Green House, Good Life

Happy Earth Day

2013-04-22T06:00:00.000-05:00

It's been a while, hasn't it?

I'm forcing myself out of my inadvertent sabbatical to celebrate Earth Day. Like last year, I wanted to share some new things I've started doing to be kinder to our world.

Rainwater collection. The system is mostly all installed (it was waaaaay more complicated than I had thought), and rain over the last several months has kept it full, but we're still making final tweaks and haven't needed to start large-scale watering yet this year. But I've been using chemical-free rainwater for all of my hand-watering since last fall, and with most of our landscaping fairly well established by now (it's been two years since we put most of it in), I anticipate that we will be able to cover maybe half of our watering with rainwater. Of course, that depends on rainfall, but as long as we have some this summer,....

Just in time, too, since Texas's water woes are really getting serious -- so much so that the city could ban watering altogether in the relatively near future (with an exception for rainwater).

Curbside composting. We've been composting for several years, but our neighborhood is now part of the city's year-long curbside composting pilot project. The city delivered a new kitchen bin as well as a 90-gallon cart, which is nice because I can compost things like meat that can't be composted at home.

Although I still compost bunny poop and most of our kitchen scraps in the backyard, I use the city's bin for tree branches, weeds, and other things that I wouldn't want to put in my own compost. Surprisingly, I've filled the cart nearly every week since January.

Organic fertilizer. I've never used chemical fertilizers, and the tragedy at the fertilizer plant in West, Texas, gives us another reason to avoid them (after all, they were developed after World War II out of surplus explosive material -- who wants that in our environment?!). But despite starting a compost pile before the house was even built, I hadn't really ever used much of it in the garden. This spring, I've been spreading it on the lawn to help build richer soil, and I've also been exploring other organic products to enhance the landscaping.

Milkweed. I bought two milkweed plants a couple months ago because the monarch butterflies lay their eggs on milkweed (once hatched, the caterpillars love to eat it).

Hopefully more habitat will be just the thing to restore the monarch population...although it's likely that pesticides are the real problem. So far I haven't seen any monarchs, although we did have a family of swallowtail caterpillars devour my dill plant before moving on to the Italian parsley.

I think this one is green because it's on the verge of cocooning. Or maybe just 'cause it's Earth Day. To see the progression of swallowtail caterpillars, from the teeny-tiny babies that arrived after I planted the dill to this big, happy fellow, check out this informative website.

Organic milk. After learning a bit about how dairy cows are treated, I was motivated to make the switch to organic milk because the USDA requires organic cows to get some pasture time, and I think that's worth supporting. Later, as I read The Omnivore's Dilemma (one of the most fascinating books I've ever read), I learned about myriad other ill effects of factory farming that reinforced my decision, which leads me to...

The farmer's market. My life has changed A LOT over the last year-plus (for the better!), and the confluence of a shift toward more cooking, a desire to eat more organic food, and new habits that put me in different parts of town at different times has made it easy to make the farmer's market a fairly regular part of my routine. I love all the great fresh food I find there, and I love supporting local farmers.

Free-range backyard eggs. No, we didn't get chickens, but we got a new neighbor behind us, and he has five of the happy feathered ladies. And he's very generous with their eggs. Rumor has it that he's moving away this summer, but we're enjoying it while it lasts.

So there you have it. After moving into our super-green house and then adding drought-tolerant landscaping and solar panels, I didn't think there was much more we could easily do to be greener, but we did -- and apart from the rainwater system, none of it has really taken much effort at all.

Interlude

2012-12-28T08:39:00.002-06:00

Where did the time go? I'm going to blame my recent lack of posts on a combination of travel, illness/injury (both minor, fortunately), technical issues, and work. I'm still working through the technical issues, so for now I'll just share this picture from the Napa Valley at Thanksgiving (which became our Christmas card) and wish you the happiest of new years!

(Yes, those are grape vines in the background. They're breathtaking when they turn red and gold in the fall.)

Growth Spurt

2012-11-14T21:35:00.000-06:00

Things have been pretty crazy over here lately, so not a lot has happened that's worth writing about. But there is one project that has managed to progress without any attention from us:

Over the last two months, the agave's bloom spike has grown about a foot a week:

And over the last month, the asparagus spear shape has given way to a colony of branches:

I don't know how much taller it's going to get or how many more branches will sprout, but I expect that the next big development will be flower buds on each of the little "hands":

Evolution of a Community Garden

2012-10-31T23:17:00.001-05:00

Earlier this year, while spending a few days in San Francisco (more about that here and here), I stumbled upon this more-or-less empty lot around the corner from the symphony hall:

Had the sign not identified it as a community garden, I wouldn't have known what was in store for the lot.

It was obviously still in the early stages, but it was exciting to know that a community garden was going in right in the middle of the city.

We were back in the city recently, and we passed by the same community garden, but this time it was thriving. (That's a pumpkin!)

I'm really digging the repurposed-pallet chairs.

A day or two later, I was on the bus and noticed an ad for the city's composting services. It said, "We compost in San Francisco because we love community gardens. Toss in the leftover pizza. Local gardens will thrive with the compost generated from the green bin."

The next bus I rode had another ad with the same theme, but referring to the environmental benefits of composting (specifically, that keeping organic material out of landfills reduces methane, a greenhouse gas that contributes to climate change):

San Francisco is obviously a green leader, but I'm happy to say that Austin is about to unveil curbside composting services as well. I received e-mail this week saying that my neighborhood is part of the pilot project that will start in December. I look forward to sharing all of the details as soon as I have them.

