Our Oak Street cottage was included in the September 2017 issue of Abode, which featured small spaces. Jeff has installed so much landscaping since this exterior photo was taken. Go take a look at this nice little community.

The post Shipshape first appeared on LATITUDE 38.

AHIP: Install a high-efficiency HVAC system. Poor indoor air quality either causes or aggravates 50 percent of all illnesses, according to many industry professionals. • Switch to LED light bulbs. A single
12-watt LED bulb used for two hours a day costs $1 per year versus costing five times as much for a 60-watt incandescent. • Check household faucets for leaks. Consider a faucet that drips 15 times per minute adds up to almost 3 gallons of water wasted per day, 65 gallons wasted per month, and 788 gallons wasted per year!

Albemarle County: Contact LEAP for your home and business efficiency needs

Appalachian Voices: Support efforts against ACP and MVP, pipelines in general. • Set-up
ride shares and push local/state government for good public transportation. • Read The Movement for Black
Lives platform on divestment from fossil fuels (https:goo.gl/RLwJSf)

City of Charlottesville: Reduce landfill waste and help plants grow naturally – compost
with the free & easy Charlottesville/Albemarle drop-off programs! (INFO: charlottesville.org/composting)
• Power Down & Unplug: find which home electronics are using energy – even when you’ve turned them “off”.
Borrow a Kill A Watt Kit from your local Jefferson-Madison Regional Library (JMRL) today! • Improving the
energy usage of your home – it’s often easier and cheaper than new windows. Contact LEAP for your Home
Energy Check Up! (available for City of Charlottesville residents only)

CvilleREA: Close the doors and windows when you have the AC or heat running. • Change
your light bulbs to LED to reduce heat energy waste and increase efficiency. • Drive electric cars. Electric is
better: safer, cheaper fuel, lower maintenance costs, and are faster, smoother, quieter.
Connections, Inc: Switch to a plant-based diet to cut your carbon footprint in half. • Shop less, share more–
join your local Freecycle group or organize a free swap shop. • Know what is in your cart! Conscious consumers
read labels and ask questions.

Cove Presbyterian Church: Switch your light bulbs to LEDs…they use only
10% of the energy of an incandescent bulb and can last a decade. • Plant natives – they know how to grow
here and are good for our winged neighbors (https:www.audubon.org/native-plants) Minimize waste: reduce;
reuse; recycle – when you “throw it away” consider where “away” is.

Feast!: Eat food grown close to home to minimize the environmental impact of transportation.
• Eat minimally processed food to minimize the environmental impact of food processing and packaging. •
Compost food scraps and return the nutrients to the earth.

Generation 180: Reduce the load of “vampire” devices in your home with power strips
and products with energy-saving features—Vampire devices can account for 12% of a home’s electricity use
on average. • Switch to LED lighting in your home—Residential LEDs use at least 75% less energy, and last
25 times longer, than incandescent lighting. • Join our Keep It Cool campaign and change energy at your community’s
doorstep this summer—learn more at www.keepitcool.org

LEAP: Call a pro (like LEAP) to come to your home and identify the smartest energy-saving investments.
• Pay attention to your energy bills. Your everyday choices affect what you pay. Aim for less! • Ask
LEAP about what clean energy rebates or incentives you might qualify for.
climate action tips

Latitude 38: Air seal your house • Increase insulation in your attic • Put only benign
cleaning ingredients down your drains • Remove formaldehyde furniture and flooring out of your home • Install
high efficiency HVAC • Install heat pump hot water heater

Pearl: Plant a tree or make a donation to an organization that will plant trees on your
behalf. • Check your tire pressure and inflate where needed. • Make your purchasing decisions count: buy
from companies that align with your cares and concerns about climate change.

The Piedmont Environmental Council: Get involved in local planning –decisions on where and
how we develop, produces reductions in the number of miles that people drive. This cuts fuel use, greenhouse
gas emissions, air pollution and traffic. • Be a good land steward —utilize more native plants, install agricultural
best management practices, consider a conservation easement. • Support the local food economy –use a
copy of The Piedmont Environmental Council’s Buy Fresh Buy Local guide to find farm and food options close
to home. Our Charlottesville area guide features more than 210 local food producers and businesses. More at
www.buylocalvirginia.org.

