Deb's Home Recycling (aka Residential Resale)

Musings on the Meaning of Home

Deb Hurt, ABR, e-Pro,Green, TRC (Envirian of Albuquerque) — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 00:54:37 -0500

I am sure that this s a question that has to occur to us as professionals. We talk and write about "properties" and "houses" and sometimes homes. Every now and then an experience or a client will have an impact that makes us rethink what home means.

Robert Frost penned what I consider to be perhaps the most depressing definition of home. Granted, the entire piece is pretty depressing on several levels, but as is often the case with great writers, he leaves us with a deeper understanding of life, human nature and human relationships.

In The Death of the Hired Man, Frost wrote, "Home is where, when you go there, they have to take you in."Not a particularly welcoming vision of hearth and home. As we deal with many families facing foreclosure, renters who through no fault of their own have not only lost the place they called home but are unable to find another because they have no money for deposits or inadequate credit, I hope we can listen to their dreams of home, modest as they might be and help them to find a home.

For some, a warm, dry place to eat and sleep with minimal space or facilities is plenty. Different people need different things but our job is to remember that they, not we are going to be living there. It doesn't really matter how comfortable or safe we feel in a dwelling space if they are happy with it. If it is habitable and they can get financing, then we can provide all the relevant information and respect their decision to live in a place they can call home.

As for a literal definition--it depends. As a noun it can mean a shelter or dwelling, a usual residence, or a place of refuge (such as a nursing home) As a verb it can mean to aim or direct by use of coordinate (think military). There are many idioms we use as well. "It's nothing to write home about" or we are" home free." We speak of driving a point home when we want to emphasize getting someone to understand something.

Perhaps may current favorite definition si this one: the place in which one's domestic affections are centered . Simply another way, I think, of saying Home Is Where the Heart Is. I like this definition because to me, it is freeing. It can be a physical place or not. Perhaps those of you who have traveled a great deal or who have been in the military understand this more easily than those who grew up in one place or who have family all centered within a small geographic area. There are places and people in the world that make you"feel at home". I was showing property recently and the owners of the home (it was a FSBO Open House my client and I stumbled across on the way to a nearby listing) told me they were selling and going to travel full time in their RV and see if they could find somewhere to settle down-or not.

How many of us, as adults with grown children still say we are "going home" for the holidays, or to visit family? We do not often think of having multiple homes but this is a way in which many of us do if we have famiy in other parts of the country or the world. Going home to have a birthday dinner with your mother could mean driving to the place that you usually sleep at night or it could mean flying across the country.

As REALTORS we have to remember that what counts is the client's definition of what makes a home, not ours. We can inform, educate, suggest and guide, but it is going to be their castle, not ours.

Lower Your Carbon Footprint

Deb Hurt, ABR, e-Pro,Green, TRC (Envirian of Albuquerque) — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 12:21:03 -0500

We know that the built environment has a huge impact on our carbon footprint. Many of us have done things to lower that impact including the smaller things like using CFLs and installing programmable thermostats. Many have planted trees that help provide shade , many xeriscape.

If possible, some of us have upgraded windows and doors and a caulk gun has become our best friend. Weatherstripping and rain barrels, insulating ductwork and hotwater heaters, tankles hot water heaters, using solar and wind energy where practical, all of these things are being done.

Here is a link to an article on Planet Green that describes three simple but not quite so easy steps to lower you carbon footprint dramatically. One involves our long distance travel habits, specifically, flying. It is amazing how much can be saved by flying less. Some of us travel a lot for our work, some for pleasure but the act of say taking the vacation at the begiining or end of one of those trips so that you are making one round trip instead of two, or planning so that you take the time to take train or even drive to a mid distance destination can make a huge difference in the amount of crbon emmission generated by the trip.

We often talk about the large carbon footprint of our food system. Buying at the local farmers market helps, growing some of your own helps. This article proposes the idea of being a "weekday vegetarian" and shows just what a large difference consuming a plant based diet the majority of the time can make. You might also realize some health benefits like losing weight and having more energy. I believe it is Michael Pollen who wrote "Eat food. (meaning real food, not processed, imitation packaged stuff). Not too much. Mostly plants." to desribe a diet good for the body and good for the planet.

The other recommendation is to buy green energy. Most utilities now offer that option. If you use natural daylighting rather than turning on the lights, so much the better.

PLAN Your Move to a Greener Home. START Where You Are with These 4 Steps

Deb Hurt, ABR, e-Pro,Green, TRC (Envirian of Albuquerque) — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 16:45:16 -0500

I love it whe janeAnne puts in writing something I have been pondering how tosay because I don't have to do it and she usually says it better anyway! Great advice as usual.

Via Asheville's "GREEN "Property Consultants- LAND & Fine Homes :

Dateline Asheville, North Carolina, July, 2009
News and Views from Asheville's Greenolina, Real Estate Eco-Steward

PLAN Your Move to a Greener Home.

Step One: Spruce up your abode.

Paint. Use NO VOC paints, remove and replace old carpets with nontoxic flooring, consider replacing all the light bulbs with LEDs..

I love Asheville's locally-produced Earthpaint® which is NO VOC for sprucing up both interior and exterior surfaces. (Check the link. You can order it shipped if need be.)

This beginning plan will increase the value of the home and certainly makes it more attractive to today's buyers

Step Two: Replace old appliances with energy efficient appliances.

Step Three: Update windows, insulate for energy efficiency, and go for daylighting. .

Step Four: Seek out a"green" real estate professional with NAR's GREEN Designation or the EcoBroker or Eco Certified Real Estate Consultant Designation. (I'm smiling)

______________________________________________________________________________

__~o
-\_<,
(*)/'(*) .......... ............to keep on rolling into the sustainable world you can create today and tomorrow!. ......................... .............with OBJECTIVE FIDUCIARY COUNSEL.

ECO STEWARDS' LEARNING TOURS.Serving Asheville's First Time and Relocation LAND and Home Buyers.

Asheville GREEN Home Buyers - "GREEN" Real Estate and Relocation: The Eco-Steward Firm, ALL Eco-Certified® Real Estate Consultants! Copyright © 2009 All Rights Reserved

Solar Concentrating Power Plant To Be Built in Santa Teresa, New Mexico

Deb Hurt, ABR, e-Pro,Green, TRC (Envirian of Albuquerque) — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 17:37:40 -0500

According to the New Mexico Business Weekly, El Paso Electric has signed an agreement to buy all the electricity from a concentrating solar power plant to be built in southern New Mexico by NRG Energy Inc.

