Posts from — October 2008

Anti-off-grid solar bailout

While grid connected homes now have a 30% tax rebate on all new solar installations in the recent Bailout Bill, off-grid homes are harder to finance. There is no cap on the size of the solar installation so wealthy grid-tied homeowners will receive the biggest subsidy.

Off-gridders do more than their fair share to reduce average energy consumption and the nation’s carbon footprint.

Gridded homeowners will also qualify for credits to help with the cost of installing top-efficiency windows, doors, roofs, heating and air-conditioning systems, and water heaters. (more…)

Hey everyone, I have a Miss Manners type of question and would like your honest input. Here’s the situation, I am about to be going on a 9-10 hour car ride with my brother in law, he is driving me from the DFW area across Texas to my home, he is coming to stay with us to decide whether or not he would like to live out there. Here is the quandry, I know we will not be talking solidly for the whole time, I’m not much of a talker and neither is he, oh we will talk, just not the whole time. I have a MP3 player, I don’t listen to music on it, I listen to talk shows that I have downloaded, things that I’m pretty sure he would have no interest in listening to, would it be rude to pop in my earbuds and listen to my MP3 player while we are traveling? I don’t want to exclude him or make him feel like he is interrupting something if he wants to talk, at the same time, it’s a very long drive and there will be gaps of time, where there will most likely be little chit chat and I would like to catch up on some of my shows. It’s funny, I would have no problem reading a book or working in my Sudoku puzzle book, but I can’t do that while riding in a car, it makes me nauseated. So what do you think? How would you feel if you were on a long car trip and your passenger was listening to their MP3 player with headphones, would it bother you?

I suppose I’ll just play it by ear (pun intended) and see what happens, I’ll have my MP3 player ready, I have no idea how much chit chat will be going on, and if there are long pauses and it’s clear we will not be chatting, then maybe I’ll just ask if he minds if I listen with the understanding that I can turn it off any time…

Wretha

If you want to participate in a small experiment and start on the road to improving your mind and body, before you read any more of this message, take a few minutes to write down a few goals you have (please tell me that you HAVE some goals! If not, it’s high time you did!), it can be a short list, but try to have at least 4 or 5 things on it, these can be personal, business or finance related, anything. Also write the time frame when you would like to achieve each goal, today? Tomorrow? Next week? Next month? In the next year…? Whenever…

Writing them down is important, if you choose not to write them down, and try to just remember them, the experiment may be less effective.

Now, continue reading.

A big part of survival, in any situation, has to do with your mindset, what is going through your mind? What are you thinking? Are you mentally sabotaging yourself or are you doing yourself a favor? Before you think this is sounding like new age BS, or worse, think about it, the very thoughts you are thinking, on a daily basis does have a great effect on your mind and body. Unfortunately, many of us are playing rather negative “tape loops” in our heads without even realizing it, often these are long term tape loops that you may have been playing for most of your life, for example if you find yourself exposed to someone with the flu or some other contagious malady, what are you thinking? Is it, “Wow, I’m going to get sick now…” or are you thinking, “I’m NOT going go get sick…” or “I can’t afford to get sick now…”, which one do you think will do the best and which one will do the worst for you? What if I told you that NONE of those are good thoughts? Of course you should get that the first one is the worst one, you are accepting the fact that you will get sick, the second one is just as bad, and the third one is also not good. Why you ask are 2 and 3 bad? Because they are in fact NEGATIVE, just as negative as the first one. Your brain, that wonderful organ in your head that processes each and every thought we have, and dutifully goes about making what you think into reality, in this case it computes those last 2 statements as “I’m going to get sick“ and “I can get sick“, it hears “sick” and boom, you are very likely to get sick.

How can we change this? By simply changing the statement from a negative (not, can’t, shouldn’t, couldn’t, wouldn’t…) into a POSITIVE statement (can, will, am…), like this: “I am healthy.” or “My immune system is strong.”, see how I removed the word “sick”, that is the power word here, replace it with what you WANT to have happen, “strong, healthy…” that is what your brain hears and computes. Instead of saying what you DON’T want, say what you DO want, use positives instead of negatives.