The Piedmont Group of the Sierra Club: Whenever possible, dry your
clothes on a clothesline or wooden drying rack. Electric clothes dryers use a large amount of electricity. • Plant
native species in your flower garden: Black Eyed Susan, Goldenrod, Purple Coneflower, Tickseed, Milkweed,
etc. They attract pollinators and require little watering. • Avoid using lawn and garden pesticides. They are
harmful to pollinators, our water supply, and community health. For safer alternatives go to
www.beyondpesticides.org.

Sigora Solar: Getting an energy audit performed on your home is an extremely affordable
way of understanding where in your home you are wasting money and how to improve the efficiency of your
most important systems. • For every $1 decrease in annual energy costs, the market value of a home increases
by $20, according to a study published in the Appraisal Journal. By decreasing your energy costs by $300
per year, the value of your home increases by $6,000. • Solar energy creates clean, renewable power from
the sun and benefits the environment. Alternatives to fossil fuels reduce carbon footprint at home and abroad,
reducing greenhouse gases around the globe.

Think Little: Switch all of your lighting to LED bulbs today. If you want to match the look of
incandescent bulbs, look for Energy Star-rated LED bulbs with color temperature of 2700K or less and “warm
dimming” (as the light output is dimmed, the color temperature gets warmer). • Switch to a heat pump water
heater. The best models are more than 3 times as energy efficient as a standard electric water heater, and
outperform even the very best gas models. In addition, heat pump water heaters will get “cleaner” as they age
due to increased renewables on the grid or at home. • Say goodbye to your gas bill! Cut your heat load in half
through better air-tightness and insulation and replace your gas furnace with a variable speed heat pump for
high performance heating and cooling.

UVA Community Credit Union: Replacing your old heating and cooling equipment (more
than 10 years old) with ENERGY STAR qualified equipment can cut your annual energy bill by more than $115.
Check out our low-rate PowerSaver Home Loan Program designed for energy efficiency and renewable energy
home improvements. • A fuel-efficient, hybrid electric, plug-in electric, or other alternative fuel vehicle could
cut your fuel costs and help the environment. Our low-rate PowerSaver Auto Loan Program is designed for
these vehicles and will save you even more! • If you’re a City of Charlottesville business owner or manage a
business in the city, consider the long-term savings of making lighting, refrigeration, HVAC or even solar panel
improvements to your building. Save even more with a special financing provided by the City of Charlottesville,
LEAP, and UVA Community Credit Union with rates as low as 0%.

Wild Virginia: Learn about your public lands. • Experience your public lands. • Protect your
public lands…with Wild Virginia.

The post Before the Flood first appeared on LATITUDE 38.

C’ville Abode – Feb 2017

The post Abode February 2017: Latitude 38 Experiments with the Horizonal first appeared on LATITUDE 38.

Thanks to everyone who voted to recognize Latitude 38 in our community! A total surprise. We did not even know we were nominated! Please excuse Joey’s verbose treatise here.

The post Best of Cville 2016 first appeared on LATITUDE 38.

The post Abode November 2015: Before and After first appeared on LATITUDE 38.

• Site Planning
• Construction Waste Management
• Resource Efficiency
• Durability and Moisture Management
• Indoor Air Quality
• High Performance Building Envelope
• Energy Efficient Systems
• Water Efficiency
• Education and Operations
• Innovation

Having third party verification of our construction through preliminary and confirmed energy modeling, design review, a pre-drywall inspection, a blower door test, and a final inspection, makes us stay on top of our game. We appreciate our relationship with our local auditor, John Semmelhack from Think Little, who helps keep pushing us to use new science to make our homes ever more comfortable, energy efficient, high performance homes. If you have any questions about Earthcraft Virginia, please contact us!

–Joey

The post Top Ten Most Energy Efficient Homes of the Year first appeared on LATITUDE 38.

The post Cottage sealing up first appeared on LATITUDE 38.

–Joey

The post Mitsubishi Electric case study first appeared on LATITUDE 38.

Benefits of Program:

• Free Solar Site Assessments
• Lower than ever solar pricing and affordable financing
• Qualified local solar installers and high performance systems

If you live in a Latitude 38 home, please contact Joey to find more out about your options for connectivity.

UVA Community Credit Union Seminar

The post Solarize Charlottesville Info Event July 29 first appeared on LATITUDE 38.

Virginia just passed a new law allowing people hoping to be first time homeowners to create a saving account that is free from state income tax to use towards a down payment. The law will go into effect July 1, 2014. Keep an eye out for more info. See link above for legislative detail.

The post First Time Homebuyer Savings Account first appeared on LATITUDE 38.