Inside Austin (Edible) Garden Tour

2012-10-25T17:18:00.000-05:00

Last weekend was the Travis County Master Gardener Association's garden tour, which I've been looking forward to since the last tour eighteen months ago (they plan it that way to alternate between spring and fall gardens). This year's tour featured edible gardens -- not necessarily traditional vegetable gardens, but mixing veggies in with other kinds of plants in the garden.

Here are some of the highlights:

I love this brick walkway.

These square beds edged in stones are so simple!

This horseshoe shape may be appearing in our yard...someday.

We'd never seen this fun fall plant before (Gregg's mistflower), but it was everywhere.

Apparently butterflies like it, too.

Although our weather lately has been confusing a lot of plants, the fall aster seemed to know it was autumn.

I hope our front walkway turns out as well as this one.

One of the stops on the tour was the Travis County Master Gardener offices. Among all of the interesting plants and veggies they have growing (including the stone-edged beds above) was this lacey oak -- the same variety we planted in our front yard.

I was happy to see a lot of autumn joy sedum on the tour...

...and yes, the silence of growing things is lovely, indeed.

Landscape Design Before and After

2012-10-14T20:20:00.000-05:00

This spring my friend Michelle asked me to help her redo her front yard. I did some drawing, we did some shopping, she and her husband did some planting...and the rest is history.

Before:

After:

After a couple of drafts and meetings with Michelle, we finalized the plan, which uses all native and/or drought-tolerant plants:

They were waiting until summer ended to plant the crape myrtle at the left corner of the house, and now they have a newborn, so I'm not sure when that's going to get done (soon, if I can help it), but even without it, the yard is vastly improved.

This...

became this...

I think my favorite part is the lamb's ear/lavender/gaura mix along the sidewalk. Or maybe the roses, which anchor both corners of the lot. I would have loved to raise the bed along the sidewalk with a 1-2' tall retaining wall, but that would have blown the budget. However, Michelle ended up finding a bunch of free limestone, so she did put in a small retaining wall after all.

We removed the "horrible bush" that was (mis)placed to conceal two tiny electrical boxes:

It's been replaced by a mutabilis rose (my favorite kind) that will grow to disguise the boxes without totally overwhelming the yard like the horrible bush did. (It has already grown a ton since she planted it in June.)

Michelle estimates that she and her husband spent about $3,500 on their new yard, including an irrigation system with sprayers for the lawn area and drippers in the beds. Based on my experience with the cost of landscaping, this would probably have cost about $10,000 if she had hired it out, so I'd say it was well worth the effort to do themselves.

A Fly Ash Foundation

2012-10-11T07:12:00.000-05:00

The foundation was poured last week at the new house around the corner, and while it may look grey, it's as green as the rest of the house.

What makes it a green foundation is the use of fly ash in the concrete. Fly ash is a by-product of burning coal, so it's readily available as long as coal-fired power plants are still operating, and using it in concrete saves raw materials, energy, water, and landfill space. According to Austin Energy's fly ash fact sheet, it also reduces pollution, makes concrete easier to pour, and results in a stronger final product than plain old cement.

We first learned about fly ash back in 2009, when we attended Austin Energy's Green by Design workshop. Upon hearing about it, I thought we were going to have to ask for this exotic new kind of concrete, but apparently it's pretty much how foundations are made these days. (And sure enough, we didn't get green building points for ours. That's how you know that a "green" practice has become mainstream or is required by current building codes -- it doesn't qualify for green building points, since there's no other legal or practical way to do it.)

With the foundation complete, framing is underway, and I dare say Mr. and Mrs. Austin Cubed (also known as Bubba and Mrs. Bubba) are as excited to see their house begin to take shape as we were nearly three years ago when ours was at this stage.

A Foot a Week

2012-10-02T14:43:00.003-05:00

My estimate, based on online research, that the agave's bloom spike would grow about a foot a week has proven pretty accurate.

Here it was two weeks ago, when I first discovered the bloom spike:

And last week:

And, once again, today:

And as an artsy close-up:

And, for kicks, looking like a palm tree (the same picture, but upside-down):

Although the blooming portends death for our beloved agave, I have learned that the bloom-and-die process could stretch out as long as a year. So, although I won't bore you with updates every other week, there should be plenty of time to document this miracle of the plant world.

Singing in the Rain

2012-09-30T20:17:00.001-05:00

With the rainwater collection system's inlet piping complete, we've been waiting for a good rain to test it out. That rain came this weekend.

I am happy to report that the cistern is now about three-fourths full.

And the piping seemed to work pretty much exactly as it was supposed to. Rain flowed down from the roof, into the gutters to the downspouts, through the underground lines, back up the inlet piping, into/across the first flush device, and then into the tank.

(Yeah, we still have the old rainbarrel set up next to the new downspout. It's nearly full and has been serving all of our watering and cleaning needs throughout this never-ending project.)

(And yeah, the yard is still a torn-up mess.)

(And yeah, the gravel area is, too.)

We did detect some leakage in the pipes, but it was all above-ground, and it's nothing that can't be fixed. The nozzle on the first flush was too big, allowing a steady stream of water to escape instead of a gentle trickle.

The first flush kit came with several drippers in different sizes, so it was no big deal to swap it out for a smaller one. The larger cap (just upstream of the black nozzle) also had a pretty serious leak, but a few inches of Teflon tape will take care of it.

The cleanouts that we put at the base of each downspout (plus two more underground) need some Teflon tape, too. Cleanouts aren't usually under pressure, so they're not made to be totally watertight.

Although it would have been nice to fill the cistern in one rain event, I'm actually pretty glad it didn't fill completely. The one part of the piping related to getting water in that isn't finished is the overflow drain. Currently there's just a 90-degree turn coming out of the tank...and then nothing.

An overflow situation this weekend would have made a big, muddy mess. Now that we're six or seven feet closer to full, the overflow piping just made it to the top of the to-do list.

