the it house

no, not like the it girl. like the inconvenient truth house.

beyond making the house--whether it ends up being our current house or another house that we remodel--one we love and the project one we enjoy, i have two other goals for the house: making it as accessible as possible and making it (and the remodeling process) as green as possible. as happens so frequently when i have a project in my head (and i'm sure this is common), i found myself thinking about ways that this related to the movie we saw yesterday. when the credits rolled, interspersed with ways we could help (beautifully done, by the way), i couldn't wait to get home to check out the web site to find out more. i was happy to find that the site is fabulously unpreachy and informative--what a perfect combination for motivating and helping people :) so i've been making notes about how to incorporate some of these things into the remodel, as well as other aspects of our lives, toward that second goal of greenness.

• replace our incandescent light bulbs with compact fluorescent bulbs, saving 300 pounds of co2 annually. totally doable. i'm sure costco sells these, and they'll easily store in the basement.
• move the thermostat down two degrees in winter and up two degrees in summer, saving 2,000 pounds of c02 annually. we currently try to keep our heat down low in winter, and actually had to turn it on longer than we'd wanted when the tenants complained this year. no tenants will mean we'll be in control of that. and a central system will hopefully be easier to control. we try to be sparing with the two room air-conditioning units, too. and i anticipate using open windows much more often on the upper floors; i hesitate to use them now because we're on a vulnerable first floor. :-\
• clean or replace filters on our furnace and air conditioner, saving 350 pounds of co2 annually. we totally need to do this now. here's an article on cleaning or replacing a furnace filter.
• install a programmable thermostat. we could do this now, but with my weird work schedule (working at home many days, but not the same days every week), i'm not sure this is right for us. will have to investigate the options. here's an article about how to do it.
• choose energy-efficient appliances. fortunately, our washer , dryer , and dishwasher are all energy-star compliant and were the most energy- and water-efficient models available on the market at the time that we bought them. we plan to replace the range and refrigerator when remodeling the kitchen. the refrigerator i was planning for doesn't say anything about being energy star compliant on its web page :( which would really suck, because i really like it. the range doesn't either, but from what i can tell at the energy star web site, they don't make specs for them. i guess because you only turn the burner on when you cook and off when you're done? i dunno. that seems kind of elementary.
  interestingly, energy star also says that whatever kind of fridge you have, you can reduce energy usage if it's away from a heat source, such as an oven, dishwasher, or direct sunlight. good to know when laying out the new kitchen.
• wrap our water heater in an insulation blanket, saving 1,000 pounds of co2 annually. here's an article about how to do it.
• set the water-heater thermostat no higher than 120 degrees fahrenheit, saving 550 pounds  of c02 annually. here's an article about doing this.
• install low-flow shower heads in our new showers, saving 350 pounds of c02 annually. i'm sure this is doable, though i'm having trouble finding any on home depot's craptastic web site (who doesn't let you open things in a new window or go back a page??), lowe's only slightly better one, or even moen's or kohler's pretty but not particularly useful ones.
• wash our clothes in cold or warm water, saving 500 pounds of c02 annually. we already wash everything in cold water, with very rare exceptions.
• use a clothesline instead of a dryer whenever possible, saving 700 pounds of c02 annually for just six months of air drying. sorry, but i'm just not that trusting. i air-dry select items on racks in the house, and maybe when we have more room, it'll be feasible to try it, but i suspect the dogs would be the culprits then. we have an energy-efficient dryer, and i'm afraid that's as much as i can offer there :(
• turn off electronic devices we're not using, saving thousands of pounds of co2 annually. we do turn these off when we're not using them, though we are definitely guilty of using many of these more than the average bear.
• unplug electronics from the wall when we're not using them. we do this with some things, like our blender, toaster oven, and hair dryers, but rarely with anything else. we'll have to learn some new habits here.
• only run our dishwasher when there's a full load and use the energy-saving setting, saving 100 pounds of co2 annually. we're pretty good about loading it up; i'll have to look at the settings. i think we usually just use the normal or regular setting, unless there's a sticky one, when we engage the pot-scrubbing setting.