How do I know this works? I use it, and often, I use it in every part of my life, and it does work! Take a few minutes to review your goals that (I hope) you wrote down, how did you write it, is it in the positive or in the negative? Are these things you want to happen or things you don’t want to happen? If you wrote anything in the negative, now is the time to rewrite that same goal in the positive, for example, here is one of my goals written in the negative:

“I don’t want to be fat.” (brain hears and computes FAT)

Now written in the positive:

“I want to be thin.” (brain hears and computes THIN)

Now written in an even better form:

“I am healthy, I am fit.” (brain hears and computes HEALTHY and FIT)

Write what you WANT instead of what you DON’T WANT.

I’ll be writing more on this subject in the weeks to come, digest this for now, try to implement it in your day to day life, remember, you are what you think! Here is a mantra I wrote several years ago when I worked for Curves (a gym for women):

I am happy, I am healthy, I have everything I want.

another version goes like this:

I am happy, I am healthy, I have everything I need.

Either one works, I like to say both, I try to say it at least 10 times in a row on a daily basis, and say it out loud, verbally with your mouth! :) Does it work? Yes!

Wretha

Jolly green nerd You can’t jump into a sustainable energy, solar-powered, electric car, environmentally friendly lifestyle without taking the small steps to get there, Ed Begley Jr will tell a Louisiana conference this weekend.

After 38 years of taking those small steps, actor and longtime environmentalist Begley has lived that piece of advice.

“What I did in 1970 is all I’m asking people to try,” Begley says.

Begley will share his message of taking the small steps as keynote speaker Saturday at the Louisiana Environmental Action Network annual conference. (more…)

Why drive when you can power cycle? Most of us live in a city, and cycle paths and cycle safety training (www.publicsafetycycling.org.uk) can make the journey easier and more secure.

Many see the gradients on their journey as a way to boost fitness while others find it offputting, but advances in batteries mean (more…)

Everybody should try it A 72-year old woman has switched off ALL power in her home in protest at ‘crazy’ energy bills. Anne Myall refuses to use electricity in her home after receiving massive bills she claims were incorrect. The electricity company, NPower has promised her a full refund, but Ms Myall continues to live by candlelight and use a wood fire for her heating report several British newspapers.

In protest at the cost of her energy bills, Myall no longer spends her evenings watching television in front of an electric fire, instead the grandmother listens to a battery-powered radio wrapped up in bed.

She has dispensed with hot water and all her hot food comes from a local takeaway restaurant. For lunch the pensioner has been tucking into pre-cooked supermarket chicken and plenty of cold salads and both her laptop computer and mobile phone are useless because she is unable to recharge them.

She has spent more than a fortnight living a life more akin to the Victoria age after Npower sent her a series of large fuel bills.

Mrs Myall, a widow who has lived alone since the death of her husband eight years ago, said: ‘They have been bullying me and browbeating me for three years with silly, inaccurate bills upwards of £700 a quarter.

‘I only have a one-bedroom flat and I’m very economical. It’s just crazy, my electricity bill should be about £18 a quarter.’

She moved into the flat in Pocklington, North Yorkshire, three years ago and claims she was immediately hit by a bill.

Mrs Myall, a retired journalist, said: ‘I received a demand for £53 just days after arriving. I have tried many times to contact Npower with no success. I even got one bill for £758.

‘I’m often away in the winter and I never turn my heating on so I feel that they have just been using guesswork based around an incorrect meter reading they took when I moved in.’

The final straw came when Npower staff replaced her old meter system with a pre-payment system while she was abroad.

Unhappy that the work was undertaken without her knowledge, she felt the new meter used more energy than the old system and decided to pull the plug.

Protest: The widow has restored to living without modern comforts in her one-bed home She said: ‘It’s amazing how one can manage, I can’t believe how well I feel for doing this. The biggest loss is being able to eat fresh vegetables because I love them but I’m getting by with eating salad.

