The other day we printed off the checklist for the Central Washington Homebuilders Association “Built Green” program. Wow. I had seen this checklist displayed and filled out in some of the homes during last year’s Tour of Homes, so I wanted to look up what was involved with becoming certified.

It’s pretty interesting, with several levels of certification, some self-reporting by the builder, and some third-party certified. When looking through the list, however, my desire for any sort of certification reached nearly zero. It seems to be a lot of work, and frankly, I felt overwhelmed by the sheer amount of things to consider. I think we will continue to put our energies into pursing the viability of a ground-source heat pump, good windows and insulation, low-VOC paint, xeriscaping, etc. I’d love to do absolutely everything, but financial considerations and the energy that birthing and caring for a new baby are going to be our priority.

I was doing some research the other day on types of roofing materials and the pros and cons to having a reflective roof in this climate. There are an abundance of reflective roofing materials, from shingles with reflective particles in them (that allow you to use darker colours but still have the heat reflection benefits), recyclable vinyl roofs, sheet metal roofs, reflective membranes/barriers of various types, as well as “paint on” types of products for existing roofs. Interestingly, my husband remembered that his mother’s business had applied one of those paint-on products years ago to the existing flat black roof and it made a big difference in the temperature (i.e., no longer melting his shoes to the roof!) when he went up to clean out the swamp cooler.

What I found out, however, was in this climate the advantage of a reflective roof would be minimal. The average “cooling degree days” (i.e., how many degrees a year you are cooling to get to 65 degrees F.) is 458. Compare that, with, say, Phoenix, that has nearly the same rainfall as we do annually (i.e., desert) but has 4162 cooling degree days! You can look up your heating/cooling degree days on this website.

There does still seem to be some benefit to having a lighter coloured roof in this climate, so we probably will go with that but perhaps not worry about the speciality products. I’m not sure what the cost comparison is between products, which would be the biggest factor, but it does seem to make more sense at this point to concentrate on high-quality windows and insulation, with a long-lasting shingle (reflective or not).

There is a fair amount of helpful information on roofing material types and benefits at the Roofing Contractor website.

Federal Tax Credits for Energy Efficiency : ENERGY STAR.

Here’s the site with the requirements for the “green” federal tax credits.

Eternal hybrid: the world’s first and most advanced hybrid water heating system.

My friend showed me this product awhile back. This tank is a hybrid between tankless and old-school water tank systems. The advantages seem to be that water is hot more quickly because of the reservoir (although, you’ll still have the water that’s standing in the pipes be cooled down, so it won’t be completely instantaneous, I assume), then you have “endless” hot water as the tankless part kicks in. It also is cheaper to vent and you’re able to hook a waste-heat recovery system (like this) up to it, which intrigues me.

The biggest drawback seems to be the cost – depending on the model they run around $2500-3000, compared to a tankless that’s between $1000-2000. It does advertise the “green rebate” (30%) that many of these appliances are eligible for, but I assume a regular tankless would qualify for those, too. I’ll have to look that up.

Anyway, I like the possibility of pairing the waste-heat recovery system with it. That is a big plus to me. I also wonder about how the cost of installation would compare.

Fomo Products, Inc., manufacturers of polyurethane (PU) foam insulation, sealants, adhesives, and spray foam systems in pressurized packaging

Interested particularly in their eco-foam line of sealants.

I found a reference to the WaterFurnace on a different blog and was intrigued by the fact that that homeowner said one of the benefits of her system is during the summer, when the system is removing heat from her home, it redirects it to their water furnace so they get “free” hot water in the summers.

Some sites I want to check out:

greenbuildingsupply.com

bioshieldpaint.com

“Think Green!” TV show from Designing Spaces

We passed this development when passing through Oregon a couple weeks ago. I’m in love with it! The design and the solar panels scream “sustainable building” when you drive past and it made me smile. What a view of the river they have, too…gorgeous! Maybe sometime we can stop and get a tour…I can’t afford to live in them, since the town houses are around $400K, but I’m sure it would be neat to learn things and see the see the “solar system” in action.

LEED for homes info. Need to check this out later…

Yesterday my husband and I were walking through Fred Meyer looking for a composter that was on sale. We have one we’re borrowing, and a couple more open mesh ones, but this one was a good price and we had the need for it…our current ones are overflowing. Our local store didn’t carry it but we were in a different city for a BBQ and stopped in to see if they had one in stock. They did…we got their last one.

As we were walking out we saw an Earthwise lawnmower that someone had apparently returned, as there were the remains of grass in the catcher. We had just been talking on our way down that we’d really like to get a mulching mower (we’re borrowing a lawnmower from our landlord and even with composting the clippings and using them for mulch we can’t keep up with what is produced from out large lawn), so we stopped and took a look. It was on a deep discount, and while we wondered why the person had returned it, we figured we always could, too!

It folded right up and fit in our car’s trunk. When we got home I tried it out by mowing a bunch of our backyard. It starts up instantaneously, is fairly quiet, and with the mulching plug you couldn’t even see the clippings. Yay! I was amazed…the gas mower I couldn’t even start or push, and our reel mower that we use for the lower lawn I’m barely able to push on the upper lawns, so this is a big change. I also like how if I do need clippings for some reason we’re able to put the bagging attachment on for collection.

Interestingly, the magazine that inspired our discussion about mulching mowers on the way down, ShopSmart, also gave it good reviews, under the brand name Homelite (which I didn’t realize was the same thing until after we’d bought it and were doing some research). So anyway, we haven’t tried the whole yard with it, but so far are very pleased.

But maybe we didn’t need that new composter after all, since part of what we were going to put in it was grass clippings! Ha!