The plant, to be built on a 450-acre site in Sunland Park, about 10 miles from El Paso, will produce 92 megawatts of electricity. It will be the first commercial-scale solar thermal project in New Mexico. It is hoped that the construction of the power plant will be completed by the summer of 2011.

Concentrating solar power plants use mirrors to reflect and concentrate sunlight onto receivers that convert it to heat. The heat can then be used to produce steam to drive a turbine and produce electricity.

This project will help realize renewable energy potential here. We have an average of 300 days of sun every year and this is an efficient way to harness that solar energy.

Lest anyone think that this is new or untried technology, here is an excerpt from a document published by the US DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY Solar Energies Technologies Program:

Two large-scale power tower demonstration projects have been deployed in the United States. During its operation from 1982 to 1988, the 10-megawatt Solar One plant near Barstow, California, demonstrated the viability of power towers, producing more than 38 million kilowatt-hours of electricity.

The Solar Two plant was a retrofit of Solar One to demonstrate the advantages of molten salt for heat transfer and thermal storage. Using its highly efficient molten-salt energy storage system, Solar Two successfully demonstrated efficient collection of solar energy and dispatch of electricity. It also demonstrated the ability to routinely produce electricity during cloudy weather and at night. In one demonstration, Solar Two delivered power to the grid for 24 hours a day for almost seven consecutive days before cloudy weather interrupted operation.

REALLY Recycled Housing!

Deb Hurt, ABR, e-Pro,Green, TRC (Envirian of Albuquerque) — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 01:02:48 -0500

In the process of working with a client who is dedicated to sustainable living, I discovered a really cool company in Austin, TX. These folks really know how to walk the talk. Their homes are built and then hauled to the site ready to be occupied. They are constructed from reclaimed materials.

The materials used are from deconstructed homes and would otherwise wind up in landfills. The utilize passive solar design, great insulation and thoughtful touches like single pitch roofs which makes collecting rain water much simpler. These are designed to be small spaces so they can be relocated but I can't imagine any reason tat you could not build a larger unit or join two or more together if you needed a larger home.

Here is athe link to their website. · Reclaimed space

Visual Aids for 2030 Goals

Deb Hurt, ABR, e-Pro,Green, TRC (Envirian of Albuquerque) — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 15:28:24 -0500

I think it is well known tat the more ways people are given information, the more likely they are to retain it- if the see it as well as hear it for example. There is a reason for having lots of pictures and visual tours of your listings.

Here is a visual aid for those of you who are interested in to help explain the importance of the 2030 goals and the complexity of the issue. Gavin Schmidt is a NASA scientist and he has teamed up with a great photographer to create a book that illustrates some of the not so common illustrations of the results o climate change. This is scientific fact and photographic record. It is intended to be educational and informative, not political. More and more people are coming to understand that this is a very complex issue that must be addressed in many ways.

.http://www.salon.com/env/feature/2009/06/01/gavin_schmidt/index.html

Going the Green Mile

Deb Hurt, ABR, e-Pro,Green, TRC (Envirian of Albuquerque) — Wed, 20 May 2009 11:07:46 -0500

I am a firm believer in not reinventing the wheel and this says it as well as I ever could.

Via Joanne O'Donnell (Chic Home Interiors, LGLS CP Trainer (510-STAGING)):

If you are not part of the solution, you are part of the problem. Well, we are the problem. According to statistics published by the Nature Conservancy, the average family of 4, in a detached home, in North America will generate 110 tons of CO2 annually. The average family outside of North America will generate 22 tons of CO2 annually.

Finally, some progress in reversing the metaphorical snowball rolling downhill that has been the US contribution to greenhouse gasses... The Obama administration just announced new "get tough" rules on auto pollution and fuel economy. The rules are designed to put breaks on pollution and give a boost to fuel efficiency. The new federal standards on greenhouse gas emissions require autos emissions to be 30% cleaner than current standards by 2016. Concurrently they require a 40% increase in miles per gallon to a new standard of 35 ½ miles per gallon. The effect is the equivalent of taking 177 million cars off the highway. As reported in National Geographic, for each gallon of gas your car burns, it releases about 19 pounds of CO². Hopefully we won't negate the effect of the new standards by increasing our miles driven as our effect per mile lessens...

Some are critical of these new standards because it will add about $1300 to the cost of new cars, and will take approximately 5 years to recoup that from the fuel savings. Isn't it time we began to think about more than just how it affects us immediately? Has anyone heard of the old sociological concept "deferred gratification"? The concept refers to the willingness to put off current rewards for future and far greater rewards. It is what got most of us through college, insure a comfortable retirement and generally be responsible human beings. We need to apply this concept to our effect on the globe for our children and our children's children.

Ok, I will now get off my soapbox and return it to its' place in the back of my hummer...

Recharge,Recharge,Recycle

Deb Hurt, ABR, e-Pro,Green, TRC (Envirian of Albuquerque) — Sun, 03 May 2009 15:09:41 -0500

I have been working on helping develop a recycling project as part of a program I am participating in through my local Realtor Association. I'm learning some interesting facts.

Americans use an average of 6 cordless products in their daily activities - PDA's, cell phones. ipods,tools such as cordless drills and screwdrivers, flashlights, etc.
The average cell phone user has 3 cell phones in their possession
More than 40% of those cell phone users replace their phone every 2 years
Most rechargeable batteries can be recharged up to 1,000 times

What happens to all those rechargeable batteries after they can no longer hold a charge? THEY SHOULD BE RECYCLED.

The Rechargeable Battery Recycling Corporation is a nonprofit public service organization founded by the rechargeable battery industry in 1994. It's mission is to recycle rechargeable batteries that power many electronic products such as laptops, cell phones, remote control toys, razors, MP3 players, camcorders, electric toothbrushes, cordless phones, digital cameras and power tools. According to their information, they have recycled almost 50 million pounds of rechargeable batteries. Their website lists numerous retailers who participate in battery recycling programs.

Sustainability Week in Albuquerque Metro Area

Deb Hurt, ABR, e-Pro,Green, TRC (Envirian of Albuquerque) — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 18:22:35 -0500

Sustainability Week Opening Ceremony - Friday, May 8, 6:30 p.m.

Albuquerque Aquarium, 2601 Central Avenue NW

Join with USGBC-NM members and green professionals to kick off a full week of events! This reception at the Albuquerque Aquarium features a keynote address by Bill Reed, a founder of the national U.S. Green Building Council. He'll be speaking on the compelling reasons to live a sustainable lifestyle. Mayor Martin Chavez will also be recognized for his efforts to green the city. Call 227-0474 to reserve your tickets today!

Lectures and Expo - Saturday, May 9 - 9:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m.