‘I love reading so I’m not really missing the TV, although I do miss my hot water bottle and I’m now looking for a gas camping stove. I’ve not been able to run my computer or recharge my mobile phone either.’

She added: ‘This is really a protest against the energy company and the Government’s lack of will to do anything about it.

‘How Npower works out how much they charge I do not know. They can please themselves and have us over a barrel.

‘If everybody switched their meter off for a week just to see what it’s like, it would send a message to these companies that they’re not untouchable.’

Npower claim Mrs Myall has an outstanding bill of £225 but have now agreed to clear the debt after hearing of her protest.

A spokesman said: ‘We will be clearing her debt as a goodwill gesture as we do not wish to see her struggle.

Yeah right.

Nick: winter in California Nick Rosen has started work on his next book “Off-Grid America.” He is currently in California meeting the eco-community. From San Diego he travels to Ukiah via the Bioneers conference San Rafael — then up to Ashland, Oregon.

As belts tighten across the continent Nick is also filming a documentary about how going off-grid can help you survive the credit crunch. Its all about freedom – and combining new technology with ancient wisdom,” he says.

you can contact Nick to be included in the research, or make any suggestions. Call 1-877-706-7423 or write to nick@off-grid.net. The book will be published Sumer 2010 and the film will be released around the same time.

… that you might not know about me. I have decided to start a list of 100 things you might not know about me, the plan is to write something once a week, no promises on the frequency, but I’ll do my best. I have been thinking about this for about a week, the first thing on my list needs to be a good one, as I sit here, at my Dad’s house, watching my favorite weekend PBS shows, I have to choose this is the first on the list of 100 things. I like watching Britcoms. It’s something I have enjoyed for many years, in no particular order, here are my favorites:

• Are You Being Served
• Are You Being Served Again
• Mulberry
• Keeping Up Appearances
• Only Fools And Horses
• The Vicar Of Dibley
• Yes, Minister
• Yes, Prime Minister
• Mr. Bean
• Black Adder
• The Thin Blue Line (it’s OK, that’s the best I can give it)
• Fawlty Towers
• The Young Ones (yes, I know, but it’s good for a laugh…)
• ‘Allo ‘Allo (I didn’t like this one at first, the second time around it grew on me)
• The Royle Family
• Open All Hours
• Dad’s Army
• Last Of The Summer Wine (I’m watching this one as I type)
• Red Dwarf
• Father Ted
• Coupling (another one I didn’t like at first, but grew to like it)
• Supernova (a fairly newish one)
• As Time Goes By (a particular favorite)
• Chef! (yet another I despised at first, but it became another favorite)
• Goodnight Sweetheart
• Kiss Me Kate
• To The Manor Born
• Waiting For God
• My Hero
• Good Neighbors (also called “The Good Life”)

Wow, I didn’t realize the list was so long until I started listing them, some of these shows air frequently on PBS, some I have only seen one season’s worth. Bob and I used to watch several Britcoms together, it was one of our weekend rituals, he tells me that he really didn’t care for most of them, but he enjoyed “our time” watching them together, that made it all the more special to me. Some of the ones he liked were Keeping Up Appearances and As Time Goes By.

Sitting here watching Britcoms is a bittersweet activity for me, we don’t get Britcoms in our new life, while it’s fun to watch them again, but it would be so much better if Bob were here, sitting next to me, enjoying all of these shows. :)

So there, that’s my first of 100 things you might not know about me, but now you do. :)

Wretha

Click here for more of 100 Things

Photo: Visitors explore the back yard of the Wired LivingHome in Los Angeles. The $4 million prefabricated house has an automated energy system.

Photo: Wired magazine was a sponsor of the Wired LivingHome. The eco-conscious house’s goal was to show green as high-tech, not hippie.

