The Lean, Green Scene

If you think it’s impossible to design a completely self-sufficient home, it’s not.

(zeroHouse was designed by Scott Specht, Architect. Rights to the image above belong to them and I hope they don’t mind my using it in this post.)

zeroHouse generates its own electricity, collects its own water, and processes its own waste. Almost sounds too good [...]

We went on vacation for a couple of days, this weekend. The cheap bastard, energy  efficient miser in me was very pleased I was somewhere else burning someone else’s electricity. : )

Unfortunately, I noticed it also raises my plastic bag count. Everywhere we stopped gave me a plastic bag. Every roadside stop and pretty much every [...]

Just like the ocean, my home has distinct and noticeable thermoclines. This time of year, especially at night, it’s most pronounced. Down in the basement, it’s icy cold, and on the first floor it’s perfectly comfortable. Or it would be if the top floor wasn’t so hot. The top floor, the home’s third distinct thermocline, gets [...]

The dog days of August come early to the DC area. Memorial Day weekend pretty much marks the beginning. The days were hot and humid. It was just a little warning from Mother Nature that summer was upon us. We had the a/c running most of the weekend.

Not all of June will be like this. June [...]

We have an HVAC guy coming out in a few weeks. We have some things he’s going to do, some standard maintenance stuff to make sure the a/c is working efficiently. I’m all atingle. : )

Actually, I’m finally going to get a programmable thermostat installed. This hasn’t been a high priority for me. Since my wife [...]

The latest electric bill came late last week. More good news. My energy saving measures seem to be effective. After several months, now, the bill shows a consistent reduction in electricity usage from the previous year.

May 2009 1245 kWh

May 2010 1017 kWh

A little better than an 18% reduction in energy usage from [...]

Just an update on the plastic bag footprint, today. It stands at 166. I forgot my reusable bag at the grocery store and ended up with some [...]

Ah. It’s so sad when your friends disappoint you. But what do you call it when your government disappoints you? Par for the course?

It turns out the Energy Star rating doesn’t mean diddly. Well, maybe it meant a little something in the case of doors or windows or light, but otherwise it doesn’t mean much. That [...]

Okay, the focus of NRDC’s article is really about reducing carbon dioxide emission from your home, but the same principals hold. I’ve quoted their list in this post. I hope they don’t mind. The original article, CO2 Smackdown, Step 5: Low-Cost Cooling, by Paul Randle, can be viewed here. There’s lots of good stuff on the [...]

I was pleasantly surprised to find that my electric company’s website, www.dom.com, actually has some energy saving tips. Here’s what they recommend for saving energy during the summer months (Except for my comments, this all verbatim from their website. I hope they don’t mind.) :

Raise your thermostat to 78º. This is the number one way [...]