Tremendous Opportunity Ahead - Part 2

Currently I live near the Delaware coast in a Victorian farmhouse with 12 rooms, not counting the two and a half baths. In the first part of this post I alluded to my fright when they came to fill our fuel oil tank two weeks ago. This big old barn leaks like a sieve, despite storm windows and doors, caulking, weather-stripping, and all that jazz. Right now, this is what we, in Old Technology houses, are looking at this winter:

Heating bills, oil expected to rise: Government sees a jump in heating costs this winter due to hurricanes and colder temperatures. NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - A government report issued Wednesday predicts large jumps in heating bills for Americans this winter and continued high oil prices in 2006 due to slightly colder temperatures and the continuing impact of hurricanes Katrina and Rita on the nation's energy production.

The Energy Information Administration (EIA) estimates that heating bills for all fuel types will cost Americans about one-third more this winter on average, assuming typical weather. A colder-than-normal winter could lift energy prices nearly 50 percent.

So, despite the thirty-something nights we're having lately, we have not yet started to burn this expensive oil in our tank. No, we're wearing four layers of clothing and sleeping under down comforters, with cats. (Please read on, for a much better side of the story.)

Whereas these folks, who have already made the transition to New Technology (renewable and sustainable) houses, have a totally different picture of the coming winter. I'll start with Bill and Debbi Lord, owners of the Maine Solar House. Click on the picture to learn about both this house and solar energy itself. This house is located in one of the colder places to have a big house like this, the northern coast of Maine. Nonetheless, the Lords get all their heat, electricity and hot water from the sun. And even return some to the power grid when their solar facilities are overproducing. Yes, even on a -15 degree day. This was a house that was designed and built as a solar factory ten years ago, not one that was retrofitted. This site is full of information on solar design, planning, building and operation. There is even a forum for registered members to ask questions, post comments and discuss green/solar building issues.

The next house, Phil and Lisa Malone's dream house in western Maryland, makes my toes curl with envy. This place is earth-sheltered on two sides, passive solar and geothermal, open to wildlife and nature viewing, sited on a beautiful piece of land. It is the focus of the feature article, Down to Earth, in the current issue of Smart Homeowner Magazine. Clicking on the picture of the house will take you to the Malone's site, where you can learn more on a myriad of green building topics, as well as viewing pictures of the house during construction. Please be sure to see the pictures of the land, the wildlife and the interior rooms of this house. I especially love the stained concrete floors, which are both passive solar collectors and contain radiant hydronic coils, which help them control the indoor temperature. Water heated through geothermal exchange flows through the coils, providing radiant heat throughout the house. The etching and staining the Malones have done to the floors make them also works of art. They are amazing.

Right now, building a solar house, or retrofitting one, for that matter, is an expensive proposition. One must be wealthy enough to hire the necessary builders and technicians, or have the time, energy, and savvy to do a lot of it oneself. However, if the techology were to become more mainstream, more builders were to adapt it, more homeowners to want it, that would soon change. If the government were to supply the kinds of tax perks and initiatives that are given to the fossil fuel industries, sustainable building technologies would take off overnight. In a comment on my first post in this series, Neil asked an intriguing question: "I wonder how much petroleum we could spare by investing $5 billion a month on the implementation of renewable energy sources, instead of burning that sum every 30 days in Iraq?"

In the column that I quoted previously, It's A Beautiful (Post-Petroleum) World, Thomas Starrs says this:

Another area of opportunity is the reorganization of society around less energy dependent infrastructure. Whether through the creation of more comfortable, efficient buildings or through the development of transportation options that pull us willingly out of our single-occupancy vehicles,innovation in the development of new modes of living can support the creation of healthier, more vibrant communities.

Imagine co-housing, senior housing, low-income housing communities, nursing homes and schools, built using this kind of renewable energy, as well as this kind of simple and cleanly lovely design. Not to mention townhouses and condos in our cities.

In the next installment in this series I intend to provide a lot of links for further solar information. The more we all know about what is possible, the more likely we are to achieve it. My interest in this currently is the fact that within the next year we will be moving to New Mexico. Where the sun shines 363 days a year. Every house built there should be solar powered.

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