Green Living Lecture Series and the Green Central Expo
UNM Continuing Education, 1634 University Blvd. NE, Albuquerque

The Green Central Expo and a series of lectures will be held at UNM Continuing Education in Albuquerque, for people to learn more about green building and environmentally friendly products and materials. Classes for homeowners and green novices include water conservation, solar energy, renovation ideas, and energy efficiency. Entry to the GreenCentral Expo is free. Lecture tickets are $15, which includes entry to the GreenBuilt Tour of homes the following weekend.

Commercial GreenBuilt Tour - Wednesday, May 13 - Full Day!

Four Commercial Properties in Albuquerque and Santa Fe

USGBC-NM will conduct a guided tour of outstanding examples of sustainable commercial buildings in Albuquerque and Santa Fe, featuring Mesa Del Sol Town Center, the Santa Fe Farmer's Market, and Thornburg Companies' new campus. Lunch aboard the Rail Runner is included, $40 to USGBC-NM members, $50 for nonmembers. Contact Suzanne Blanke at 505-881-8070 to reserve a space.

Saturday, May 16 & Sunday, May 17, 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.

10th Annual GreenBuilt Tour of Homes
In Albuquerque, Santa Fe, Taos and Environs

The GreenBuilt Tour will feature 25 homes in Albuquerque, Santa Fe, Taos, Farmington and environs that have been certified under Build Green New Mexico or the LEED for Homes rating system. New construction or renovations with exceptional green features or innovative materials and techniques are also included.

This self-guided tour of stellar sustainable homes showcases many ways for homeowners to go green. The GreenBuilt Tour guidebook provides directions to and descriptions of the homes, along with helpful articles on green building.

Tour guidebooks and tickets can be purchased for $15 at La Montanita Co-ops in Albuquerque and Santa Fe, at Whole Foods and Bookworks in Albuquerque, at BioShield and Big Jo Hardware in Santa Fe, at Salsa Realty and KTAO Radio in Taos, and from participating USGBC-NM members.

Where do you really live?

Deb Hurt, ABR, e-Pro,Green, TRC (Envirian of Albuquerque) — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 21:46:46 -0500

Where you live is a good place to start looking at sustainability in our lives, in more ways than one. The closer you live to where you work the less distance you have to commute. One of the reasons New York City is actually a pretty green city is that so many people live in small apartments and walk or use public transit to get around. Many people in large metropolitan areas with good transit systems do not own automobiles. If they need to go somewhere they want to drive to, they rent a car.

Many of the people reading this have a home office. The more you work there rather than commuting to another workplace, the less you are commuting. Some of us are lucky enough to be able to work exclusively out o our homes.

That means no commuting costs. Not owning a vehicle not only lessens the release of greenhouse gases it saves the expense of insurance, car payments, gasoline. One might speculate that it would also decrease the number of vehicle accidents and their associated costs.

Indirect savings might include removing the cost of a gym membership since you now walk and bike so much. Hopefully, that will result in a health increase as well meaning less money spent on doctors and medicines.

Live/work spaces are making a well deserved comeback. This is not a new idea-ask your grandparents. Not so long ago, it was common for a family to live behind or above their place of business. More businesses were small and family run then. The family farm really was where the family lived. The merchant, doctor or lawyer lived above, behind or next to his place of business. The church rectory is one of the few remnants of this practice. Perhaps the current downtown revitalization projects in many places and the growing popularity of live/work spaces will help revive the practice.

This is not a plea for a return to the old days. It is a gesture toward hope. Hope that we will be able to use our modern technologies and creativity to forge a balance between our runaway infatuation with efficiency and productivity and our ability to live a less frenetic, more creative life in which we can be as involved with friends and family as we have become with work and productivity.

Spring Fever and the urge to grow

Deb Hurt, ABR, e-Pro,Green, TRC (Envirian of Albuquerque) — Sat, 04 Apr 2009 19:48:52 -0500

Like many parts of the country, things are starting to bloom here in the high desert. Plants are just as confused as the rest of us about the weather. I am seeing shoots on my Russian Olive tree and my apple tree. Iris are coming up= no blossoms yet but lots of green shoots. I hope we have seen the last hard frost and the lase big snowstorm of the season, but I have my doubts.

The butterfly bush and the roses in the planter in front of my house are beginning to turn green and new shoots are appearing daily. The weeds (aka plants we don't like) have a head start on everything. I am tempted to just think of tumbleweed as a perennial that I should trim and maybe treat it as a topiary plant instead of the never ending battle to eradicate the stuff. Tumbleweed was here long before I ever was and will probably survive me by centuries.

One of my favorites is rosa rugosa - not the fancy must be pruned exactly, finicky, display roses but the rosa rugosa that grows easily on its own root, spreads by suckering and needs no spraying little attention and gives much delight. This plant made its way from Asia to Europe to the west and still remains resistant to most disease and tolerates much more extreme weather than other roses....and rose hips tea is comforting, soothing and full of vitamin C. See, you can have edible landscaping even if you don't have a vegetable garden!

I used to think I was allergic to roses. Then I was introduced to these and figured out that it was probably the chemicals used to grow most of the roses I had come into contact with before that had caused my problems. This is a rose that grows in Siberia on sand dunes among other places on earth. That's my kind of rose! Not fancy, not demanding, just reliable, non demanding and beautiful.

How to Exorcize the Vampire and Monsters in your Life

Deb Hurt, ABR, e-Pro,Green, TRC (Envirian of Albuquerque) — Sat, 04 Apr 2009 18:40:44 -0500

Great information here and a very creatative approach to explaining it!!!

Via Christine McInerney & Jennifer Halinkowski, Knoxville Real Estate (Southland GMAC Real Estate):

In the darkness of the night, they surround you, mocking you, stealing from you in your sleep. If you listen carefully you may be able to hear their monstrous grumbling or see the bright gleaming light piercing through the darkness...you are surrounded by monsters- some say they are vampires, some refer to them as Phantoms, to your energy bill they are pure EVIL.

To the naked eye they appear harmless, but looks are deceiving. The true terror is in their almost criminal stealing of energy. Did you know that even when an appliance is turned off that is still sucking out and wasting energy? Take a look around do you see the glowing "eyes" of your TV, DVD player, cable box, i-Pod charger, coffee maker, etc...starring back at you? They are turned off but still sucking energy and their glowing eyes are mocking you and reaping havoc on your energy bills.

An electronic device that has a phantom load uses energy even when turned off, these include appliances that are remote powered (these are the biggest drainer of energy), have external power supplies, continuous LCD displays, and electronics that are turned on by a switch or a push button.

