So What Does It Really Cost/Save in Energy?

I know we have promised you, dear reader, some news about how well our home is performing on energy consumption but this turns out to be harder than it seems! We have now lived in the home for more than a year so we finally have a year's worth of power and propane bills collected. We must say that they have been higher than we had thought! But having said that, we honestly don't know how our house compares to one similar that was built by conventional standards. We also have some potential power hogs (i.e. a hot tub and a steam unit). What we must do at this point to really see where the bulk of the electrical usage originates it to install a monitor that can do a check on individual circuits. We're working on this!

We can say that our little 1.2 kW solar power system did indeed produce 1,000 kWh over the first year in service. While that is not a lot, it most likely covered the power needed to run our geothermal ground source heat pump.

More coming soon!

So How Much More Does Building Green Cost?

Dear Readers:
I get asked this question (or some variation of it) frequently (and in fact was "misrepresented" in an interview with The Wall Street Journal where they shrunk what I said to imply that the cost is outrageous!) and I find answering it quite difficult.

Here's my response to a recent query about "how much the renovations cost.":

"So…your question was how much the “renovations” cost. This is a tough question. Because the cost of our project is impacted by many factors—not all of them “green.” First of all, this is a very custom home: we’re talking things like very custom millwork and a 10K custom hand-crafted glass mosaic breakfast bar and a cupola and custom-made metal stairs. Things like that. Also, we chose very nice features—not necessarily always just the affordable option. Secondly, this was a demonstration home which meant that it had to be built on a schedule and it had to be, well, perfect. It was going to be on show. We also paid for the services of a marketing manager, a website designer, marketing materials, educational materials, etc. Those things contributed to the cost. Thirdly our building project was, well, our building project. That is to say, we had our own special set of circumstances that impacted cost: size, location and accessibility of the lot; the fact that it was custom and required an architect; the fact that based on the location and the amount of glazing we wanted—and that little thing called a cupola--required the services of an engineering firm. We also went for 5 certifications which required the services of a green construction professional whose only job was to make sure we were meeting those requirements. That cost more money. We also had help from sponsors (no, we did not get our house for free or even close!) but that often meant that we ended up spending more $$ because we went with their products instead of really shopping around. A good example is Kohler. They were kind enough to sponsor us (which means they cut us a significant break) but demanded that they be the only plumbing supplier. And Kohler is not only expensive but installation of Kohler products is more expensive.

See what I mean? So when people ask me how much more our house cost because it is green that’s not such a straightforward question. Here’s an example: our no-VOC paint by American Pride retails for $39/gallon. We could have purchased: )a Benjamin Moore that wasn’t green for about the same price; or b) we could have purchased a much cheaper non-green option at Home Depot. So against which should I make the $$ comparison? Another example: We went with all hard-surface flooring partly due to our American Lung Association Health House requirement (and because we personally think carpet is gross!). Our bamboo, and cork, and FSC teak and Marmoleum could be considered more expensive compared to inexpensive carpet and vinyl but in terms of general quality I think they compare more to a pricier carpet option. So, again, against what are we making a comparison?

Could we have built our home cheaper by not paying attention to quality or greenness? Absolutely! But we wanted to build the house we wanted, we wanted it green and we wanted it to be good quality that would last—an important component of green building.

Sorry for the diatribe—and for not really answering your question (no, I was not a politician in a former life!) But hopefully this will help you understand the difficulty in answering your seemingly innocuous question."

Cheers!

Open House Encore

Just in case you weren't able to visit the house last fall during our public tour days, you can join us this Sunday, June 4, 1:00-4:00 p.m. for an open house encore. The address is: 19126 Soundview Dr NW, Stanwood, WA. Please know that parking is limited and we appreciate you being respectful of our neighbors' driveways and yards! Thanks!

Almost Famous

Dear Readers:
Okay...we just have to take a moment to toot our horn! On June 5 at about 6:00 p.m. our beautiful Going Green home will be featured on a new program, Renovation Nation on the new Discovery Planet Green channel. This is very exciting and quite an honor for us. We, of course, look for every opportunity to spread the green word so getting onto TV will be a big boost for the project--and ultimately green building and living. Be sure to tell your friends and neighbors about our show and all the other ones coming up on this new channel. We look forward to your comments about the show...and anything else!

Slippery When Wet!

Okay...we promised to be honest in our reporting so here goes: we love our FSC-certified Tigerwood decking but must say that it can be downright dangerous when it gets wet! We've had a couple of falls ourselves and a few friends (and this was when sober!) who have slipped. We've had some discussions with others about the issue looking for a solution and so far nothing really satisfactory.

One idea was to put on a clear-coat (obviously earth-friendly) finish with some sand or other type of grit in it. The problem here is two-fold: 1) this eliminates the low-maintenance feature of letting the wood age naturally without refinishing; and 2) as the finish wears off--in the higher traffic areas--the grit will get carried into the house.

