Three Years of Sustained Energy

February 1st is an important date here. It represents Boo’s birthday…he is three. Oh I almost forgot; it is also three years to the day since we moved onto the land and started our new life. On this day, in honour of all the embodied energy found in Boo, we are making this day the beginning of our fiscal year for our energy monitoring for our journey to net zero.

It was three years ago Ann and I moved into the trailer in the middle of a very muddy, wet and cold February and started our attempt at living a more reasonable life. What a difference from this dry and warm February. Looking back over what we have accomplished is… well… hard to describe, as we look at ourselves as being just normal people that just don’t sit down very much. I guess we might have a little bit of embodied energy too.

Charting our Journey to Net Zero Energy

Over the next year we will be charting our net energy use/generation on a weekly basis and sharing this data. This data will allow us to monitor our energy conservation to see our progress. Who knows, maybe we will be a net provider. We have shut power off to the trailers, unplugged our cordless phones, packed away Mom’s rice cooker and electric coffee maker and replaced these with the older and proven technologies of a pot of hot water. Our favorite AC lamps have been converted to DC via cutting and splicing wires and installing DC LED bulbs. We are off and running on our journey to NET ZERO energy so stay tuned to see how we do.

It seems that so far in our multigenerational family the youngest members adapt the quickest and oldest are more set in their ways. Mom practically had tears when we took the rice cooker away…and Dad likes to do beautiful fine precision carpentry…ON THE 240v TABLESAW! Ann has the easiest go of all with her unwavering push for sustainability demonstrated by such acts as unplugging Gord’s vacuum and handing him the broom. She also had a head-start on the rest of us by living off-the-grid for many years.

Energy Waves…AC/DC…radio…microwave…

We had a special guest tour the house last week, Katharina Gustavs, of Rainbow Consulting. Katharina specializes in building biology, and has amazing scientific knowledge of different energy fields (EMF, radio, etc), and the potential health effects of exposure. She has been here on several occasions before, and offered to jump on the opportunity to measure the fields in the finished earthen home. We faired very well because of the 20 inch earthen walls, chicken wire formwork in the clay infill walls, and most importantly, having an energy efficient home with less stuff to plug in. So it seems being energy efficient also has an added benefit of less personal exposure to these energy fields.

There was one point at which Katharina was somewhat confused as she was having a reading going off the chart through a wall, which she thought was clay infill. It turned out it was a very nasty type of cordless phone transmitting through a wood framed wall. (If it had been a light clay infill wall the waves would have been blocked). DSS technology in cordless phones with it’s wonderful long range use, is really rather bad. Other things to be avoided are microwave ovens, extension cords around your bed, and wireless internet. Our laptop running on batteries and hard wired to the internet was just fine…but as soon as we plugged it in to recharge, the meters went crazy. DC items tested well, which, lucky for us is our main source of electricity distribution. Katharina’s website is www.buildingbiology.ca and she can provide many simple solutions and lifestyle choice ideas to reduce ones exposure.

2009 Eco-Sense Courses

Eco-Sense course schedule is out and we have lots of exciting opportunities. Topics include Solar PV 101, Earthen Floors and Counters, Resource Recovery (greywater and humanure composting), and a series of workshops on building our cob cold storage. We may also put a course together on LED lighting. Details are listed on the website and on this PDF. http://www.islandnet.com/~anngord/downloads/eco-sense-2009tours-090202.pdf Email or phone to learn more or to reserve your spot.

BC Assessment and Eco-Sense

Our beautiful cob home has now been assessed by the BC Assessment office. Initially we were going to appeal that the appraisal was too high…and then we were going to appeal that it was too low as it didn’t take into account the longevity of the home. The appraisal of our home takes into account one factor; the resale or market value of the home. This has turned out to be quite high because the building is beautiful, desirable, safe, energy efficient, and has very low maintenance or energy costs. This is all good… but, ironically, we will be required to pay municipal taxes on the value of all our future sustainable energy. Everyone seems to agree that this is not right as sustainable energies need to be supported and not penalized. It is also interesting that a building like ours can be built affordably and then appraised and potentially sold for a very high profit. But this won’t happen any time soon as builders and developers are not legally allowed to build this type of structure…YET!

Eco-Sense Tidbits:

· Our next update will be very interesting as we have an upcoming home energy assessment with City Green (http://www.citygreen.ca/) to be followed up with another visit with the A-Channel. Gord has been busy doing all kinds of calculations to be summarized next month in the Eco-Sense Energy Report Card update.

· Last week, we were on the CBC radio again with Mark Forsythe. Our website had over 4600 hits in one day and our email got really busy. Unfortunately the open line archives only last for one week so the interview is no longer available.

· Next tour is Sunday March 1 from 10am to 12:30 . Tour is already half full.

· In about a month we will have a few LED lights available for sale.

· A cob bathroom pilot project is being planned complete with humanure composting toilet system…Very exciting project. Stay tuned

· Our two year old humanure compost sample has been to the lab for bacterial analysis. As expected, it is completely safe for use in our gardens with the added benefit of being very biologically active with tonnes of good bacteria.

Rocks in the Highlands

So there you have it… lots on the go and we are busier than ever digging holes in the rocks to plant apple trees, landscaping with rocks and native plants around our home, planning our rock lined veggie gardens, and Gord the human excavator is preparing the rock foundation for our cold storage. To learn more about rocks in the Highlands tune into to hear Pattie Whitehouse discuss the History of the Highlands in a community written book called “Beautiful Rocks: A History of the Highland District” on Saturday at 1pm on C-FAX 1070.

Thanks,

Gord and Ann