but they separated to reveal a TV and in doing so, created a partition wall between the bedroom and the living space.

The rainwater collection system/awning over the front door

But I’m not going to stop there.  The exterior screens were cut steel and then bent by hand in a pattern that was meant to direct sunlight into the house but also maintain privacy.  The awning over the front door doubled as a rain scupper, and drained water into catchment basins under the house… which could be recycled in a closed-loop graywater system.  The skylight in the bathroom… the geothermal heating system in addition to the roof PV array… and if all this hotness weren’t enough, to move this house, all you needed to do was put it on a giant set of wheels and hitch it to the back of a tractor trailer, and you’re on your way!

Metal sunscreen and panel system as seen from the inside

I’m not the only one who thought the Lumenhaus was pretty great, however; the Virginia Tech team was approached by NBC during the Decathlon and the team is now in negotiations to move the house to Rockefeller Center so it can be on the Today Show, which may happen in mid-November.  Also, the team of bloggers at Inhabitat did a great write up of the house on their blog, which included some beautiful photos that I will now borrow to show you how nice the house is -  if only it had been sunny while I was visiting!

courtesy of Inhabitat

courtesy of Inhabitat

Everyone loves a section detail! courtesy of Inhabitat

Congrats to VT for such a job well done, and let’s hope they get some of their technology upgraded in time for the Solar Decathlon Europe competition next year – since they are the only team from the U.S. Solar Decathlon to compete overseas too!

courtesy of Inhabitat

No, today I want to talk about CFLs, and thus complete part 2 of my Green Blogger challenge.  I had to find just the right time to talk about CFLs because I thought that everyone knew about them, and that everyone was using them. (CFLs are, of course, Compact Fluorescent Light bulbs that use much less energy than the standard household incandescent or halogen bulbs.)  As it turns out, unfortunately, sales of CFLs are on the decline. This is bad news, especially since it’s not like the need to make our homes more energy efficient has gone away… we should be trying to make them more efficient, so people should be, theoretically doing all they can to weed out energy-wasters in their homes.  Like those pesky incandescents.  Which still cost slightly less than the swirly “new”-ish CFLs, and this might be the reason that their sales are declining in this massive recession.  Cheaper is better, right?  Not always.  I think if people knew that CFLs would save energy in their homes over the long run that would more than make up for the difference in price in the light bulbs, they would get the CFLs, right?  Wouldn’t you?

First the definition:  Dictionary.com says that weatherization is the process of making (a house or other building) “secure against cold or stormy weather, as by adding insulation, siding, and storm windows.” All right!  That’s a good starting point.  But perhaps we should expand this definition to include all types of small gestures in and around homes or other buildings that makes them “weather tight” and more energy efficient.  To me, weatherization could include something as simple as putting plastic wrap over drafty windows during the winter, or something as intensive as tearing out old insulation and putting new insulation in your walls.

So how do people achieve these results?  Where do they start?  Well, as usual the Department of Energy seems to be one step ahead.  Behold the U.S. DoE Weatherization Assistance Program, which “enables low-income families to permanently reduce their energy bills by making their homes more energy efficient.”  And, just in case you’re wondering why ALL families don’t get this kind of assistance, check out the DoE’s reasoning:

“By reducing the energy bills of low-income families instead of offering aid, weatherization reduces dependency and liberates these funds for spending on more pressing family issues. On average, weatherization reduces heating bills by 32% and overall energy bills by about $350 per year at current prices. This spending, in turn, spurs low-income communities toward job growth and economic development.”

I think growth and economic development is a concept that we can all get behind.  So let’s hear it for weatherization!