Detached Garages Are Green

2012-09-26T09:21:00.000-05:00

Construction on the new house around the corner is starting to pick up. Some of this has been going on:

And then this:

The garage foundation was poured yesterday, with the remainder of the foundation scheduled for the end of the week. Why was the garage poured separately from the rest of the house? Because they're on opposite sides of the lot (that's the garage at the top left of the Lego lot).

And that leads us to a green building principle that we weren't able to implement at the Green House: the detached garage.

Detached garages are green for multiple reasons. First, we tend to store chemicals (paint thinner, fertilizer, gasoline in a gas-powered lawnmower, etc.) in the garage, so it's good to keep them far away from where we live. And then there are the cars themselves. A surprising number of carbon monoxide poisoning cases (including deaths) result from cars being left on in garages. Even a car that is turned off continues to emit fumes until it cools down. Similarly, a gas water heater in an attached garage can send toxins into the house if it's not properly vented or if it malfunctions. And although the wall between a house and the garage should be treated like an exterior wall, it's often the leakiest wall in a house, so when you turn on the range vent or a bath fan, the negative pressure created by the outflow of air will likely lead to that chemical-laden garage air being sucked into the house. (Although we don't keep much in the way of chemicals in the garage, I still detect a faint odor of exhaust every time I open the door from the house to the garage.)

And then there's the risk of fire. In the last few years, I've heard about two random car fires at workplaces (presumably from wiring issues). There was also a tragic car fire in Austin recently due to a manufacturer's recall that wasn't addressed -- the fire took place at night, spread to the house, and killed some of the home's occupants.

Have I convinced you that garages are bad news? And yet we still opted for one. There were two reasons for that. First, when we found these plans online, we were instantly sold on the aesthetic (we ended up buying the CAD files and hiring a local designer to change pretty much everything behind the front facade). And second, once we dug into our deed restrictions, we discovered that detached garages, like garage apartments and duplexes, are forbidden. Weird, I know.

Austin Energy's green building program will award a point for various venting systems in a garage to deal with the fumes, two points for thermally separating and sealing the garage from the living space (we did this), and three points for a detached garage. My buddy Bubba (owner of the Lego Palace) and his wife will count those three points among many, many others on their way to a five-star rating.

All this talk about detached garages reminds me of a conversation I had early in our own design process. I had called a well-known green architect (prior to meeting the designer we ended up hiring) and made the mistake of asking if he would be willing to work with those plans I had found online. He was very clear about his feelings on stock plans, first telling me that attached garages aren't green. When I informed him that our deed restrictions don't allow for a detached garage, he said that a two-story house would be greener than one story. When I told him we also had a deed restriction against two stories, he shifted gears and mocked the concept of a mudroom, saying that we no longer need a room to take off our overalls when we come in from the fields. I told him that, as triathletes, we were actually really looking forward to a place to store gear, rinse wetsuits, and take off wet/sweaty/muddy clothes. It was clear that this was not an architect-client love connection. Ironically, though, our builder has built houses designed by this architect's firm and incorporated some of his (very good and very green) specifications and building practices into our home. So we ended up with the benefit of that architect's experience and knowledge without actually working with him. Win, win.

Rainwater Harvesting Update #1635

2012-09-23T18:21:00.000-05:00

The rainwater collection system hit a milestone this weekend. All of the pipes connecting the gutters to the cistern are connected, so the next rain will (finally!) collect in the cistern.

I'm happy with how the downspouts turned out. I had tried to use 3" pipe, transitioning to the 4" lines underground, but I couldn't find the right pieces in anything but the very heavy, unwieldy Schedule 40 (we're using the thinner, lighter SDR-35), so eventually I decided to go with 4" pipe. Although the downspouts are more conspicuous than they would be in 3" pipe, I like them fine. Plus we plan to train a climbing rose along the middle one of these three, so it will pretty much disappear as the rose grows up around it.

We're still a long way from finished, though. Now that the system is set up to get water into the cistern, we are turning our attention to getting water back out of the cistern -- an equally complicated pipefitting process that I've been working on bit by bit along with the intake pipes.

I'd like to think we're 75% of the way finished. But we're 100% finished working in the summer heat, so hopefully that last 25% will go a lot more quickly.

The Good, the Bad, and the Agave

2012-09-18T13:58:00.001-05:00

It had to happen sometime.

My beloved agave desmettiana variegata, which I injured myself planting last year (but it was worth it because it's the focal point of the front yard), has started growing its bloom spike.

This is really exciting because bloom spikes always look awesome -- imagine this spike ten feet tall:

But it's also sad because it means the agave is going to die soon. After our long search last year for just the right agave, this is the one that's supposed to occupy that spot in our yard, and it will be hard to see it wither away after it finishes flowering.

Although I hear the bloom spike will be covered with baby agaves -- so if you're in Austin, let me know if you want one -- they won't be nearly big enough to visually anchor that side of the yard. I imagine they will be similar in size to the babies that are currently growing under it (which are about 2-4" tall):

Fortunately, we do have the larger baby that we harvested last fall.

It was just a few inches tall when I removed it (similar to the larger of the babies growing under the mama in the picture above), but now it's about a foot tall and two feet in diameter. (This picture made me think it needs more sun, so I just took it outside.) But I've been saving it to plant in the backyard after we finish the underground cistern lines, so it remains to be seen what will assume the prime spot in the front yard.

I hear the spike could grow as much as a foot a week, so for now, we're just going to sit back and enjoy the show. And when the time comes, I hope the death will be outweighed by the rebirth that will accompany it.

A Rainwater Riddle

2012-09-12T16:04:00.002-05:00

Question: If 1,000 square feet of roof surface generates 623 gallons of rainwater from a 1" rain, how long does it take to fill up a 2,500-gallon cistern?