• properly insulate our walls and ceilings, saving 2,000 pounds of c02 annually. this is definitely in the plans. here's an article about how to do it.
• caulk and weather-strip, saving 1,700 pounds of c02 annually. here's a pdf article about how to do this.
• recycle half the waste we generate, saving 2,400 pounds of c02 annually. we already do this, between municipal pickup of glass, plastic, and metal, and dropping off magazines and cardboard at construction junction. (god, i love that place!)
• buy recycled-paper products. we use seventh generation toilet paper. we tried their paper towels, but they were so abysmally unabsorbent that we ended up using more of them to accomplish the task that they defeated the purpose. so we returned to my beloved bounty. their tissues are inoffensive except in the worst of cold season. as for other paper products, i mostly just try to print less. i've bought recycled before; i could try to buy it more. consciously.
• plant a tree. i planted two last year. one survived; one didn't. i'm no arborist, sadly.
• get a home energy audit. this would probably be a great idea before embarking on the new insulation business! here is a directory of certified energy raters.
• switch to green power. in pennsylvania, we have a lot of wind energy sources, as well as a little biogas and solar. i am all over this! :) here is where you can find out whether you can get it.
• buy locally grown and produced foods. we get 100 percent of our produce 50 percent of the year from kretschmann farm. i didn't even know that helped the co2 problem.
• buy fresh foods instead of frozen. i buy a little frozen food, but much less than fresh. i'll try to do better now that i know it uses 10 times the energy to produce.
• seek out and support local farmers' markets. since that would add another driving trip or two (one to the market then another to get the rest of the ingredients to go with whatever i found there) to my week, i'm not sure i want to add this to my every-week to-dos. but certainly if i can combine a trip to the home depot that's next to the east liberty farmers' market, i'll absolutely try it. i love farmers' markets, and we're going to be spending plenty of time at home-improvement stores.
• buy organic foods as much as possible. i totally do this. :)
• avoid heavily packaged products. this is something of which i should become more aware. i don't really pay much attention when i'm buying things, and it hasn't really influenced my purchasing decisions, though i totally notice it when i'm opening things and throwing all that crap away. makes me nuts.
• eat less meat. i don't eat a lot of meat when i go out, but at home i eat more than i used to. i could get better at this.
• walk, bike, carpool, or take mass transit wherever possible. smartboy buses, bikes, or walks to work nearly every day. i telecommute every day that i'm able, which ranges from two to four days in an average week. when i do go in, i try to restrict driving to one day per week, when i run all of my car-requiring errands on my route home, mapped out as efficiently as i can. i take the bus the other days, and if the weather's nice, i'll walk part of the way home. the only times i've ended up driving more than one day per week is if i've missed the bus or the bus just never comes (oh, wonderful reliable patransit) and i have a meeting to get to, and the weather is just too miserable to keep waiting for another 20 minutes at the stop.
• start a carpool with our coworkers or classmates. since i go into the office so irregularly, and when i do, it's just for a few hours at a time, this isn't practical for me. and smartboy already doesn't drive. sorry :(
• keep our cars tuned up. we both do this.
• check our tires weekly to make sure they're properly inflated. yeah, i've never done it that regularly. i guess i could do it at every fillup (which isn't even every month, but it's probably the equivalent of every week for someone who drives every day). go figure.
• choose a more fuel-efficient vehicle. we chose the most fuel-efficient car in the size we needed :-\ we tried to find a way to work a hybrid into our lives, but we just couldn't. but we plan to make our second car, in a few years, be a hybrid compact. this time around, we just really needed the storage of the small suv. we try to make up for it by driving as little as possible! :)
• try car sharing. i would love to try something like this when it comes to pittsburgh. brilliant idea!
• try telecommuting. i do--and have been for many years! i love it! i heartily recommend it to anyone who can do it.
• fly less. we only fly transcontinentally and internationally, pretty much. still undecided about whether to fly when i visit jen in minneapolis. if i do, i think i'll offset the flight.

Comments

Fantastic post. Anyone can buy either green power itself or "green tags" that pay for it in effect. See "Your Electric Choices" at www.green-e.org.

