Camarillo-area greenhouses produce 21st century crops

Camarillo-area greenhouses produce 21st century crops - LA Times.

Interesting...

• X20 Tomatoes per acre
• $1 Million capital cost per acre
• Uses 20% of water of convention farm.
• Uses 50% of fertilizer

I am curious if there is also a labor savings?

Green Inc.: Making Efficiency Affordable

Green Inc.: Making Efficiency Affordable - NY Times.

What's interesting is the green improvements basically raise the price of a house by 10%. What was not mentioned was the payback time.

The Greening of Pittsburgh

The Greening of Pittsburgh - NY Times. Translation is Pittsburgh has a lot of LEED certified buildings.

Going Green to cut bills

This makes so much sense - Homebuyers Go Green to Cut Bills . It's a shame that builders marked it up for a stiff premium for so long. Of course if it was required by building codes, that would eliminate the premium. The problem is the technology for a green building is still developing. Some people put in using renewable and recycled materials as part of having a green building. My thought is reducing the immediate energy costs, but then the argument is you need to look at the total life time energy usage.

Praise the Lord and Green the Roof

Praise the Lord and Green the Roof - NY Times.

Story about an order of eight Episcopalian Nuns of Community of the Holy Spirit who are going to sell their current location and build a new green nunnery. My guess is the operating cost of their new location will be lower than their current location. It would be nice if their web site had more information about the green building...

Heat Exchanger for Houses

This NY Times article mentions a key of this house is a Heat Exchanger. I am curious on what is so special about this, since when I google the term Heat Exchanger I come across a lot. The Energy Challenge: No Furnaces but Heat Aplenty in ‘Passive Houses’. This has more details on Passive house - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. The key seems to be Heat Recovery Ventilation.

Neat stuff which in time will become more and more common. The use of the modeling software is changing how one designs buildings! As the software becomes more environmentally aware (I would use the word advanced, but I hesitate), this will help reduce energy even more.

Lower fuel and home prices stall green building

Lower fuel and home prices stall green building from the Associated Press. I am not surprised. It's also an issue there are no real green standards across that nation yet. My suggestion is the need to put it in the building codes. And with the more being built with energy savings, this will also reduce the cost difference. I am more in favor of energy savings in designs, than if recycled material was used or not.

California anti sprawl legislation

Energy Efficiency - Structural Issues

Green buildings are a solution which does not even seem to be on the radar nationally. Buildings use a huge amount of energy, yet there seems to be no national standards on them. General standards that are then up to the state to adopt. Homes in the US use 20% of all energy. Think what would happen with a 30% increase in efficiency? Cars and SUV's use 40% of the oil that's used daily in the U.S. Most of the rest is used in buildings somehow.

How we can change our energy economy - South Africa
British Columbia Scores A+ For Energy Efficiency - Canada
Emission, energy reduction at heart of proposed building code - Wisconsin
Saving $10 Billion With Efficiency - US
California Public Utilities Commission sets energy-efficiency targets - Californian

Green Houses

Modeling The Way To Green, One House At A Time and The New Trophy Home, Small and Ecological

There is so much potential on making houses more green. The air quality is such an overlooked opportunity for improving the quality of living (and decreasing sick days). The example of the trailers in Hurricane Katrina that gave out Formaldehyde. The challenge is the standards need some improvement to become easier to use and get rid of the areas that are not important. This will come in time.

The Eco-Kitchen Challenge

The Eco-Kitchen Challenge from the Wall Street Journal. Great read showing the challenges of making a Kitchen Green. On finding materials that is not giving out all sorts of nasty chemicals, to items that are energy efficient, to items made with renewable materials.

An example I have had personally is trying to figure out which Fluorescent Ballast uses electronic verses a magnetic driver. The electronic is a lot quieter and more efficient. Last time I looked at Home Depot I could not figure it out, and I worked 10 years as an Electronics Engineer!

The chemicals that are released by products is another headache (literally). I believe it will get easier and easier to build using eco friendly materials. There is going to be a period of Green Wash and marketing hype that will add to the challenges.

Green Job Training

Green businesses gaining interest in San Mateo County - Silicon Valley area. Good article talking about Green Education.

Green Houses sell Faster in San Jose

Green homes in San Jose sell fast from the Mercury News. 7 out of 9 houses offered were sold in a weekend for a new housing development that is green. Wow! And with the rebates they got from the government on adding solar (not mentioned - efficiency of adding solar during building and to multiple units), there was no added cost for adding. Think if they had also added solar water heating (sounds like only photo voltaic was added and the usual insulation, etc. to reduce heat loss).

In a down housing market, this is powerful. I hope other builders are paying attention.

Eco-Home in Arcadia

An article in the local paper about an Eco Home led to a quest to find out more information. Wow!
An old open house invite has a huge amount of information. I am amazed by the amount of details that went into the design - which is how it should be! I am starting to know how little I really know about building a green house.

Some of the design features/considerations:

• Location of sunlight
• Using greenhouse for winter warming
• Usual green appliances
• Heat vent tower for circulation of hot air (uses natural ventilation)
  
• Thermal characteristics of building material (thermal mass and ventilation)
  
• Heating due to sunlight and impact on design
• Usual wind direction, wind walls
  
• Usual appliance considerations
• Reversible Ceiling fans
• Rain water storage/capture
• PV System
• Courtyard - I do want one that is part of the house so it's integral. There is a Spanish style house in Monrovia that the courtyard is part of the house. Excellent design.
  

Green Tract Homes

Exciting Development! A tract home where the extra cost of the house is evened out by the savings on the monthly energy costs. And since this is being done for the entire tract of homes, it brings down the cost of making the houses green. Green for these houses seems to mean adding energy efficient appliances and solar power. Homes will also come with a dashboard to monitor electricity and water usage.

Green Subdivision in Silicon Valley

From the SJ Mercury News - San Jose's first "green certified" subdivision and the definition of this.

Keypoints:
1. Houses start at a Million. Of course in Silicon Valley the prices are still hard to believe. My family a couple of years ago rented a 900 square foot house in Cupertino and it was around $800K last I checked.
2. For the associated permits, it cost $1000.
3. The extra cost for being green did not add to the total cost of the house.
4. Still issues with green standards (which ones to go buy).
5. Main green features seems to be Solar and Double Pane Windows.

Passive Solar

SF Chronicle Article about Passive Solar. Passive Solar is using the sun to heat up surfaces that have a high thermal mass so they are acting like a capacitor, or reservoir that regulate the amount of heat. They take time to heat up and cool down. In California an example of this would be Adobe buildings which are common in older houses. The Ranch or Spanish style buildings. A book about designing a house with Amazon.com: Passive Solar House Basics: Peter Van Dresser: Books

Every year in Monrovia California on Mother's Day, they have an old house tour. My favorite houses were three Spanish Style houses. All built before 1920. One had the patio built so it was a courtyard that was very accessible from the house. House was in a C shape.

Green Building Standards

Washington Post Article - Saving the Earth Inside the Office
Discovery Turns Its Spotlight Inward

Good general overview, but does not go into some of the issues with green buildings and how the standards are still evolving.

Green Status of US Companies

Mercury News article on Green Grades for companies. There is no unified standard for companies going green. I would go further and ask where is the incentive for going green for a company? Lots of companies claim to be green, but how green are they really? How big a priority is this for a company? My guess is most companies do the minimum so they can claim Green Status, and continue business as usual. Paper use is increasing per the report - so much for the paperless office that was promised with computers. If a company goes zero waste, that is impressive.

Green buildings are fascinating, but from what I have read this area is still developing and having a few growing pains along the way.