Answer: Five months and counting.

Yes, we're still working on the rainwater collection system. We've had some delays due to city requirements, hunting down parts, and the fact that there's only so long I can work outside each day during the summer in Texas.

Although we're still a long way from finished, I wanted to share some of the details of the downspouts that we built to replace the regular metal ones. In our case, since the cistern isn't right next to the house, water will have to travel down the downspouts, underground across the yard, and back up this pipe into the tank:

(More about that in this post on the "first flush" system.)

Here's a good diagram of this type of configuration (borrowed from here):

This is referred to as a "wet system" because the underground pipes, as well as the downspouts, will hold water between rains. This kind of system uses gravity to push the water up the pipe into the tank. (If you're thinking "that's not right! Gravity makes things go down, not up," imagine rain draining into a downspout and filling up the underground pipe, then rising up the downspout. Since water always wants to find the lowest point, the downspout won't stay full if there is an empty pipe on the other end; it will climb halfway up that pipe so that the surface level is equal in both vertical pipes. Eventually both pipes will be full, and as long as the inlet into the tank is lower than the top of the downspout, water will begin to flow into the tank.) Because the downspouts have to actually hold water, they need to be watertight -- hence the need to replace the original metal downspouts with sealed PVC pipes.

So here's one of the new PVC downspouts standing at the ready:

Looking closer, you will see that we added a cleanout at the base of the downspout, just above ground level:

The square cap on the left screws off of the silver T fitting to access the pipe. Each downspout has one of these as a precaution in case they clog (although the gutters will have covers, it was easier to install these up front than to have to deal with an unexpected clog later with no way to get into the pipe). This happens to be the lower side of the lot, so it's also likely that we'll use this cleanout to drain the pipes before a freeze, but that wouldn't do anything about the water below the cleanout (the water in the underground part of the pipe), so we also put a cleanout underground in this irrigation box:

Although we still won't be able to empty it out fully, the slope of the lot will allow most of the water to flow out if necessary (either before a freeze or to drain any debris that might slip through the gutter screens and collect at the bottom of the underground pipe).

Most irrigation boxes have green covers (to blend into grass and other landscaping), but we used a purple one to denote reclaimed water. Rainwater isn't technically "reclaimed" water, but this relates to a city requirement for rainwater harvesting that I'll explain in another post.

Although we put the new downspout on the same side of the corner to maintain the clearance on that side of the house (since every inch was critical when we rented the bobcat to do our landscaping), we repositioned the outlet from the gutter to the downspout for aesthetic reasons. We didn't realize it when we decided where to put the downspout during construction, but the old positioning gave us this view from our bathroom:

So while we were replacing the downspout anyway, we called our awesome gutter guy (Lionel at Central Texas Custom Gutters) to move the spout and patch the hole from the old one. (Last year he helped us fix some mistakes from the initial installation -- which was done by a different company -- and we've been really happy with his work.) Now when we look out the window, this is what we see:

With all of the trenches and pipe installation underway, the view from most of the windows is still in the "it has to get worse before it gets better" phase, but at least this little upgrade is complete. Which makes the bathroom just a little more pleasant:

But back to the pipes....

Sustainable Indulgence in Phoenix

2012-09-04T08:10:00.000-05:00

My recent trip to Phoenix wasn't all gawking at landscaping, tearing apart a condo, and installing a Nest thermostat. I also had a vacation-within-a-vacation when I spent the last night at the Biltmore Resort.

The Biltmore was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright and/or one of his students (depending on what you read) and built in 1929, and although it's not what I expected of Frank Lloyd Wright, it was impressive. The resort's sprawling grounds contain several buildings and over 700 guest rooms, and all of the buildings share the same art deco-style textured block exteriors.

Even this slide structure at one of the resort's many pool areas tied into the theme:

Phoenix's characteristic oleanders softened the buildings' lines:

Inside the hotel, the vibe is more of a cross between arts and crafts/prairie and art deco. Here's Wright's, the restaurant where we ate during our stay:

And the more casual Frank and Albert's (Albert is one of the three brothers who built the hotel):

The resort's website boasts a lengthy list of sustainability initiatives/features, including reclaimed water for landscaping, key cards made from corn, and food scrap donation -- 800 pounds a week! -- to keep food out of landfills and avoid the resulting production of greenhouse gases.

Phoenix (Thermostat) Rising, Part II: The Nest

2012-08-29T10:13:00.001-05:00

My trip to Phoenix earlier this summer gave me the unexpected opportunity to test drive the Nest thermostat (the stylish little thermostat that saves energy by learning your habits and only turning on when necessary).

I was there to help a friend who is remodeling the 30-year-old home she recently purchased (with plans to green it up). The kitchen and all of the flooring had already been removed, so it was time to take down some walls.

Before:

After:

But midway through all of that, the air conditioner stopped working. After checking the breaker, I began to suspect that the problem might have been the thermostat. (My suspicion was based in part on sheer optimism that it wasn't the AC unit itself, and in part on the fact that the thermostat was original to the house and stopped making the clicking sound it had, until then, made every time we changed the temperature.) Although the whole air conditioning system was going to be replaced at the tail end of the remodel, I suggested that we buy a new thermostat to test my theory, but a Nest was already on hand for the HVAC upgrade, so we went with that. And since I'm the handy one of the two of us, it was all on me to make it work.

Replacing a thermostat was trickier than I expected. There were several different wires, and although they were color-coded, the colors on the old thermostat didn't necessarily correspond with colors on the Nest. Oh, and when I took the old thermostat down, it exploded into about ten different pieces, so there was no turning back.