If you are like the average American, you have about 20 energy vampires that are costing you up to $200 extra dollars a year when turned off, not to mention the negative environmental impacts.

So how do you exorcise these evil monstrosities? EASY- simply unplug all appliances that are not needed 24 hours a day (cell phone chargers, TV, coffee makers, toasters, non-built in microwaves, printers, etc...). If you don't want to hassle with unplugging 20 different cords every day simply enlist the help of power strips or outlets that are controlled by light switches.

If you are not sure if a socket carries a phantom load, just remember the saying "if in doubt pull it out".

Search all Knoxville TN Homes For Sale www.HomesForSaleKnoxville.com and www.KnoxvilleReal-Estate.com

Real Estate IS The Key For A Sustainable Economy

Deb Hurt, ABR, e-Pro,Green, TRC (Envirian of Albuquerque) — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 00:25:54 -0500

Much good for thought offered here and I wanted to share it.

Via Stephanie Edwards-Musa, Realtor ® Spring/Woodlands, TX Real Estate (Prudential Gary Greene, Realtors ®):

But more importantly, it's the people that drive it. Without jobs we have no money. Without money we have no economy. Without both, we don't exist. The world is changing. We are in an amazing era of awakening. It is said that the jobs that our Middle School Age children will have when they graduate from College do not even exist today.

I often get asked why I am so passionate about Green Real Estate. Preceding that question is why I am in Real Estate. While that is a long story, I will sum it up in just a few sentences.

Real Estate is a Major driving force in our economy. Real Estate is an investment. Real Estate and Homeownership is not only a dream in America but across the Globe. How it differs from Location to Location is not the dream, it is the design. Some Cities grow up, others grow out. Regardless, I find it fascinating on many levels.

To build a single Community, let's take in to consideration how many people it takes.

It starts with a Vision, probably from a single person. We then have an Architect or maybe even a team of architects. Electrical Engineers, Plumbing Experts, HVAC Contractors, Landscape Architects, Transportation Engineers - Teams of people that figure out how in the world to get Electricity and Water to all of these people.

The list could be a blog post in itself. But that is not the purpose of this.

The purpose is the People. The purpose is how Real Estate alone can single handedly drive an economy and why it is time to stop ignoring it. More specifically, how GREEN Real Estate is KEY to a Future Sustainable Economy. I do not mean Sustainable as in Eco Tree Hugger like Economy, I mean a Sustainable Economy in which we thrive and flourish. This post is the first of a Series about how Real Estate is often overlooked in the larger picture. Actually, the people within the Industry. It's not about CEO's that want bailed out because they made extremely poor decisions on how to handle their money. It goes way beyond that.

We hear about Foreclosures, Short Sales and lack of Financing available. But it goes so much further than that also. Think about the whole picture. The people. How many people that have gone in to Foreclosure have jobs directly or indirectly related to Real Estate? Most of them.

Engineers that design Commercial Buildings, Bankers that Finance those projects. The people that are actually out there swinging the hammers to build all of the above. All the way down to people that work in the Retail stores that sell products to our Communities and our Baristas at Starbucks that are working in buildings that are on...Real Estate.

But, enough of what is happening now. What is going to happen in the future? The Economy will turn around eventually. And while we are all suffering in one way or another we should be careful to NOT be hasty and make rash decisions on how to fix the Economy right this second. I said the other day on my Facebook that:

"I am offically redefining the term 'recession' as Get off your butt and think outside the box"

The key to Real Estate and it directly being a driving force in our Economy is not just about the Real Estate Agents. It's not just about the Homeowners or even the Banks that give the Financing.

The key is the number of jobs that it can create. Specifically the number of jobs it can create with a Sustainable and Forward thinking approach. We may be losing jobs, we may continue to lose jobs for another couple years. Do we just sit around and watch it happen? Personally, I do not like to think about what is wrong, I prefer to think about how to fix the problem. Every Business likely has a Business Plan. Our Economy is one large Business. Shouldn't it have a Business Plan also?

What we need is to combine another driving factor in our Economy with Real Estate. Education - Job Training.

Education is looked at most often as for children. Our Future. And while the jobs that our middle school children will have when they grow up do not exist today, that does not fix right now. I believe that we will see a surge in the number of College Students that will pursue Engineering and Architecture degrees. But the term Engineer and their job profile will change dramatically over the next 15 years. The people that will educate and train our children are right here today in the work force.

Again, Real Estate being a driving force behind that. I believe that we, as an industry, will be forced to raise the bar in professionalism, knowledge and expertise.

The next post will be regarding possibly the absolute most important part in the Future of Real Estate.

Architecture.

Architects hold the expertise to help make our future flourish and create jobs. More specifically they are the key to a Sustainable Economy - and this time I mean in the way that most people would consider Tree Huggerish.

But looking at the larger picture, its not about being a Tree Hugger. It's about Smart Growth. It's about not making a quick decision on how our future is going to work and how our economy will continue to thrive day in and day out. It's about the people. It's about us and our children. Working. Living. The Dream that most of us in the Real Estate Industry are so passionate about. Our Homes.

The Kitchen Garden

Deb Hurt, ABR, e-Pro,Green, TRC (Envirian of Albuquerque) — Sun, 29 Mar 2009 12:17:59 -0500

Someone once described a kitchen garden as the shortest, simplest path between the earth, the hands and the mouth. I think that is a good definition of a kitchen garden. A survey in France found hat about a quarter of the produce consumed by the population is home grown fruits and vegetables.

The French potager is their version of the English kitchen garden. There is an emphasis on beauty as well as practicality. Herbs often play a large role in the potager both because many of them are quite attractive while growing and because fresh herbs are an essential ingredient in much French cooking. One of the wonderful things about a kitchen garden is that it can be as organized as you want it to be. In general the kitchen garden mixes fruits, vegetables, flowers and herbs, How they are mixed and in what proportions is largely a matter of personal preference. It can be large or small, manicured or loosely managed.

Thomas Jefferson kept meticulous records of his gardens at Monticello and the gardens are still one of the biggest attractions. Jefferson was passionate about peas. He grew 22 varieties, and challenged his neighbors to a competition every spring to see who could get the first English pea to the table. His orchards held 170 varieties of fruit. He knew that native species had a much better chance of surviving and he favored them in his plantings even though he also tried many new varieties of plants from other locations and countries.

A typically informal kitchen garden.

There are not really any rules about what you can or cannot grow in a kitchen garden other than what you can grow in your local climate zone. For a fascinating read from an avid gardener, Jefferson's garden books remain in print - (don't forget to try the library or your favorite used book store). Perhaps among the most famous gardens are the gardens at Versaille. The gardens were planted in blocks rather than in rows, with the vegetables filling in geometric patterns that sometimes were surrounded by low hedges. By grouping vegetables in blocks rather than in rows, their texture, color and structure became an integral part of the overall garden pattern. Blocks of flowers were often used to help create the tapestry-like patterns.

