July 2009 $55
Aug 2009 $52
Sept 2009 $42
Oct 2009 $63
Nov 2009 $90
Dec 2009 $123
Jan 2010 $98
Feb 2010 $90
Mar 2010 $61
Apr 2010 $46

As you can see, we’ve been able to keep the bills pretty low. To contextualize these bills, it is helpful to know what draws electricity in the home:
- geothermal HVAC
- washer
- dryer (only when it is not sunny)
- dishwasher
- water heater (only when it is cloudy and the solar thermal is not working)
- disposal
- pumps for the rainwater collection system
- household appliances (hair dryer, toaster, water kettle, computers, TV)
- ceiling fans
- lights (all equipped with flourescent bulbs)

We also have more or less stuck with the default EnergyStart thermostat settings for the geothermal, which means

Heating;
68 degrees from 6:30am to 8am and 5pm to 10pm
62 degrees at all other times

Cooling
78 degrees from 6:30am to 8am and 5pm to 10pm
85 degrees at all other times

The house itself is two stories and covers about 1800 square feet. As previous posts indicated, the house was also newly insulated with spray foam insulation in all exterior walls on both floors and 12″ of cellulose on the attic floor. Spray foam was not used along the roof line. We also had new double-pane Integrity windows installed throughout the house (more on those in another post). These insulating features have no doubt played a big role in keeping our energy bill down, too.

Unfortunately, we do not have any real points of comparison because the house did not have heat or air when we moved in.

Mark Brown of RainCatchers commissions the system

The rainwater harvesting system installation was completed last week adding water-efficiency to this old dame’s resume’. Although many rainwater harvesting systems are buried, this installation shows that they don’t have to be. The configuration pictured above will be hidden by a deck and lattice work when the greenovation is complete.

The system was engineered and installed by a rainwater harvesting specialist who has been involved in several LEED for Homes projects. RainCatchers has a distinct advantage in this new field [for the U.S.], having appropriated 30-year-old best practices from Europe. They use the WISY self-cleaning Vortex filters like the one seen above the cistern. The water is being brought inside for indoor use and is purified to potable standards in the process. This water easily exceeds the quality of the municipal supply.

Here is post that I had on our other blog about flooring: green flooring

On Lake Claire LEED we were able to save most of the flooring in the house and where we had to refinish the floors we used zero VOC finishes in order to preserve indoor air quality.

This is the dining room wall taken apart and collected into tidy piles of lathes and studs and plaster.

This is a pile of chunked concrete removed from the uneven otherwise mostly red clay basement floor. It has been hauled away and ground into gravel.

This is the gravel used to level the basement floor before the concrete is poured.

Now all of these posts are gone from the basement, but they are still around, waiting to be milled into wood for a table and a slatted wall, which will be held together with nails pulled from the lathes.

These are doors, removed from the walls that were taken down. And they will be doors again in the basement or elsewhere upstairs.

This is old asbestos covered ductwork, now properly disposed of, never to be heard from again.

Hey, you can’t reuse everything, but we are having fun trying.

The Epsten Group office that is the first to get LEED- NC Platinum in Atlanta

LEED- NC is the commercial rating for green buildings.  The architect for our Lake Claire LEED  project- The Epsten Group designed and certified the first LEED-NC (commercial) renovation in Atlanta.  They were able to give new green life to an existing structure that was not in good condition.   Since The Lake Claire LEED project will be the first with all 3 green certifications at once in Atlanta- it looks like The Epsten Group is the first on many projects!  They have been part of many other amazing projects in Atlanta.  To see more of their portfolio visit The Epsten Group.

Many years ago a friend remarked that a person’s keychain could tell a lot about him, specifically that the more keys the chain holds, the more complicated one’s life is. As we sat around the other night revisiting why it was in the first place that we wanted to build an eco-house, as we named the idea many years ago, I was reminded of this sentiment by my husband. “It’s like taking keys off your keychain,” he said. To simplify things and not create waste or use more than you need to is a main force driving our thought process concerning the renovation of our old bungalow. If the sun is there, use it to heat your water or power your appliances. If the ground will offer up its constant temperature efficiently, then harvest it to heat and cool your house. Take that rainwater and at least use it to water your plants, and if you can, use it to wash your clothes or even drink! It is not quite as simple as that, I know, but we are trying to do as much as we can along these lines. I was thinking about these ideas this morning, as my husband rode off to work on his bike in the rain. Uncomplicated self-propulsion is an efficient and beautiful thing.