I followed the Nest instructions to the letter (both in the manual and on the website), attached the face, and...nothing. No numbers, no lights, nothing. Could I have connected the wires wrong? Or could the original problem have been between the air conditioner and the Nest? We needed to figure it out, because if the problem wasn't the original thermostat, we were going to need a usable thermostat before calling an HVAC repair person.

So I held my breath and dialed the customer support number. I cannot say enough good things about Nest customer support. First they talked me through my installation to confirm that I had done everything correctly. (I had.) Then they walked me through the Nest's on-board diagnostics to get to the bottom of the issue. I don't totally understand it, but they determined that, paradoxically, disconnecting one of the wires would get it to work. And it did!

(The blue light at the top of the Nest is one of the motion sensors that help it to learn occupancy habits. The lights are invisible to the naked eye but somehow came through in pictures.)

Although the Nest is still being used with the old air conditioning system, it is already reducing the house's energy use. (Online access to turn it on or off helps with that.) And when the new HVAC system, foam insulation, and upgraded windows are in, things will be very efficient indeed.

Phoenix (Thermostat) Rising

2012-08-27T17:17:00.006-05:00

I spent a few days in Phoenix earlier this summer, and although it wasn't my first time to visit, I was amazed by all of the amazing (and drought-tolerant!) landscaping to be found. I'm no fan of 100-degree-plus weather, but I dare say the beauty made up for the heat. In addition to the cacti and agaves, the town was all abloom with oleander, Pride of Barbados, and even bougainvillea.

These pictures were all taken in the neighborhood where I stayed, which I recognize may not be 100% characteristic of Phoenix, but landscaping like this was all around town. And it was mostly all sun, all the time, but when the clouds rolled in, everything took on an ominous glow.

The oleanders especially surprised me, not only because I didn't expect to see them in Phoenix, but also because they're used as hedges everywhere, in a way you just don't see in Austin. Sometimes that works out pretty well...

...but in other places, they end up in spaces that are too narrow to accommodate them, and they get cut so far back that they're not much to look at...

...but in most places I saw, they looked like normal hedges (but lacked the characteristic oleander blooms):

I was also surprised by all the bunnies -- of both the fauna and flora varieties. First, the one with the white tail (one of several I saw), right in the center of this picture, facing away from the camera:

Then there was this cinnamon bunny ears cactus:

The Green House already has a regular bunny ears cactus (as mentioned here), but the cinnamon variety (named for the reddish-brown shade of the spine clusters) is less common and really special. Because cacti can sprout from a single fallen paddle, and some fallen paddles may have made it into my carry-on, cinnamon bunny ears may be making an appearance in my garden, too.

I had no idea that Phoenix would be such a showcase of drought-tolerant landscaping, but I took comfort in knowing that, even if our drought continues and Austin's trend toward desert-inspired yards continues, we won't have to totally forgo color.

By the way, Phoenix in the summer isn't ideal for a run -- I didn't even bring my shoes -- but I did manage to get a swim in, in one of the most amazing settings I've ever seen:

I still haven't mentioned why I was in Phoenix. That's coming.

And So It Begins...

2012-08-23T07:08:00.001-05:00

I've previously mentioned all of the construction going on in the neighborhood, but no project has been as exciting to me since our own as one that's just getting underway.

Right around the corner from the Green House is a lot that's been on the verge of groundbreaking for a while. I've been following its progress for about the last year, since I discovered the owner's blog, austin cubed, which is as fun to read as it is informative. After a couple of false starts on the design front, the plans are finally final, permits have been secured, and the builder has this fine, architecturally precise model to refer to should any questions arise:

(Picture shamelessly snagged, with permission

after the fact, from austin cubed.)

A modern, angular stucco-clad two-story with a flat roof and detached garage. Although, aesthetically, it couldn't be any more different from the Green House, it has two things in common with our house: (1) nearly identical square footage and (2) similar degrees of green-ness (it is expected to receive a five-star rating from Austin Energy Green Building).

Nothing too exciting is going on yet, but I was delighted to drive by this week and see the first signs of impending construction:

(Part of a fence, a sidewalk, and some trees are being removed before work starts on the foundation.)

It's been more than two years since I've written at length about our own construction process, and I look forward to this opportunity to do it again, blissfully unburdened by the stress of direct personal involvement. It's going to be an exciting 8-10 months!

Information is Truly Power Under Austin's Energy Audit Ordinance

2012-08-13T09:19:00.001-05:00

Recently I had the opportunity to write an article for Sierra Club Green Home regarding Austin's new-ish ordinance requiring energy audits before home sales (among other requirements for commercial and multi-family properties) in order to encourage owners to make energy-efficiency improvements. Excerpts from the article? Don't mind if I do:

Austin, the fourth largest city in Texas, has established a goal of offsetting 800 megawatts of peak energy demand by 2020. The city’s Energy Conservation Audit and Disclosure (ECAD) ordinance has begun to bear fruit by inserting energy-efficiency into the dialogue between buyers and sellers and between landlords and tenants.

The ordinance, adopted in 2008, requires sellers of homes over ten years old to have an energy audit performed and then provide the report to the buyer prior to sale. This enables the buyer to either request energy-efficiency upgrades as part of the transaction or to undertake them after closing. The ECAD audit addresses aspects of the property such as the condition and estimated R-value of the attic insulation, the percentage of air leakage through the duct system, and the energy-efficiency rating of the air-conditioning equipment.

Read the full article, and see more pictures (some of which you might recognize) here.

Resolution Farm

2012-08-09T14:48:00.000-05:00

After visiting two other urban(ish) farms recently (Green Gate and Boggy Creek), I was reacquainted with a tiny, extremely local urban farm: Resolution Farm.

