timby McCoy

oracle wrote:
Thank you.

My pleasure......

velacreations wrote:
It is only "considered" green if your ignore the large environmental debt it creates during its production.  It will take decades of energy savings to pay back those debts.  That's not green.

We could build homes out of a lot of stuff that isn't "green", but pack it with carcinogens.... er, I mean insulation, and then slap a green label on it. Sorry, that doesn't make it green.

Never mind the environmental costs, right?

So, basically, if you hide 1/2 of the picture, it looks attractive.  When you uncover that over half, however....

The point I'm trying to get across is that to build a totally green structure is nearly impossible here in the states. For example the You Tube vids on Hemp Crete house. The infrastructure (the bones of the home) were constructed of post and beam with a concrete slab. The walls were nearly clad in wood and the only thing green was the cladding. However, it was passed off as a green home. So of we look at the carbon foot print of the slab and lumbering the big trees for the posts. The process to get the hempcrete into a usable form I would think the savings (carbon emissions) would have been a wash. Was this an energy efficient home?Yes. Does it meet your standards of low carbon emissions?NO

Now if we look at what the governing body (fed and locals) use to give you green energy credits we find the product doesn't have to be green (made of a low carbon emitting substance). It just has to fall within a guideline of being recyclable and energy efficient. So I can re-cycle the concrete and much of the insides of an all concrete dwelling. Also due to thermal mass and construction methodologies it passes the energy efficiency test. Therefor it's green.

So as I stated so many times. When you say green it's not necessarily what other understand as green. My new storm door qualified for a rebate because it was considered green. Steel and glass are not low carbon emitting processes.

Dude, I spent most of my career in the Telecom business. They have server farms as well as big banks of Telco equipment that require efficient as well as good cooling. Many of the solutions used by them are not scalable to residential usage. I've seen some really nice chilled air systems.

You may want to split off the server area from the living area and go with some split systems for heating and cooling. You could look at reclaiming the heat generated for domestic hot water and heating for the living space. There are many building systems out there. You are going to have to do some due diligence to see whether they meet with your local building codes. Also, you'll have to determine if being Green is going to meet your requirements.

The last time I needed a new AC I did some research on the varied cooling and heating solutions available. The geothermal heat pumps were really cool. They were energy efficient and very green. However, the cost for the unit and the install way outweighed the benefits of the cost savings even when considering the future cost of energy. So while geothermal was a Green solution, adding more insulation, better windows, etc made more sense in many ways. Also, I purchase a very efficient HVAC for less than a third of the cost of the geothermal. So with all the upgrades I was able to make my home more energy efficient for less than half the cost of the geothermal unit alone.

Hope this helps.....

I would love to see more solar solutions for heating and cooling. Right now the cost is one of my concerns as well as the power providers not paying me for any excess power generated.

Maybe a good place for an earthship. However, I'm a little prejudice. Since you're in Texas why don't you contact David South in Italy TX (monolithic domes). They have the dome system. They would be more than happy to discuss what you're trying to achieve.  I guess it all depends on what you're looking for and your resources (DIY, green, Stick built, underground, bermed, etc.).

You may want to google an old episode of This Old House. They showed an older home that had the state of the art ventilation system that was over a hundred years old. It seem that when they built the house the builder put in a dome that had NG jets ringed around a dome. In the summer they would open the doors and ignite the gas ring. The dome had windows at the top that were opened prior to lighting the gas jets. The heat from the ignited gas caused a convection flow through the door and out the dome top. Worked well.

Just a thought....

I would think that having a copula or a top story containing operation windows would suffice. Even here in Texas, there are certain times of the year that I can open the southern facing windows and doors as well as the northern windows and doors and get good ventilation.

elsyr wrote:
While that may be the point for you, it's certainly not the point for me at all.  The point for me is to make the additional efforts necessary to find materials that are more ecologically (and hopefully economically) sound than what I can find in the builders' supply.  If I have to call or ask around a bit to find somebody in my area to deliver a load of road base to my site, so what?  It will still be miles less polluting than a comparable load of portland cement based concrete, and almost certainly less expensive to boot.  If I were to limit my selection of building materials to what I could find at the local home supply store, I would have pretty much zero need (or likely desire) to read a green building message board on a permaculture forum.   

Doug

Agreed.....

If one had the time and determination, they could dumpster dive and gain most of their building materials. Also, if I wait long enough maybe some of these newer systems may become mainstream. However, I find the main thing that drives the building industry is cost/bottom line and not green. Also, many have a different vision of what green is. So many are not on the same page when it comes to the term "GREEN".

A few years back there was a local builder touting green homes. They claimed they could build the same home for a little more than the conventional stick built non-custom home. Well what they claimed as green housing wasn't necessarily what others would call green. Even though they produced an efficient (energy usage wise) they're out of business. They couldn't compete with the higher margin cookie cutter homes in the area.

The point is, if you have the appropriate resources (time, material, money) anything is possible. If I'm getting nearly free labor and the cost of my materials is low and readily available then I can build anything (earthbag, earthship, cob, straw bail, teepee, yurt, etc) cheaply. If my family owns a concrete yard I could build a 3000sq ft bunker cheaply that would meet many of the green standards accepted today.

Wow how to reply. I guess it's best to say it depends. I'm fairly certain that I could build a straw bail house in the town where I live as long as it meets the building code. The same for sip or some of the new insulated foam & concrete systems. However, there are municipalities that want to control, to the Nth degree,  all aspects of your building. Texas has some very stringent areas as well as some that are lax. There are still areas that have no building codes that are not far from civilization. I have some acreage in East Texas just a hop-skip-n-jump from a little town (1500 population). I could drag an old car out there and turn it into a home. There have been others that pulled out little travel trailers and live in them.

So in order to build your dream home you're going to have to do some homework to determine whether your building system is accepted by the local authorities.

Maybe you should look at the earthship system. They have addressed many of these issues. They proclaim a self sufficient home that utilizes only those things found in nature. You could certainly adapt some of these systems in your up and coming build assuming resources are available (money and time).

Just a thought....

Dave Bennett wrote:
"However, we can't crucify folks for utilizing what is readily available until other systems become more main stream and less costly."

That is the point they are available these days and at a comparable cost. 

Again, if they were main stream I could go to my local Home store supply and get them. I can't. So that is the point. Yes, if I make considerable efforts I can find some of these materials. However, It's hard to find anyone that is using them and understands how to best apply the material.

velacreations wrote:
All of earth's volcanoes emit less than 1% of human-based CO2 annually.

For example, in 2008 humans emitted about 36 billion metric tons of CO2. In that same year, the highest estimates for all volcanoes combined (submarine volcanoes included) were just 270 million metric tons (Gerlach, 2010).

Even the European airline industry emits more CO2 than a volcano blast:
http://www.informationisbeautiful.net/2010/planes-or-volcano/

Beside particulate (ash and other particles), volcanoes can release enormous quantities of gases, including the following pollutants:
H2O water vapor
CO2 carbon dioxide
SO2 sulfur dioxide
H2S hydrogen sulfide
CO carbon monoxide
HCl hydrogen chloride
HF hydrogen flouride