The New York Times photos by Stephanie Diani

NEW YORK

When actors Alysia Reiner and David Alan Basche embarked on a renovation of their four-story, 5,000-square-foot row house in Harlem two years ago, they did not intend for it to become a show house. But a chance meeting with Michela O’Connor Abrams, the president and publisher of Dwell magazine, led to a Web chronicle of the job on dwell.com, and turned the renovation into a marketing vehicle for manufacturers of environmentally conscious products and a chance for the couple to evangelize on green building.

In Web videos seen by some 268,000 viewers, according to Dwell, Basche, who played Todd Beamer in the film “United 93,” installs radiant floor heating to save money, as Reiner recaps how she picked through metal, wood and Sheetrock refuse from the demolition — which Basche did himself — to recycle it. During an open house sponsored by Dwell last year, 700 people toured the home, learning about its native plant garden and walls coated in plaster made from recycled marble dust and pulverized seashells.

“The building of our home became an opportunity to teach,” said Reiner. “When you build a house, you learn so much that you never get to use again.”

In letting their home function as both a laboratory and a marketing device, Reiner and Basche, it turns out, are not unique. Green show houses, sponsored by magazines, nonprofit groups and developers, are appearing across the country, spreading a message about environmentally conscious building to designers, builders and home buyers, and helping to sell building products.

Environmentalism may turn out to be the biggest thing to hit the construction industry since aluminum siding. By 2012, green building could be a $20 billion business, up from roughly $2 billion, according to a National Association of Home Builders’/McGraw Hill market forecast. But some builders are unfamiliar with the new materials and how to use them. And buyers may not know enough about them to request them.

“We read about it, we hear about it, but nobody’s really telling us how to do it,” said Greg Olson, a former contractor who develops the curriculum for continuing education courses, including a class on green building, at Kaplan Professional Schools in St. Paul, Minn.

\ Changing behavior

Creators of the new show houses hope that their projects will showcase practices that support the basic tenets of green building: clean indoor air, energy and water efficiency, and recycled or locally produced materials.

“Changing the behavior of one builder is quite honestly changing the behavior of dozens of home buyers,” said Dana Bres, a research engineer at the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development, a sponsor of the Concept House, an Omaha, Neb., show house that opened in June.

Suppliers of building materials and designers are eager for exposure, especially on high-profile projects like the Dwell-sponsored townhouse. In exchange for their association with the magazine, Reiner and Basche received free products from companies such as Kohler (a dual-flush toilet, with different water flow rates for solid and liquid waste), NYLoft (Maistri laminate cabinets with formaldehyde-free glues) and Runtal (radiators for a rental apartment on the ground floor of the building, where they couldn’t afford radiant heating). The couple advertised on Craigslist for someone to design their office in exchange for the publicity, and a group of Pratt industrial design students called Collective/4 offered their services.

“It’s all mushed together — altruism and the potential to market new products,” said Stephen Drucker, the editor in chief of House Beautiful magazine, of the new show houses. Some developers also are focusing their attention on design students. On an unseasonably warm day in October, eight interior design students in their 20s were given a tour of a pair of townhouses being built in Brooklyn with a hybrid solar-thermal/gas-fired climate control system, cork and stone flooring, recycled glass countertops and sorghum stalk kitchen cabinets. The houses are a joint project of R&E Brooklyn, a developer, and the Brooklyn-based green building supply company Green Depot.

“Oh, this is Warmboard,” said Jen Insardi, 27, a student from Parsons the New School for Design, stepping over an exposed sheet of aluminum-and-plywood subflooring used for radiant heating.

Natural Home magazine named the houses their own 2007 Show Houses and is designing the interior for one home. Wired magazine was a sponsor of the Wired LivingHome in Los Angeles last year. The $4 million modern prefabricated house has an automated energy-and-water regulation system and black solar panels — showing green as high-tech, not hippie.

\ Learning laboratory

At the Brooklyn townhouses, Insardi’s fellow students from Parsons’ environmental design class were invited by Sarah Beatty, the founder of Green Depot, to treat the project as a sustainable design learning laboratory. Their midterms and final exams were to design interiors for either of the homes.