I say "reacquainted" because we actually spent a day there early last year, when it was just a double lot with a bungalow on one side. This Google Map image shows what it looked like then (the picture above was taken from roughly the spot where the dark car is sitting on the vacant lot in the picture below):

There was an organized work day for volunteers to help till, weed, and otherwise turn the vacant half of the property into a farm, and Steve and I decided to spend the day helping out and learning some farm skills. (Indeed, it was that experience that gave us the confidence to invest in a tiller to get our own lot ready to landscape, saving us the $35/hour -- plus tiller rental -- that our landscape designer would have charged for her crew to do the work.)

Resolution Farm is a different kind of farm from Green Gate and Boggy Creek -- urban in the truest sense of the word, located right in the middle of town (just about a mile south of the Green House). It's on a half-acre piece of land, which also includes the owner's house:

Every square foot of the farm is put to use, from the rows and rows of vegetables that were going strong when I was there...

...to the herb spiral made of salvaged bricks and stone...

...to the henhouse....

...and its egg boxes...

The day I visited the farm, the owner, Randy Jewart, was giving a presentation through the Austin Energy Green Building program. Randy is deeply committed to urban farming and expressed concern that the local food movement is becoming a "gated community" due to the cost of locally grown food versus grocery store goods.

Resolution Farm has a CSA ("community-supported agriculture," memberships to receive a share of the harvest on a weekly basis), but even using volunteer labor whenever possible and charging farmers' market prices, the farm isn't financially self-sustaining. Randy has had to get creative to keep the farm afloat. One of his initiatives is Resolution Gardens, which designs and installs raised bed systems for folks wanting to grow vegetables at home. The name "5 Mile Farm" refers to the notion of establishing enough vegetable garden capacity around town (in individual yards, etc.) to roughly equal a whole farm within a five-mile radius.

Resolution Farm is fairly unique in allowing CSA members to assemble their own shares instead of giving everyone the same random assortment of whatever was just harvested. (For the $20 weekly fee, you get to choose $20 of veggies.) Still, I'm apprehensive about having to use a whole share each week, so I haven't joined the CSA. But Resolution Farm has become my go-to spot for quality in-season veggies. Their tiny multicolored beets this spring were the best I've ever tasted. (Can't beat their beets, you might say.)

I am -- and north central Austin is -- so, so lucky to have Randy and Resolution Farm in our neighborhood. Although the challenges are great, seeing what he and his team have built in the last two years gives me faith that the farm will thrive and, with it, Austin's local food community.

Green News: Financing Energy-Efficiency

2012-08-08T08:55:00.001-05:00

I've tried to avoid the subject of whether green construction increases a home's value (because I don't think the dollars tell the whole story of whether green upgrades are worth the cost). Lately, though, it's become increasingly obvious that dollar value is important because that is, of course, what financing decisions hinge on, and green homes and technology can't become mainstream until lenders (and government insurers, etc.) are comfortable investing in them. So today's green news is focused on value and financing issues -- with an inadvertent emphasis on solar because, I suppose, that's the easiest component to disaggregate.

First, hurdles to green improvements. This article from the Environmental Defense Fund explains some of the factors that go into the decision-making process regarding energy-efficiency improvement, including reasons upgrades often aren't made even when the payback seems clear. Lack of financing is one, but not the only one.

Green homes are worth more. A California study has found that homes with green designations (LEED, etc.) sell for, on average, 9% more than comparable homes without such designations. Similarly, studies in Oregon and Washington concluded that building green increases homes' value by 8-12%.

Solar payback. We tend to think about the payback period of solar panels in terms of how long it takes to save enough on utility bills to pay for the system, but there's another way to recover the cost: sell the house. This April 2011 article says that owners of homes with solar panels can expect to recoup pretty much every dollar at resale.

Emerging financial models for solar systems. Neat article explaining financing options for solar today (both residential and commercial) as well as some other models that are emerging (leased rooftop, etc.).

Vermont's colleges and universities are green. This tiny state has big ideas for financing energy-efficiency in higher education.

Group net metering. Net metering is the concept of charging utility customers with solar panels (or wind turbines) only for the power they used in excess of what they generated. It's a pretty good system, but group net metering takes the concept a step (or two) further by allowing multiple utility accounts to benefit from net metering, allowing (even encouraging) customers to work together to find the optimum location for their little power plant. This article makes the case that group net metering, which is currently allowed in just a few states, should be expanded throughout the country.

To Receive or Not To Receive (Catalogs)

2012-07-31T08:00:00.000-05:00

Austin has a goal of zero waste by 2040 (as I wrote about here), and Austin Resource Recovery (formerly Solid Waste Services, the city department responsible for garbage service) is leaving no stone unturned in that quest. Not only are they encouraging recycling, but reducing and reusing are definitely in their tool bag as well.

Earlier this year, Austin Resource Recovery partnered with Catalog Choice to make it easier for Austinites to reduce the number of catalogs they receive.

Instead of having to call each catalog's customer service number and ask to be removed from their mailing list, Catalog Choice lets you create an account and then choose all of the catalogs you want to stop receiving. So easy! (It works best if you have a catalog with you so you can enter the customer number, etc., from the back, so I add them every time I find an unwanted catalog in my mailbox.)

One of my favorite things about Catalog Choice is that the website keeps a running tally of how many trees have been saved through their efforts, as well as how much paper, water, and greenhouse gases were saved, and they also tell you how much you have saved.

So far, I've submitted 16 requests, of which 12 have been received and processed (according to the status page of my account). That translates to one tree, 234 pounds of greenhouse gases, 83 pounds of paper, and 562 gallons of water (because paper processing, like electricity, is water-intensive). Just by taking 10-15 minutes over the last few months to request less mail!

All of this is available to everyone -- free -- not just to Austin residents. (And have I mentioned how easy it is to use?)