Versailles.

The gardens at Versaille are huge, covering hundreds of acres. In contrast, most of us could supply enough produce for a family of 4 in a normal back (or front) yard. Using small space gardening techniques can mean growing an amazing amount of food using little space. Container gardens can be very productive as well. Window boxes and roof gardens are all possibilities.

Not Just the White House Lawn!

Deb Hurt, ABR, e-Pro,Green, TRC (Envirian of Albuquerque) — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 23:09:03 -0500

For those of you who don't already know it I am a big fan of edible landscaping. I am also a big fan of Commity Supported Agriculture so when I found a project that combined them, I had to share.

Obviously, I am among those thrilled at the prospect of a vegetable garden on the South Lawn. It will be the first vegetable garden grown at the White House since Elanor Roosevelt's Victory Garden.

Closer to home for most of us are the stories I have read lately about folks organizing their neighborhood into mini farms. Some use backyards, some use front yards. The general arrangement is that the vegetable garden is planted in the yards of the participating homeowners who donate the use of their land for the project. The CSA farmers then plant and tend all the gardens which is especially easy to do if they are on what used to be the front lawn. Most are tended using only hand tools so thee is little danger of damage to power lines of any infrastructure that might be damaged with heavy equipment. All the work is performed for the homeowners- their contribution is the land and usually the water. Most groups also have a fee to cover the cost of seeds, and at least some of the labor., some sell the excess produce not distributed to members at the farmer's market (if you have ever grown zucchini or tomatoes you know there can be bumper crops!)

Here are some links to articls and Information about this idea:

Natural Home Magazine article

Virginia Home Gardener supplies the neighborhood

Spin Gardening

2009 CoHousing Conference in Seattle, WA

Deb Hurt, ABR, e-Pro,Green, TRC (Envirian of Albuquerque) — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 23:25:00 -0500

2009 National Cohousing Conference

Frequent and regular readers know about my interest in the cohousing movement so I am thrilled to be able to pass this information on to everyone in the rain.

Friday, June 26, 2009 - Sunday, June 28, 2009
The 2009 Conference is the first-ever annual conference. There will be a wide range of programs to satisfy Cohousing neophytes as well as old-timers, professionals and planning officials. There is lenty fo current cohousing residents too. In addition to high quality educational programming, there will be many social networking opportunities - both formal and informal. Click on the links below to learn more about what we have in store for you, or take a look at the conference schedule.

The conference will offer both day-long and two-day workshops. Workshops will range from Free, Introductory Presentations for those new to Cohousing to in-depth offerings for Forming Groups, Established Communities, and Cohousing Professionals according to the conference materials. There will also be tours to existing cohousing communites. With 13 built Cohousing Communities, Washington state has the second largest number of Cohousing Communities in the United States - and all 13 are in Puget Sound, making Seattle a wonderful place for you to visit examples of different Cohousing Communities.

If you want detailed information about Cohousing in general or the conference in particular, visit the website at http://www.cohousing.org/

Book Crossings

Deb Hurt, ABR, e-Pro,Green, TRC (Envirian of Albuquerque) — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 22:46:46 -0500

In these times all of us are looking for ways to save money. I have noticed that there are many of us who love books and reading can be an inexpensive pastime. For those with children it can be a great way to educate as well as to spend quality family time. Obviously, it is a great way to lean things that will help us be successful in business.

I will cofess to being great freinds with the USPS and Amazon.com. I always try to order used books for the recyling valu as well as the cost savings. The mail is going to get delivered anyway so I don't obsess about the energy used to get the book from the seller to me. However, perhaps the most interesting and fun way to feed my book addiction is bookcrossing.

BOOKCROSSING n. the practice of leaving a book in a public place to be picked up and read by others, who then do likewise. (added to the Concise Oxford English Dictionary in August 2004)

Book Crossingsis a big enough deal to have wound up as a word in the Oxford English Dictionary. If you are looking for a particular tome you can ask for it and someone may send it to you or tell you where they left it. One of the moat fun things is that you can give your book a number and post on the website where you left it or who you sent it to, then track it's travels around the globe. What a great way to have your child study geography!

This is a huge community. In fact, over 750,000 people in 130 countries are participating in this book exchange. There is also an author exchange for all you aspiring writers out there! You can use one of their bookmarks to label your book --or make your own--who knows what business you could generate if your information was on the label in the book?

Don't Forget to Turn Off the Lights! EARTH HOUR 2009

Deb Hurt, ABR, e-Pro,Green, TRC (Envirian of Albuquerque) — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 21:09:51 -0500

Earth Hour began in Sydney in 2007, when 2.2 million homes and businesses turned off their lights for one hour. In 2008 the message grew into a global movement Fifty million people turned off their lights to show their support for sustainablility. Global landmarks such as the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, Rome's Colosseum, the Sydney Opera House and the Coca Cola billboard in Times Square all stood in darkness.

On March 28, at 8:30 pm local time, one billion people will go dark for Earth Hour. World Wildlife Fund is asking individuals, businesses, governments and organizations around the world to turn off their lights to make a global statement of concern about climate change and to demonstrate commitment to finding solutions. 1,760 cities, towns and municipalities in 80 countries have already committed to turning off the lights for Earth Hour 2009.

Hundreds of icons and landmarks around the world have signed up to turn their lights off for Earth Hour 2009 including - the Eiffel Tower in Paris, Sydney Opera House, Acropolis and Parthenon in Athens and The London Eye, among many others.

Here are some suggestions of ways to spend Earth Hour and reduce your carbon footprint:

1. Attend a local Earth Hour event or organize your own by throwing an Earth Hour street party with your neighbors
2. Gather family & friends for a night picnic in your local park and look at the stars
3. Enjoy a family dinner by candlelight
4. Organisz a treasure hunt in the dark
5. Take the dog for a night walk
6. Have a candle-lit bath
7. Sit in the dark and share stories
8. Organize a family night playing games
9. Share a romantic night in with your loved one

To quote from the Earth Hour information page, " Families with young children should feel free to turn their lights off earlier than 8:30pm and for those having too much fun in the dark during the hour, don't feel you have to limit yourself to one hour and switch back on at 9:30pm."

To find out more about Earth Hour, visit the official website www.earthhour.org, sign up and join millions of people in more than 1,400 cities and towns in 80 countries throughout the world by turning off your lights for one hour at 8:30pm on Saturday 28 March.

