Dear Mr. Schmidt,
I am in 5th grade. I am going a green project for my class. I’m doing the report oon the green design of museums. Do you think you could give me some ideas on that???
Katherine
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Dear Katie,
Thank you so much for your email, your project sounds very exciting. One great example of a green, sustainably designed museum is right here in our backyard, it is the California Academy of Sciences. http://www.calacademy.org/
The building has many green features and exhibits, one of the most interesting is the “living roof” A living roof is more than just a roof top garden, it is a complete, miniature ecosystem and habitat on your roof! Did you know that you can have a living roof on almost any building, not just museums? Green Roofs for Healthy Cities is an organization that helps communities become aware of, install and maintain living roofs in cities around the world. I hope this helps you on your project, good luck!
Heck Yes! John, one of our readers sent in the following question:
Hello,
Great project! We own a house in the inner sunset (our first). While we need to start small ($), we would very much like to start making some sustainable improvements. My sense is that the first change would be to replace some of the 60+ year old single pain windows. Any suggestions about who to call to figure that out?
John
Windows are a great investment, and their are a few things you want to know when you get new ones. Energy Star rates not just appliances, but windows and doors too. It can be confusing though, so when you see something like “low U” you don’t have to give a blank stare…
Here is a guide from the energy star website that will tell you all you need to know about windows, as well as figuring out what all the code words mean. There are lots of really cool things going on in windows now. Most of you are familiar with double paned windows I am sure, but did you know that you can buy them with Argon or Krypton gas between the panes? Why you might ask? Well let me tell you, Argon & Krypton are orderless, colorless, non toxic and…drum roll please…transmit heat less efficiency than air. That means they insulate better than air filled double paned windows. Here is a great diagram for you to learn more.
I myself recommend aluminum or wood frames. Vinyl is an option, and they tend to be cheaper, but a lot of chemicals go into the production of vinyl products that the world would be a better place without. If you need an installer, I used my man Pete at Dial Glass in Pacifica. Tell him Helmut sent you, he is a decent guy. His number is (650) 359-5380
One of the slew of emails that came in over the weekend was from Stacey, a local architect. Stacey asks:
I just read the SF Chronicle article about your Sunset neighborhood house. Thank you very much for your efforts in going sustainable. I think this is a very important thing to be doing.
However, I have a question for you. Since your house’s main energy consumption component is heating, why did you spend $20,000 on a PV system when you could have spent half that on a solar thermal system to heat your hot water instead of using natural gas (a non-renewable, carbon emitting fuel)? You would save much more energy doing that than those PV panels will ever produce. In the total energy/polution equation, this would have greatly reduced your house’s energy consumption and carbon emmisson. The solar thermal would have had a much faster payback as well, despite the incentives being less than PV, particularly considering how you are utilizing hot water to heat the house.
Stacey Stemach
Architect
An outstaning question, my response below. But I ask you, gentel reader,wWhat do you think about PV vs Solar Thermal systems?
I doubt it would surprise you to know that I am something of a wannabe political hack. One of my many daily guilty pleasures is my RSS feed from TPM – a really great blogsite for American Politics. Today’s feed had links us to a who’s who in the Anti Global Warming Camp. Worth a click, just to remind you who is on the other side. We should do a poll for biggest ass clown of the lot.
H
Well, much thanks to the Chronicle for a very kind story yesterday in the Sunday paper. As I am a dirty landlord already, it is nice to also be an evil greedy developer =) Yes, I am referring to the lively discussion over at the Chron boards on the story, though I have to say it was pretty cool. A lot of people had some valid points, and even the trolls were funny. One criticism that came up that warrants more discussion was about demolition. Many people were upset at the thought of tearing out material and sending it off to a landfill. While it is true, construction debri is a serious, serious problem, as something like 22% of the total waste stream in the state comes from construction debri, sometimes you have no choice but to tear things out. For 2139 39th ave, the house had some serious termite damamge. There were parts of the first floor hardwood flooring that had so much termite damage, you literally stepped through the floor when you walked on it. There is nothing to salvage there. When a bathroom gets water behind the tiles and under the shower pan, sorry, but those walls are coming down. So my point is, sometimes demolition is unavoidable, and do not let the trolls get you down if you have to tear something out. It is a little like surgery, sometimes you have to remove a diseased part of your body to save you. Here are some before shots to consider:
Honestly, 30 year old red shag carpet? How are you going to salvage that?
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