A Smoke/Carbon Monoxide Detector Saga

2012-07-29T23:13:00.002-05:00

One night last month, just before midnight, we were awakened by one of our smoke detectors. (All of them, really, since they are interconnected (wired to go off together). And all of our smoke and carbon monoxide detectors, really, since they are designed to test for and alert us to the presence of both smoke and CO.) We stumbled around in a sleepy haze, found the offending unit, decided that its battery was bad, and, since we didn't have any spare 9Vs, pilfered one from our old plug-in CO detector. We happily went back to sleep, but two hours later it woke us up again. Since we didn't have a newer battery to try out, we just took the detector down, planning to take care of it in the morning. (There are 6 other detectors in the house, and the offending unit was in the hall between two (unused) bedrooms that each have their own, so removing it didn't pose any safety risk whatsoever.)

I didn't get a chance to buy more batteries the next day (at that point, realizing we probably hadn't ever changed the batteries, we decided to replace all seven of them), but that night the plot thickened. Around 11 pm (before we had gone to sleep, fortunately), another unit went off. We did some troubleshooting but were unable to silence it, so we took it down. Then another went off. We took it down. And so on, until five of the seven units were removed. And then we knew that it couldn't be batteries going bad, since it was incredibly unlikely that five batteries would go bad within 24 hours.

Around that time we also realized that we weren't really sure whether it was the smoke or CO part that was going off. They have a different light for each alarm and are supposed to sound differently as well, but being sleepy and without the manual in hand, we couldn't immediately figure it out. That was our first hint that the combination smoke/CO detector was perhaps not the brilliant invention we had assumed it was.

Here's where I feel like I should reiterate that, if your CO alarm goes off, you should immediately leave the house and then call 911.

But that's not what we did -- because we knew it was a false alarm.

How were we so sure? How'd we know we didn't have a legitimate CO problem? We're in the unusual situation of our only gas appliances being the fireplace and the range (the HVAC is geothermal, the water heater is electric/geothermal, and the dryer is electric), and since neither one was on, they couldn't be producing carbon monoxide. (We spent a while talking through whether a gas leak somewhere in the house could trigger the CO alarm but eventually concluded -- correctly -- that it couldn't. CO is produced through the combustion (burning) of gas, so without a source of combustion, we couldn't have CO or a CO leak.) In an overabundance of caution, we also checked that neither car was accidentally left on, since cars running in the garage can allow CO to enter the house (with lethal results), but all was good there, too. Plus, neither the standalone CO detector nor the other two hard-wired detectors had gone off even once through all of this.

We were at a loss. We replaced the batteries the next day, but the same five units promptly sounded again. So we knew it wasn't the batteries, there wasn't a fire, and we didn't have a CO leak. It seemed like it was a pure malfunction that had begun in one unit and had somehow spread to four others. I checked with our builder to see if he or his electrician had any experience with that kind of issue. Nope. I called the manufacturer's customer service line, but the person I spoke with refused to acknowledge any explanation other than that we had a CO leak. (Never mind that it had been several days by then, and we weren't dead.) He suggested that I reset all of the units and put them outside, where our CO leak couldn't possibly trigger them. All five went off within half an hour. Our builder tried calling the manufacturer, hoping to get someone with more technical expertise than the customer service representative I spoke with, to no avail. So we were left with replacing the five units.

If we had it to do over again, we would have opted for smoke-only detectors (without the CO function) in the first place and just bought two or three plug-in CO detectors to install around the house. We didn't realize that smoke detectors typically last for 10 years, but CO detectors are only good for 5 to 7 years, so we'd be looking at replacing (or at least supplementing) all seven units well before the smoke detector part would go bad. (We spec'd combination units with the intention of tying them into the security system so that 911 would automatically be alerted to a fire or CO leak, but we ended up going a different direction with the security system, and knowing what we know now about how buggy the units can be, it could definitely be problematic for the fire department to be called for every false alarm.) So when I called the manufacturer (First Alert) back to pursue replacement under the warranty, I asked if they would send me seven smoke-only detectors instead of five combination units -- and they did, so (with the purchase of a new standalone CO detector and plans to buy a replacement for our old one) our curious saga was nearing its conclusion.

But there was still the issue of disposal of the smoke/CO detectors and the old standalone CO detector. I was going to toss them in the trash, but during one of our various rounds of removing and reinstalling the old smoke/CO units, I noticed a warning about radioactive materials:

I'm not up on all of the city garbage department's rules, but I'm pretty sure plutonium is not allowed. (Just kidding. They actually contain Americium 241. But Americium is made with plutonium, and it's still radioactive.) So I googled around a bit, and although I still haven't found an answer for the smoke detectors, this ehow article taught me two interesting things: 1. Some of the pieces of the CO detector casing may be recyclable. 2. When disposing of batteries in the trash (which is fine for regular alkaline batteries), wrap them in something or otherwise keep them separate from other batteries. (If two touch, they can become "live" and heat up or even leak.) Good to know.

Coincidentally, while all of this was going on, I learned that there's just one brand of CO detector that's truly reliable. (And First Alert isn't it.) Kristof Irwin, a building science expert and the owner of Positive Energy, introduced me to CO-Experts, a pretty crazy-looking website created by George Kerr, the (rather elderly) authority on CO issues. Apparently, to be able to sell a "carbon monoxide detector," a company has to obtain the certification of the Underwriters Laboratories (UL). And apparently the UL is overly concerned about avoiding false alarms, so they will only certify units that will not sound below 70 parts per million (ppm) of carbon monoxide -- and, indeed, will only sound after one to four hours of exposure at that level. That's more or less fine for healthy adults, but according to Mr. Kerr, that level of exposure can be very dangerous for children, pregnant women, or people with health challenges. So he has developed his own unit, being sold as a "health monitor," which has a display of the exposure history that can be helpful in treating carbon monoxide exposure (although it's unlikely to be necessary, as the alarm will sound immediately, even with very low levels of exposure). It's pricey -- $249, compared to about $30 for most UL-listed units -- but I'm convinced it's worth the cost. Oh, and one more tidbit from CO-Experts: since hotels are by no means immune to CO leaks but hotel rooms rarely have CO detectors, it would be wise to bring one with you when you travel.