I particularly like the first two sugestions. Since we have so much great dark sky here in New Mexico some of us may want to combine those two activities. If you know someone with a telescope ask them about a Star Party for the Messier Marathon. Charles Messier was an 18th century comet seeker. To aid his exploration, he assembled a list of objects in the sky that appeared to be comets but were not. There are 110 Messier objects numbered from M1 to M110. The link will take you to the website of TAAS -The Albuquerque Astronomical Society and more information including a list of the Messier Objects.

Infill Development vs Gentrification

Deb Hurt, ABR, e-Pro,Green, TRC (Envirian of Albuquerque) — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 00:33:13 -0500

The Merriam Webster definition of Gentrification is: the process of renewal and rebuilding accompanying the influx of middle-class or affluent people into deteriorating areas that often displaces poorer residents

While there continues to be disagreement about what constitutes successful urban infill, there is general agreement that the term refers to efforts to utilize existing infrastructure when building new structures whether for commercial or residential use. For the most part, there is also agreement that this is good for both "smart growth" reasons since it stops (or at least slows) the ever expanding girth of cities and helps to revitalize existing urban areas and for revitalizing areas that have begun to decline. Herein lies the dilemma.....

I am a huge fan of remodeling and of building in existing neighborhoods. I believe that it can really be a boon to the area, however, building 2000 square foot homes with high end granite counters, jacuzzi tubs and Travertine floors in a neighborhood of 50 year old 1200 square foot homes that the owners have a hard time maintaining let alone improving is not helpful to the folks who live in the neighborhood already. It is, arguably, not even good for the people who might buy the house. Yes, they are paying less for the same house if it were in a different location but is it a good investment for them? Only if they are buying it because they love both the house and the neighborhood and don't really care about the economics of it.

Ask the people who live across the street or down the block from the new house what they think. They can't afford to have their property values increased because they are already struggling to pay the taxes. Who is going to buy the new home? Either someone who can't afford to buy the same house in a more upscale neighborhood or someone like the builder who built it and is in the process of building seven more on the same street-----oh, yeah, he is trying to buy out the remaining neighbors in the cul de sac where these are located. I love the note in the MLS that says that all 8 of the new homes being constructed here will have fenced yards---he's talking about the FRONT yard folks---- and for some reason I am not visualizing the three foot white picket fence that neighbors used to share iced tea over and grow roses on.

It is quite possible to build good, energy efficient, affordable homes in neighborhoods like this one rather than slightly smaller McMansions that don't really fit the neighborhood. Good builders build those kind of homes everyday. I've run across several of these large new homes lately in working with a buyer who wants a "nice" house but is smart enough to know that she should

Spend a little less than what her lender told her she is approved for.
Look for a house that she feels would be a home for many years since she doesn't want to move again in her later years (she's 45)
Is large enough for her to enjoy having her children and grandchildren visit but not too large for her to clean and maintain comfortably
And in her words, "I know better than to buy the biggest nicest house in the neighborhood - I would never get my money back if I did have to sell it later for some reason".

If one of these homes had been a 1500 square foot home with Saltillo tile instead of Travertine and a simple fireplace rather than an ornate one with expensive finishes and one of many solid surface counter tops rather than granite, good quality EnergyStar appliances and HVAC systems properly sized for the house, it would have cut 25% or more off the cost of the house and brought it down to the price range of the rest of the homes in the area. She would still have had a brand new home she loved in an area that she liked and she would have bought it in a heartbeat. Instead what we have is smaller trophy homes in unlikely places.

Perhaps as the economy and the environmental crisis combine to make more people examine their priorities we will see a shift away from gentrification toward community building which I think is a much more appropriate goal for infill development. Having walkable neighborhoods, energy efficient homes and interacting with our neighbors in a cooperative way that helps us all have a better life can be a path to changing and improving neighborhoods and cities for the better without gentrifying them. Making a neighborhood a better place to live does not have to mean making it unaffordable.

How Walkable is Your Neighborhood?

Deb Hurt, ABR, e-Pro,Green, TRC (Envirian of Albuquerque) — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 12:04:41 -0500

This is the kind of thinking about place that makes a big difference in how green we can be. Think how much money you can save when you use less gas and give up the gym membership cause you are walking!

Via Adam Gallegos (Arbour Realty):

We are a car dependent nation, and in many residential neighborhoods it is almost impossible to live life without owning a car. Unless you live in a large Metropolitan City such as Washington DC or the surrounding neighborhoods like Arlington Virginia for example, you are practically going to need your car for all everyday occurrences. Neighborhoods that have a heavy reliance on cars destroy the environment by emitting large amounts of carbon monoxide, and are in general an unhealthy place to live.

When buying a home, most people don’t even factor in how reliant they will be on their car. Even for those individuals who take an interest in the importance of walking or taking public transport, figuring a homes proximity to restaurants, shops, and ever other day to day conveniences is almost impossible without taking the time to drive out to the neighborhood, and calculating distances.

Walk Score a new website, gives details on America’s most walkable neighborhoods. Walkscore is a great home buying tool and lets you calculate using zip codes, how dependent on driving you will be. It has a great scoring system that informs you whether the neighborhood is a walker’s paradise or a drivers dream. Walk Score helps people find walkable places to live. Walk Score calculates the walkability of an address by locating nearby stores, restaurants, schools, parks, etc. Walk Score measures how easy it is to live a car-lite lifestyle—not how pretty the area is for walking.

Living in a neighborhood that is not car dependant is an environmentally sound choice, and should be everyone’s dream. Walkable neighborhoods reduces carbon emissions, plus our dependence on foreign oil, and reduces fuel costs. Walkable neighborhoods create an environment that is a healthy place to live, work and play. Now you have the tools to find a walkable neighborhood, there are no reasons to spend unnecessary money driving, when you could be living a healthy and eco-friendly lifestyle by walking.

Simple Elegant Solutions for Cooling

Deb Hurt, ABR, e-Pro,Green, TRC (Envirian of Albuquerque) — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 00:21:50 -0500

Since I live in the High Desert region of the Southwest heating and cooling solutions are both important. When most people think of simple solutions for cooling, moving air has to be at the top of the list and that most often means a fan. By moving the hot air around, fans promote evaporation of perspiration on the skin which has a cooling effect.