“They’re going to be the ones making the decisions in 20 years,” said Beatty. “In every way that we can use this for an educational tool, it helps to drive the dialogue.” It also may help drive potential buyers and tomorrow’s designers to her store — more than 500 people, besides the students, have toured the houses.

As Rolf Grimsted, an owner of R&E Brooklyn, put it, “We had to educate consumers to want what we were starting to market and sell.”

Beatty and her partners, Grimsted and Emily Fisher, plan to put the houses on the market in 2008 for around $2.4 million a piece, a price that “seems totally doable,” according to Jessica Buchman, a vice president at the Corcoran Group. She noted that “buyers will definitely pay a premium for ground up new development.” If the development is billed as green, she added, it is “icing on the cake.”

Some green building advocates hope that their practices will catch on at the lower end of the market as well. Omaha’s Concept House is called the “Toyota of green building” by its builder, Fernando Pages. The house, which was completed in June, was designed according to what Pages called the three pillars of creating affordable green housing: flexibility (embodied, for example, by modular carpets and wireless light switches, which make remodeling and redecorating easier); construction efficiency (prebuilt window trim that takes minutes to install); and sustainability (long-lasting materials like stain- and scratch-resistant countertops and the standing seam metal roof that can survive for decades).

The house sold for $200,160, but its new owners, a librarian and a diesel mechanic, received a $99,000 grant from HUD and $1,000 from Nebraska Affordable Housing Program.

Bob Hampton, a Lincoln, Neb., developer who visited the Concept House three times, said he had used several ideas he picked up there. In the townhouses and housing facilities for the elderly he’s constructing, he used factory-framed floor, wall and roof components, which Pages said cut lumber waste from three Dumpsters’ worth to a wastebasket-full, and nontoxic soy-based spray-foam insulation. (During tours, Pages pops a little into his mouth to demonstrate that it is safe.)

To gather information for his students, Olson, in St. Paul, toured the Eco-Home, a solar-powered, doubly insulated cottage built over the last year in Duluth, Minn. The house is estimated to be three times more energy efficient than an average home of comparable size, according to Michelle LeBeau, the executive director of a nonprofit group called Women in Construction that built it in collaboration with a handful of public and private design and energy groups.

\ Green classroom

Before putting the house on the market, LeBeau insisted on keeping it open as a classroom for a year. “We took every aspect of the house and broke it down into dollars and cents,” she said. “We can say, ‘This is what doing a double-studded wall with 9-inch insulation will cost you; this is the cost of adding a solar-electric array. And this is the cost of fiberglass triple-pane windows.’” She estimated that the house cost $20 more per square foot to build than a comparable non-green one.

While the Brooklyn homes will sell to the highest bidder, LeBeau has set a $445,000 cap on the Eco-Home, a figure at the high end of the current market. As an affordable housing developer, she said, she doesn’t want to inflate other property values in the development.

In many ways, today’s green show houses recall the Homes of Tomorrow that were introduced at the 1933 World’s Fair and became a popular way of showcasing new technologies. Some of the early ones — dishwashers and central air conditioning — caught on; others, like baked enamel siding and personal airplane hangars, didn’t.

Drucker said he suspected that with the new show houses, the message would move virally. “They will build these houses. Their friends will come and be in these houses, and they’ll want a little piece of it, and that’s how it spreads through the culture.”

Drucker said he never really appreciated the benefits of green building until House Beautiful moved into Norman Foster’s hyper-green Hearst Tower in 2006. The office building is outfitted with sensors that adjust lighting according to the amount of daylight. It harvests rainwater from the roof and has formaldehyde-free furniture and low vapor paints and sealants.

Consequently, he said, he never suffered what he called a “new building” headache — the kind that arises from off-gassing finishes and furnishings like vinyl floors or standard paints.

Green building “actually can affect how you feel,” Drucker said. But until he had the opportunity to experience it for himself, he added, it “was just a lot of words.”