So that's the end of the saga. I'm still perplexed by what caused five of our detectors to fail at the same time, but I'm feeling much better about the measures we've implemented to protect us from fire and from a carbon monoxide leak. (Separately.)

Solar Magnetic Poetry

2012-07-18T21:45:00.001-05:00

Austin celebrated Solar Day last month by hosting, in connection with an IEEE Photovoltaic Specialists Conference, an expo of solar manufacturers, installers, and related businesses. Austin Energy had a booth, too, and that's where I picked this up:

This set was lacking some of the essentials -- like "is" -- but fortunately I have an old set of regular (coal-fired?) magnetic poetry that I was able to draw from to cobble together a few lines.

A haiku would have been nice, but there was too much I wanted to say, and with terms like "renewable energy" and "photovoltaics," I just don't think it was meant to be.

At First Flush

2012-07-16T08:10:00.000-05:00

When we last talked rainwater collection, I had drilled a hole in the cistern to install the bulkhead, the black plastic fitting to which I would then attach the plumbing that brings water from the gutters to the tank. (This project is teaching me lots of new plumbing vocabulary.)

So it was finally time to start attaching pipes to the tank. A vital component of any large-scale rainwater collection system is the "first flush," and since it's what actually connects to the tank, we decided to work on it next. This device catches the first of each rain before it comes into the cistern, keeping the dirtiest water (containing roof dust and any other debris small enough to fit through the gutter screening) out of the tank. This diagram shows how the first flush works:

(Image from Earth Energy Unlimited)

We bought a first flush kit from Innovative Water Solutions (an awesome local rainwater/ graywater/drainage/irrigation company whose help has been invaluable on this project):

The kit included everything except for the regular ol' plumbing pieces, which I picked up at my local plumbing shop, Crump Plumbing Supply (really knowledgeable staff, and much better prices than Lowe's). The first flush system went together in pretty much the same way as the other piping I've been working on. Here it is (before I painted and permanently attached it):

Most of the plumbing is 4" pipe, but the inlet into the tank is 3" wide, so a reducer ("bushing," I think) was necessary to make the transition. (I've been assured that this bottleneck won't interfere too much with the flow into the cistern.) The left side of the T is still open here. That's where the pipe leading into the tank will go.

At the bottom of the first flush, I added a 45 degree turn for easier cleaning. There's a hole in the rubber dripper at the bottom that lets the water in the first flush slowly drain between rains.

The bottom screws off to reveal a long plastic strainer and the round rubber stopper with a hole in it (the kit came with eight stoppers with holes of different sizes for optimal draining):

(What you can't see here is the hollow plastic ball that goes inside the pipe, as shown in the diagram above. The ball floats up in the first flush pipe as the water level rises; a bracket holds it just below the T so water can flow freely into the tank once the first flush is full of water.)

Before I could permanently attach the first flush, I needed to assemble the pipe that would bring water up from the underground lines. (I didn't want to be trying to glue pipe at the weird angles that would be required if I attached the pieces one by one.) Once that was done, I painted the whole assembly with hammered silver spray paint (to approximate the look of the tank and the metal roof)...et voila:

Next up? Put in the underground pipe between these pieces and the first downspout, then expand outward from there. We're also working on the line from the tank outlet to the pump, and I'm scouting supplies to build the pump house (we're shooting for an aesthetic similar to the house house).

Green News: Energy

2012-07-12T08:29:00.000-05:00

This week's Green News focus is on energy and energy-efficiency. Enjoy!

Groundbreaking home energy research right here in Austin. This great video summarizes Pecan Street Inc.'s research into areas including distributed (rooftop) solar, electric vehicle use, and home energy management. Based at the Mueller airport redevelopment site, Pecan Street's research is giving us a first glimpse into the impact of smart meters and how widespread adoption of electric vehicles might change our energy use habits.

Renewable energy credits for geothermal systems. Forty states have implemented renewable energy requirements for utility companies, and Maryland has just become the first to allow utilities to count geothermal systems toward these requirements.

60% of homes will have smart energy management systems by 2020? A consumer research study says so (even though less than 1% had such systems by the end of 2011).

The ins and outs of solar net metering. This New York Times article does a great job explaining the considerations surrounding the different methods of charging solar customers for their usage and reimbursing them for electricity they put back into the grid, and whether these systems are fair to regular customers.

Austin's streetlights undergoing energy-efficiency and "dark sky" upgrades. With a goal of 2015, Austin's city-owned utility has begun the process of replacing its 70,000 streetlights with flat LED light fixtures that will not only save money but also help combat urban light pollution. Although the retrofits are costing $15 million, this project will pay for itself in energy savings in three years thanks to the efficiency of LED bulbs and automation upgrades that are being implemented at the same time.

Is solar energy finally on the verge of going mainstream? Pretty detailed analysis of the cost of solar power and why it may finally be at a point of widespread adoption (including long system life, low maintenance, and minimal degradation loss). But some of the commenters question the authors' assumptions, so you'll have to draw your own conclusions.

Water is energy-intensive. Like everyone else, water and wastewater facilities are trying to reduce their energy bills, and you can help by conserving water. (Energy is water-intensive, too, but that's another topic for another time.)