CEILING FANS are effective for moving air within a room and whole house fans can do a good job of keeping air moving throughout a home. Thanks to the ENERGY STAR program for this chart

Ceiling fan blade spans range from 29 - 54 inches - the most popular being the 52-inch model. To determine which size you need, measure the room where the ceiling fan will be installed and follow these guidelines:

Room DimensionsSuggested Fan Size

Up to 75 ft2	29 - 36"
76 - 144 ft2	36 - 42"
144 - 225 ft2	44"
225 - 400 ft2	50 - 54"

* Reference: American Lighting Association, 2003

Ceiling fans should be installed, or mounted, in the middle of the room and at least 7 feet above the floor and 18 inches from the walls. If ceiling height allows, install the fan 8 - 9 feet above the floor for optimal airflow.

Standard mountscome with a 3 - 5 inch downrod, which is the metal pipe that extends from the ceiling bracket to the top of the fan. Downrods are usually either 1/2 or 3/4-inch in diameter.
Extended mountscan be used to hang the ceiling fan at the desired 8- 9 feet from the floor for tall ceiling heights. Downrods can be purchased from 6 inches (9 ft ceiling) to 120 inches (20 ft ceiling). Check with the manufacturer or sales associate to determine the right downrod length for you.
Flush mounts anchor the fan directly against the ceiling. Most standard fans can be installed as a flush mount however, many manufacturers sell "hugger" or "low profile" ceiling fans that are specifically designed for this purpose. Hugger fans are ideal for rooms that have ceilings under 8 feet in height or in situations where a fan with optional light would hang down too low. Hugger fans will not move as much air as a regular fan because the blades are closer to the ceiling.
Sloped mounts are used for angled or vaulted ceilings.

ROOF TURBINES are lightweight spinning vents that suck air out of your roof cavity. Waterproof and requiring no electricity, the roof turbine will spin in even very light breezes and most can also withstand hurricane winds. During summer, the space between your ceiling and roof can become very hot. Even if you have good insulation, some of that heat will make it's way into your home. This is an inexpensive, passive way to remove it so that the house stays cooler.

SHADE is always a good preventive option.Planting deciduous trees in strategic places to provide summer cooling is a great idea. All the better if they happen to be fruit trees so they can help with the grocery bill too! Awnings over windows and patios can make these pleasant places to spend time in the summer rather than a space to be avoided except in the early morning and the evening.
WindCatcher is a traditional architectural device used for centuries in the Middle East to create natural ventilation in buildings. a windcatcher functions as a stack effect aggregator of hot air. It creates a pressure gradient which allows less dense hot air to travel upwards and escape out the top. This effect is compounded by the day-night cycle mentioned above, trapping cool air below They may be designed to be uni directional, bi directional or multi directional. In many cases they are as beautiful as they are functional.
When coupled with thick adobe similar to the kind we have here in the southwest which has high heat absorption qualities, the windcatcher is able to chill lower level spaces in houses in the middle of the day to very cool temperatures. Ask anyone who has stepped into an old adobe building in the middle of a summer day and wondered why they felt like they should have brought a sweater!

Simple, Elegant and Efficient Solutions

Deb Hurt, ABR, e-Pro,Green, TRC (Envirian of Albuquerque) — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 00:05:57 -0600

I have always been a fan of simplicity. I have come to believe that simple solutions are also often the most elegant as well. Here are two of my favorite ideas which have stood the test of time. These are technologies that work in every place and period of time. That is part of their brilliance.

THE MASONRY STOVE AKA RUSSIAN FIREPLACE

These are woodburning fireplaces designed to burn very hot wood fires. They create very little smake because they burn so hot (1600 degrees Fareheit or hotter) and are said to be 90% efficient. They burn with the air supply and chimney damper wide open. This results in a clean burn, with little visible smoke. The distinctive feature of the heaters is a series of baffles to pull the heat out of the exhaust. The masonry absorbs the heat of the fire, then radiates it gradually back into the room. Masonry stoves have been widely used in Europe and Asia for centuries. The stoves provide clean combustion at a high temperature to avoid pollution and creosote build-up. If you have ever been inside an adobe house in the southwest or a well designed passive solar home anywhere it is the same principle as having the sun shine on a brick floor or a Trombe wall all day and radiate the heat back at night.

The fireplaces are usually massive (that's the point after all) and some are amazingly beautiful. Since wood is a renewable resource and these use quite a bit less than you might imagine given their size because they burn so hot we may well see more of them again soon. They had a brief resurgence in the 70's and 80's but they may be due for another comeback. According to the Masonry Heater Association

The main thing that distinguishes a masonry heater is the ability to store a large amount of heat. This means that you can rapidly burn a large charge of wood without overheating your house. The heat is stored in the masonry thermal mass, and then slowly radiates into your house for the next 18 to 24 hours.

If you burn wood fairly rapidly, it is a clean fuel. If you try to burn it too slowly, the fire will change from flaming to smoldering combustion. The burning process is incomplete and produces tars. Atmospheric pollution increases dramatically. This is important if you are planning an energy-efficient house. The average energy demand of your house will be quite low. For most of the time, it may require only 1 to 2 kW of heat. For most conventional woodstoves, this is below their "critical burn rate", or the point where they start to smolder.

These heaters are meant to be sized for the space they are heating so if you have a small house you will also have a small heater. Just as in a passive solar application, you want the mass to be in proportion.

RADIANT FLOOR HEATING

Okay, those of you who know me knew I could not get through this without at east a nod to Frank Lloyd Wright. Radiant floor heating is not a new idea. It is, in fact an ancient one. It was old hot when Wright introduced it to his homes in the 1930's. Wright went to Japan to work on the design of the Imperial Hotel in Tokyo. In 1923 he was invited to the home of a nobleman who had discovered Ondol in Korea and could not forget it. After returning from Japan he had an Ondol room built in his home. "The indescribable comfort of being warmed from below" impressed Wright.

A traditional Ondol floor heating system conducts the flue gases of a fire (traditionally from the kitchen where the fires were kept going for cooking) under the floor of a living space. Horizontal flues passageways for heat and smoke ran beneath the room's floor, connecting the fireplace and the chimney. Hot air from the fire passed through the flues and heated the stone and mud floor. Wright invented modern radiant floor heating, using hot water running through pipes instead of hot air through flues. From the meeting of Eastern and Western architecture came a true hybrid heating system.

The Romans had a similar idea, a bit more complicated but still in the realm of simple, elegant solutions.Instead of a fire in each room, Romans had a special fire room built against an outside wall. The floors were raised on pillars and the walls of the villa were hollow. The heated air from the fire went to all the other rooms, through these spaces under the floor and in the walls.

This is a picture of the hypocaust at Rockborne in Hampshire. These pillars (red) held up the floor and allowed the hot air to circulate underneath, heating the room.