Regards,
Tom Gray
American Wind Energy Association
www.awea.org
www.ifnotwind.org

Posted by: Tom Gray | Sunday, 02 July 2006 at 01:03 PM

beyond making the house--whether it ends up being our current house or another house that we remodel--one we love and the project one we enjoy, i have two other goals for the house: making it as accessible as possible and making it (and the remodeling process) as green as possible. as happens so frequently when i have a project in my head (and i'm sure this is common), i found myself thinking about ways that this related to the movie we saw yesterday. when the credits rolled, interspersed with ways we could help (beautifully done, by the way), i couldn't wait to get home to check out the web site to find out more. i was happy to find that the site is fabulously unpreachy and informative--what a perfect combination for motivating and helping people :) so i've been making notes about how to incorporate some of these things into the remodel, as well as other aspects of our lives, toward that second goal of greenness.

• replace our incandescent light bulbs with compact fluorescent bulbs, saving 300 pounds of co2 annually. totally doable. i'm sure costco sells these, and they'll easily store in the basement.
• move the thermostat down two degrees in winter and up two degrees in summer, saving 2,000 pounds of c02 annually. we currently try to keep our heat down low in winter, and actually had to turn it on longer than we'd wanted when the tenants complained this year. no tenants will mean we'll be in control of that. and a central system will hopefully be easier to control. we try to be sparing with the two room air-conditioning units, too. and i anticipate using open windows much more often on the upper floors; i hesitate to use them now because we're on a vulnerable first floor. :-\
• clean or replace filters on our furnace and air conditioner, saving 350 pounds of co2 annually. we totally need to do this now. here's an article on cleaning or replacing a furnace filter.
• install a programmable thermostat. we could do this now, but with my weird work schedule (working at home many days, but not the same days every week), i'm not sure this is right for us. will have to investigate the options. here's an article about how to do it.
• choose energy-efficient appliances. fortunately, our washer , dryer , and dishwasher are all energy-star compliant and were the most energy- and water-efficient models available on the market at the time that we bought them. we plan to replace the range and refrigerator when remodeling the kitchen. the refrigerator i was planning for doesn't say anything about being energy star compliant on its web page :( which would really suck, because i really like it. the range doesn't either, but from what i can tell at the energy star web site, they don't make specs for them. i guess because you only turn the burner on when you cook and off when you're done? i dunno. that seems kind of elementary.
  interestingly, energy star also says that whatever kind of fridge you have, you can reduce energy usage if it's away from a heat source, such as an oven, dishwasher, or direct sunlight. good to know when laying out the new kitchen.
• wrap our water heater in an insulation blanket, saving 1,000 pounds of co2 annually. here's an article about how to do it.
• set the water-heater thermostat no higher than 120 degrees fahrenheit, saving 550 pounds  of c02 annually. here's an article about doing this.
• install low-flow shower heads in our new showers, saving 350 pounds of c02 annually. i'm sure this is doable, though i'm having trouble finding any on home depot's craptastic web site (who doesn't let you open things in a new window or go back a page??), lowe's only slightly better one, or even moen's or kohler's pretty but not particularly useful ones.
• wash our clothes in cold or warm water, saving 500 pounds of c02 annually. we already wash everything in cold water, with very rare exceptions.
• use a clothesline instead of a dryer whenever possible, saving 700 pounds of c02 annually for just six months of air drying. sorry, but i'm just not that trusting. i air-dry select items on racks in the house, and maybe when we have more room, it'll be feasible to try it, but i suspect the dogs would be the culprits then. we have an energy-efficient dryer, and i'm afraid that's as much as i can offer there :(
• turn off electronic devices we're not using, saving thousands of pounds of co2 annually. we do turn these off when we're not using them, though we are definitely guilty of using many of these more than the average bear.
• unplug electronics from the wall when we're not using them. we do this with some things, like our blender, toaster oven, and hair dryers, but rarely with anything else. we'll have to learn some new habits here.