Another, even less desirable solution, was to attach adhesive tread strips to the steps and deck. Of course, besides the obvious downside--not very attractive!--these also have a tendency to come "unstuck" within a short time making them even less attractive and presenting a whole other tripping hazard!

We're still investigating this. Any suggestions from you, dear readers, would be most welcome!

What An Adventure!

Blog entry from Dave Porter April 2008

Design Elements: I have looked for design and space issues and frankly can’t find any. Every room is used and often. I don’t believe there is a room we feel is unneeded. We’ve had groups of 50 plus in the home and obviously there are “traffic” issues when you have that many visitors. but each room feels right.

Function of Components:

Chaffey did an amazing job of building this home. It's hard enough to build a custom home but building a custom green home--one of the greenest homes in the NW--and now you have a really big challenge! Then you add the fact that this house was built by committee and in a "fish bowl" making this demonstration home a feat to pull off! But we did it and it was exceptional. The last days before the public open started were crazy; we were working on getting the Certificate of Occupancy, staging the home, doing landscaping, setting up sponsor displays all at the same time. I counted 23 vehicles in front of the one at one point in the last days.

After occupying the home, we had several weeks of frustration when the geothermal system was not performing for us. Everyone kept after the problem and at one point I felt that perhaps the system was simply inadequate for the needs of the home. What EarthHeat discovered (to their credit) was the Hydron had too much refrigerant in the system which was not circulating as it needed to and therefore was locking out the system. Simply removing some of the refrigerant was the key and the system is now working perfectly.

Reporting Performance:

Perhaps our biggest disappointment is in regards to our overall electricity use. During the winter we have averaged $300 per month, although compared with other homes nearby–not built to these standards–our costs were lower. We had hoped with the advanced features that we’d save a ton but it seems not to be the case. Below is a breakdown of electricity charges. Keep in mind that we officially began living in the home on November 11. Also, part of our reality is that we have a hot tub (albeit with a high-energy efficiency cover). On the plus side, this is probably our only big electricity hog.

Billing Date	kWh	Price	cost
12/3/2007	207	$0.077	$15.95
12/3/2007	6,223	$0.08	$498.28
2/5/2008	7,519	$0.08	$602.05
4/2/2008	6,279	$0.08	506.14

We had believed we were putting in high efficiency 200 kWh solar panels but later were told they were only 165 kWh panels. Solar production will become more relevant as we enter the summer. The Outback inverter seems to be working fine. Here's how we're doing with generating power on our production meter:

Billing Date	kWh
12/3/2007	32
2/5/2008	30
4/2/2008	100

We're moving now! Hopefully as there are more daylight hours we'll continue to see these numbers rise.

Just because, we're also including our propane usage. Remember that we use propane for our: range, fireplaces, and tankless hot water heaters:

Billing Date	Gallons	Price/gal	Amount
12/31/2007	117.5	2.259	265.43
1/31/2008	74	2.399	177.53
2/29/2008	122.2	2.399	293.16

Having said all this, it's pretty tough to gauge anything after only a couple of months. Also, we have little to compare to but we'll try to find some other homes to compare to.

Awareness Update:

The project received the Green Hammer Award on March 13^{th 2008}. Cheri Westphal of Northwest Property Imaging advised us that over 12,000 unique visitors have been to the webpage. The home continues to be open to various groups. We have also conducted some Realtor Ongoing Education classes with more scheduled. And we've been written up in various magazines, online newsletters and newspapers.

General Comments:

We are finding new ways to live green and in future blogs we will share with you ways we are changing our behaviors and buying habits. Example: we no longer have his and her cars but rather we use the car that's best for the travel needs of that day. We are also incorporating more organic products into our home and diet. At work, I helped Countrywide Home Loans to launch an incentive of a lower interest rate (.125%) for buyers purchasing green homes. It’s a pilot program in 13 NW states but has big promise.

Now, we welcome your comments and questions!

Keeping The Green Faith

Okay, being a "green" champion I can't resist commenting on the disappointing event that took place on Monday of this week. Not only did the torching of 4 of the 5 "Built Green" Seattle Street of Dreams homes do nothing to further the cause for the environment (I dare say it seriously set the cause back quite a bit!) but the short-sighted domestic terrorists clearly do not care about the environment at all! If so, they would have thought first about the effects of their actions on the environment. I can't quote any statistics, but I think its safe to say that at least hundreds of pounds of not only CO2 were released into the already stressed air around our city but most likely lots of other not-so-nice chemicals that might have been in some of the not-so-green construction products and furnishings. The other "duh" moment that missed them is that its safe to say that the homes were insured and that those homes will undoubtedly be rebuilt therefore consuming two times the amount of raw materials that the original homes consumed! And perhaps, because the builders, now not so sure that building green is the prudent thing to do (since the terrorists don't seem to be interested in torching non-green buildings) might rebuild those previously "green" homes in a conventional manner, using materials and processes that do further harm to the environment. Kudos to the "eco"-terrorists! You win the "built-dumb" award for 2008!!!