SIMPLE AND ELEGANT

PERHAPS SLIGHTLY IMPROVED WITH NEWER BUILDING TECHNOLOGY BUT THIS IS DEFINITELY NOT ROCKET SCIENCE

Chasing Windmills : Functional Obsolescence

Deb Hurt, ABR, e-Pro,Green, TRC (Envirian of Albuquerque) — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 16:54:02 -0600

Dena Stevens povides not just food for thought with this post but a whole meal !

Via Dena Stevens ~ Ecobroker ~So. Colorado Realtor (Colorado Western Real Estate):

During a recent conversation with another agent and appraiser we got into the ever-so-common discussion of what is the right way to build an energy efficient, sustainable, environmentally friendly house. For the most part he and I agreed on every point. This conversation took several hours but was a great way to exchange ideas and hopefully build our respective businesses.

Many people today are asking builders to build their new construction homes with the newest, biggest, most modern gizmos. Whether it's photo voltaic, hot water systems, wind turbines or anything else that has bells or whistles. But is the home owner chasing wind mills?

Functional Obsolescence is the impairment of the usefulness of a device or equipment due to a design defect, or due to it's inability to be upgraded or modified to serve the user's current needs.

Installers of Photo Voltaic systems are advising home owners to replace their roofs prior to the PV installation. (If roof mounted) The average PV system has a warranty of between 10 and 25 years modified or discounted every year and the warranty or average life span of the roof is 30 years or less, it makes sense to do both projects at once.

Many people are interested in purchasing PV systems today because of the tax credits available. But just as many are putting off the purchase because of the cost and because a newer system is always around the corner. The next newest gizmo is always going to be improving in quality and efficiency.

PV Life cycle info: http://photovoltaics.sandia.gov/docs/LCcost.htm From this site : One dollar received today is worth more than the promise of $1 next year, because the $1 today can be invested and earn interest.

So what is the correct answer when a home owner asks what to do? Does the owner invest today based on the information above? Or wait to see what will happen tomorrow?

Some of the things that we agreed upon in our conversation:

1) The homeowner is right, after all the owner is the one writing the check.

2) There are some great passive solar designs out that will save the home owner money up front, are sustainable and cost effective in the long run.

Homeowners, builders, investors, real estate professionals all need to educate themselves on ALL of the options available. What is the correct balance between active and passive systems? Is the newest gizmo better than some tried and true proven designs?

You don't need fancy highbrow traditions or money to really learn. You just need people with the desire to better themselves. Adam Cooper and Bill Collage

Thanks to Deb Hurt : www.activerain.com/debhurt for the additional inspiration on this blog post : http://weburbanist.com/2009/02/19/abandoned-windmills/

Pueblo is happy to welcome Vestas to Southern Colorado

One per cent solution

Deb Hurt, ABR, e-Pro,Green, TRC (Envirian of Albuquerque) — Sun, 01 Mar 2009 02:34:36 -0600

I had a closing last week. I got a commission check on Thursday and ran right to the bank to deposit it. I wrote checks to my creditors but the first two checks were to a commitment I made for this year. I donate one per cent of every commission check to my local public radio station because I believe that public radio is an important source of music, news and information about various points of view that are not commonly available through other sources. Whether I necessarily like or agree with all of them is not the point. The point is that they should be freely available so that people can hear a diversity of opinion, news,music ,and drama.

The other check was for another one percent to THE HOUSE THAT ACTIVE RAIN BUILT for the MAKE IT RIGHT NOLA Foundation. Whatever your commission, 1% to help enrich someone else's life will be enhanced and multiplied when it is joined with the funds of others. It is not enough for you to miss it in the larger scheme of things but it can make a huge difference. Mu counter shows almost 137,000 Active rain members. A Make It Righthouse only costs $150,000. The House That Active Rain Built has $153.00 in donations so far.....even one dollar will help. Donations of five dollars or more can be made online. Donations of less than five dollars must be mailed but all you have to do is put a note i the envelope saying that the donation is for the House that Active Rain Built and it will be credited to our house.

New tax incentives for Old Homes

Deb Hurt, ABR, e-Pro,Green, TRC (Envirian of Albuquerque) — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 17:40:19 -0600

Dena has saved me the time and effort of putting together this information. She's probably done a better job of it than I would have anyway and I thank her for it.

Via Dena Stevens ~ Ecobroker ~So. Colorado Realtor (Colorado Western Real Estate):

Save the planet by making an old home energy efficient

Better tax credits for increasing the energy efficiency of your existing home. WOW that makes sense. Previously there was a $200 cap on replacement windows. Now it is $1500 tax credit for all energy efficient projects. Don't get me wrong I love the idea of building more energy efficient homes; it makes great sense that as we build new homes we build them to ever increasing standards that match the new technology available. However, retrofitting an existing home with energy efficient features is much more carbon and cost efficient than adding requirements to new housing.

"These new tax credits are another way that the home building industry can combat the potential effects of global climate change by encouraging home owners to make energy-efficient improvements to their homes," said Miedema. A 2008 California study showed that homes built before 1983 were responsible for 70% of the greenhouse gas emissions related to single-family envelope energy consumption. The study also found that spending $10,000 to retrofit a 1960s home could save 8.5 tons of carbon at a cost of $588 to $1,176 per ton, depending on existing tax credits and incentives. By comparison, increasing the energy efficiency of a new home 35% over current state requirements would cost about $5,000 and would reduce emissions by 1.1 tons at a cost of $4,545 per ton. The bottom line is that retrofitting existing homes with energy efficient features is four to eight times more carbon- and cost-efficient than adding further energy-efficiency requirements to new housing, the study showed.
Taken from the Nations Building News February 16, 2009 found on www.nahb.org

A word of caution is needed, though, as not all E-star rated products will qualify for the new tax credits. The standards have been increased so consumers need to do some research and make sure that their contractor is well informed. These new standards have just been put in place and not everyone including industry professionals will be aware of the new stricter standards. Consumers should always do some research before investing in products for their home, but now it is more imperative than ever before. The window industry is reeling over this news, there are many very high quality windows that will not meet the new criteria and some not so great windows that do. Shgc and U-factors are just part of the story in an efficient window. However, I believe the overall wisdom of making an older home more efficient is the best thing we can do for the environment, our personal comfort and for our pocket books. Realtors can market either a homes existing improvements or the tax credits for making improvements. Every little bit helps in these tough economic times.

Alternative energy systems such as Solar, wind and geothermal have their own tax credits that have been extended to the year 2016. I hope that we will see a continued increase in smart policies that will encourage energy efficiency and new technologies. Below are some websites that have more information.

Contributed by Pamela Simmons
www.alliedbuilding.com

www.NAHB.org
http://www.energystar.gov
http:/// www.seia.org
www.irs.gov