It isn't easy being green
I want this house to be self sustaining, off the grid. It's not going to be a grand house, maybe 2000 sq feet single level, 1000 sq ft garage with attched climate controlled dog guest room. To reach my "off the grid" goal, form will have to follow function. So I'm not focused on the home design at this point as I really need to identify what technologies will be used to be self sustaining. I'd like to know if anyone on the forum has made the green leap in any fashion and what they think of the technology/product. Would you do it again? It would be a thrill to tell the power company to bite.  |
|
|
| There are a couple of threads floating around on the forum about greening.
I give you a lot of credit to want to live off of the grid. I don't know if I could completely do that. We are slowly trying to convert our house to be green as much as possible. I must preface this is that my husband has been the maniac about getting us more green conscious. He can be very annoying about his quest - think Ed Begley Jr & I'm Rachelle. But it has rubbed off, I do now think about every little thing that I consume, so I guess he ultimately gets to win. 
We took advantage of a great NJ rebate incentive & installed around 40 solar panels about 5 years ago which generates enough power for 75% of our house. We also earn a SREC Solar renewable Energy Credit each month which we can turn around and sell on the open market. We take some of that money earned and put it back into the house - energy efficient appliances - electric lawnmower, etc. We have gotten rid of most of our incandescent bulbs and swapped them out for fluorescent. This has been a little frustrating as many of our light fixtures are old and the fluroscent bulbs do not fit in them very well. We have an official large compost pile out back. We would rather buy old or reuse rather than new. Try to buy local food and trying to grow as much produce that we can on our own. We live in a very populated area so we can only do so much without the neighbors complaining. Wish list: Gray water system, Chicken coop with egg laying hens, Wind turbine, get rid of our natural gas dependency completely and go all electric. There are some modular home companies out there that specialize in making very green pre-fabs. Not sure if they are self sustaining but it would be awesome to look into something like that too... |
| I have to admit that although we aren't presently living off-grid, this has long been an interest of mine. I'd love to do it some day, but living off grid is not something people do to save money (unless you really don't mind roughing it). When it comes to solar electric production (or wind, or microhydro), going off grid costs you a lot more compared to a grid-tied system for two reasons:
*Off-grid power requires additional hardware purchases including battery banks (which will fail sooner than solar panels) and a charge controller *Many rebates for green energy systems only apply if you stay grid connected (rebates from utility companies are usually out, for example, as they help you buy solar panels specifically to help meet their own green energy targets) Losing out on rebates is a huge. You can check for available state and federal rebates here: http://www.dsireusa.org/. Aside from the question of costs, there are a number of pros and cons for off-grid and grid-tied systems. Pros for off-grid: * Full control of managing your own power. Off-grid means you can only use the power you produce, so your available usage will vary with the weather and the season. More in touch with your use of energy. * No dependence on the power company. * Your power still works if the grid fails. (Grid-tied systems have to shut down for safety reasons.) * Can produce power at remote sites not served by the electric grid. Pros for grid-tied: * With net metering laws (available in most states) your utility bill can still come out to $0 a year (or negative in a few states). * Excess renewable power from your system goes into the grid and powers others instead of being wasted. * Less parts, less things to break. * No worrying if there will be enough charge today to run your vacuum. I'm not dismissing off-grid, just saying that it requires a certain lifestyle and philosophy to go along with it. Power generation aside, energy efficiency is much more important to consider first. Power efficient lights, appliances, minimization of phantom loads (that red light on the VCR), and so forth. People that go full off grid sometimes buy marine appliances designed for DC electricity to minimize conversions to AC. And of course household heating ... if you're considering living somewhere other than Hawaii, consider insulating your house beyond the federal standards. (We are presently retrofitting a 1937 farmhouse to super-insulated levels ... R33 walls and R50+ ceilings.) For new construction, the Larson Truss is a great design for getting a highly insulated wall with a small increase in costs. Strawbale construction works too, and can yield beautiful, if slightly less conventional structures. Passive solar is another great design element in heating climates. With good insulation, an isolated thermal mass (insulated slab floors), deep overhangs, and appropriately sized windows houses in most Northern sunny climates can be tuned to require hardly any heat. Finally, solar domestic hot water heating has a the fastest payback time of any "green" energy system (usually less than 10 years to break even), and can be configured for a variety of demands and climates. |
| Y'all need to come over the Taos..........there's a whole "subdivision" of earthship homes on the mesa west of town. Here's a link plus note the seminars this year around the country.
http://earthship.net/education/36-demonstration/632-coming-soon-new-earthship-visitor-center.html |
Didn't find exactly what you're looking for? Search again here:
Custom Search
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|