• only run our dishwasher when there's a full load and use the energy-saving setting, saving 100 pounds of co2 annually. we're pretty good about loading it up; i'll have to look at the settings. i think we usually just use the normal or regular setting, unless there's a sticky one, when we engage the pot-scrubbing setting.
• properly insulate our walls and ceilings, saving 2,000 pounds of c02 annually. this is definitely in the plans. here's an article about how to do it.
• caulk and weather-strip, saving 1,700 pounds of c02 annually. here's a pdf article about how to do this.
• recycle half the waste we generate, saving 2,400 pounds of c02 annually. we already do this, between municipal pickup of glass, plastic, and metal, and dropping off magazines and cardboard at construction junction. (god, i love that place!)
• buy recycled-paper products. we use seventh generation toilet paper. we tried their paper towels, but they were so abysmally unabsorbent that we ended up using more of them to accomplish the task that they defeated the purpose. so we returned to my beloved bounty. their tissues are inoffensive except in the worst of cold season. as for other paper products, i mostly just try to print less. i've bought recycled before; i could try to buy it more. consciously.
• plant a tree. i planted two last year. one survived; one didn't. i'm no arborist, sadly.
• get a home energy audit. this would probably be a great idea before embarking on the new insulation business! here is a directory of certified energy raters.
• switch to green power. in pennsylvania, we have a lot of wind energy sources, as well as a little biogas and solar. i am all over this! :) here is where you can find out whether you can get it.
• buy locally grown and produced foods. we get 100 percent of our produce 50 percent of the year from kretschmann farm. i didn't even know that helped the co2 problem.
• buy fresh foods instead of frozen. i buy a little frozen food, but much less than fresh. i'll try to do better now that i know it uses 10 times the energy to produce.
• seek out and support local farmers' markets. since that would add another driving trip or two (one to the market then another to get the rest of the ingredients to go with whatever i found there) to my week, i'm not sure i want to add this to my every-week to-dos. but certainly if i can combine a trip to the home depot that's next to the east liberty farmers' market, i'll absolutely try it. i love farmers' markets, and we're going to be spending plenty of time at home-improvement stores.
• buy organic foods as much as possible. i totally do this. :)
• avoid heavily packaged products. this is something of which i should become more aware. i don't really pay much attention when i'm buying things, and it hasn't really influenced my purchasing decisions, though i totally notice it when i'm opening things and throwing all that crap away. makes me nuts.
• eat less meat. i don't eat a lot of meat when i go out, but at home i eat more than i used to. i could get better at this.
• walk, bike, carpool, or take mass transit wherever possible. smartboy buses, bikes, or walks to work nearly every day. i telecommute every day that i'm able, which ranges from two to four days in an average week. when i do go in, i try to restrict driving to one day per week, when i run all of my car-requiring errands on my route home, mapped out as efficiently as i can. i take the bus the other days, and if the weather's nice, i'll walk part of the way home. the only times i've ended up driving more than one day per week is if i've missed the bus or the bus just never comes (oh, wonderful reliable patransit) and i have a meeting to get to, and the weather is just too miserable to keep waiting for another 20 minutes at the stop.
• start a carpool with our coworkers or classmates. since i go into the office so irregularly, and when i do, it's just for a few hours at a time, this isn't practical for me. and smartboy already doesn't drive. sorry :(
• keep our cars tuned up. we both do this.
• check our tires weekly to make sure they're properly inflated. yeah, i've never done it that regularly. i guess i could do it at every fillup (which isn't even every month, but it's probably the equivalent of every week for someone who drives every day). go figure.
• choose a more fuel-efficient vehicle. we chose the most fuel-efficient car in the size we needed :-\ we tried to find a way to work a hybrid into our lives, but we just couldn't. but we plan to make our second car, in a few years, be a hybrid compact. this time around, we just really needed the storage of the small suv. we try to make up for it by driving as little as possible! :)
• try car sharing. i would love to try something like this when it comes to pittsburgh. brilliant idea!
• try telecommuting. i do--and have been for many years! i love it! i heartily recommend it to anyone who can do it.
• fly less. we only fly transcontinentally and internationally, pretty much. still undecided about whether to fly when i visit jen in minneapolis. if i do, i think i'll offset the flight.