Author: erikahowsare-2

Windy houses and a sunny school

So far, we haven’t seen any large-scale shift in American energy habits (the closest I’ve noticed are the stats about many drivers cutting down on their gas usage). But little changes are making news, like these two recent items about renewable energy coming to our area.

First, there’s the interesting fact that Albemarle County is thinking about letting folks put up wind turbines to power their own houses, barns and other buildings. We aren’t talking about so-called wind farms here; we’re talking family-scale power generation. I suppose you could liken the idea to the way most rural households use wells instead of public water lines; in this case, they’d be getting off the grid at least partially, cutting down on pollution and relying more on their land’s own resources than on public infrastructure.

It’s certainly not a perfect solution. A Daily Progress story (about the county Planning Commission meeting in which the turbines were discussed) hints at the fact that the towers are potential eyesores. This FAQ page by the American Wind Energy Assocation seems to indicate that towers are commonly 80 to 120 feet high (yikes!), but then again this Caroline County man is doing pretty well with a 33-foot tower. And both sources agree that would-be turbine owners are looking at a hefty investment up front: $6,000 to $22,000, according to the AWEA. But hey—Albemarle’s got its share of residents with money to burn, and anyway, what’s the price of clean air and mountaintops left intact in West Virginia?

The second little bit of renewability is over at Henley Middle School, which is getting a $7,500 grant from Dominion Virginia Power to put up solar panels for their hot water heaters. (That won’t fund the entire project, mind you—the total tab is estimated at $33K. You’ll be happy to know that the bake sale is still a viable means of fundraising at public schools: Henley’s planning one to make up the $25,500 shortfall, along with a golf tourney and a fun run.)

It’s a nice thing for Dominion to do, but I’m not one to give a free plug to a utility giant without at least mentioning a couple of their bigger projects: a proposed coal-burning plant in Wise County and the 40-mile, 500,000-volt transmission line they’d like to build in Northern Virginia. Let’s just say both have their critics.

So, folks, what do you think? Would you be upset if a neighbor installed an 80-foot tower, or even a 33-foot tower? Would you put one up on your land? And what kind of cookies are you hoping to score at Henley Middle School?

Another LEED house in Crozet!

Back in the April issue of Abode, I wrote about a house Upstream Construction was building in Crozet for Brian and Joan Day. As I pointed out then, it’s notable not only because it’s a custom house with many green features, but because the Days are both environmental professionals who decided to open their house to the public during and after construction, so people could take a look and learn a thing or two. Here it is under construction:

Well, Upstream recently wrapped up construction and the Days held a final open house event to show off their LEED-worthy dwelling. Reporter Cathy Clary headed over and sent this account:

“I’m hiking up a steep gravel drive towards a state-of-the-art green-built house outside Crozet one Saturday morning in August, thinking it looks more like a tree house than anything else. A very well-built, spacious tree house with all the amenities.

Horizontal lines and pale olive weatherboarding blend into the hillside in a simple, Frank Lloyd Wright-ish sort of way. A long deck with welcoming open casement windows extends at treetop level along the south front.

Inside, deep concrete/Styrofoam-insulated walls result in window sills big enough to sit in with a book and a cup of tea. Floors and cabinets gleam from selectively cut Goochland County red oak.  Low-flow appliances and a tank-less heater cover the water front. A central vacuum system and Energy Recovery Ventilator keep the air clean.

Brian Day, Director of the North American Association for Environmental Education, and his family are now living earth-friendly and LEED-certified for a construction cost of $200 per square foot.

The world of eco-friendly development has its own insider jargon—ERVs, VOCs for air quality;  SIPs, ICFs, and R-values for insulation; FSC-certified for wood—and the acronyms roll expertly off the tongues of many of the dozens of couples who show up for the open house along with their notebooks. Judging from this crowd of middle-class couples, green building is becoming pretty mainstream. These people are looking for quality and non-wasteful, non-toxic ways to build without destroying the site first. What kind of a society is it where that’s a radical idea?”

By the way, Brian Day echoed Cathy’s hunch that green is going mainstream when I talked to him back in the spring. “Think how easy it is to find a light bulb,” he said. “Now you can get compact fluorescent in a spotlight…I couldn’t find one of those six months ago.”

Anybody else have ambitions of going LEED at home? 

Hello, conscious-living readers!

Boy, am I excited to be introducing our brand-new blog, Green Scene. I’m tickled to be joining such great company—C-VILLE’s already got an awesome music blog and a good headline news blog. Even more than that, I see Green Scene as a chance to talk with all of you on a regular basis about things that interest me anyway—everything from figuring out how to set up a rain collection system at my house, to local debates between developers and preservationists.
 
The journey I’ve taken to this point started around the time when I founded a “save the earth” club at my middle school. Between then and now, I’ve sampled a lot of different perspectives on the environment, crashing with a houseful of wilderness guides in Utah and studying deep ecology in graduate school. Closer to home, I’ve worked on a local farm and closely followed the local food movement. And I’ve gotten to know the land intimately, as a gardener. For me, the challenge and reward of growing food is very much connected to other decisions I make. Do I heat my house with wood or oil? Do I water the plants from the well or the dishwater? Do I buy the local or the organic apple?
 
Daily questions like these are all part of the bigger question: How are we supposed to keep living on this planet, and specifically right here in central Virginia, without screwing it up even worse? We all have to come up with some small part of the answer. Which is why the blog format makes so much sense: It’ll give us—meaning me and several other writers—a chance to interact with you, the readers, via your comments and feedback. It’ll focus on not only tips and how-tos, but also on local happenings, environmental debates, and random stuff we notice that brings us back to that big question.
 
Look for new posts several times weekly on everything from power-line debates to PV panels. Read. Comment. Browse. And when you’re done, shut down your computer! (Saves energy, you know.)