“Green Houses”: The Inconvenient Truth February 29, 2008
Posted by Steve in : The City, Methods & Strategies, Adaptive Reuse, Energy Efficiency , add a commentAs energy prices continue to increase, I have searched for ways to reduce our cost of energy in our house — I am currently looking at solar power, wind energy and geothermal (although running a 300 foot deep pipe in the backyard doens’t seem feasible in the city) . If you like this stuff, check out Chicago company Aerotecture for their urban windmills! I came across an article that looked at two different approaches to home building and energy consumption. Look over the description of the following two houses and see if you can tell which one belongs to an environmentalist:
House Number One
So I find articles about the direction oA 20 room mansion (not including 8 bathrooms) heated by natural gas. Add on a pool (and a pool house) and a separate guest house, all heated by gas. In one month this residence consumes more energy than the average American household does in a year. The average monthly bill for electricity and natural gas runs over $2,400. In natural gas alone, this property consumes more than 20 times the national average for an American home. This house is not situated in a Northern or Midwestern “snow belt” area. It’s in the South.
House Number Two
Designed by an architecture professor at a leading national university. 
This house incorporates every “green” feature current home construction can provide. The house is 4,000 square feet ( 4 bedrooms ) and is nestled on a high prairie in the American southwest. A central closet in the house holds geothermal heat-pumps drawing ground water through pipes sunk 300 feet into the ground. The water (usually 67 degrees F. ) heats the house in the winter and cools it in the summer. The system uses no fossil fuels such as oil or natural gas and it consumes one-quarter electricity required for a conventional heating/cooling system. Rainwater from the roof is collected and funneled into a 25,000 gallon underground cistern. Wastewater from showers, sinks and toilets goes into underground purifying tanks and then into the cistern. The collected water then irrigates the land surrounding the house. Surrounding flowers and shrubs native to the area enable the property to blend into the surrounding rural landscape.
House number one is outside of Nashville , Tennessee; it is the abode of the “environmentalist” Al Gore. House number two is on a ranch near Crawford, Texas; it is the residence the of the President of the United States , George W. Bush.
Alas, this is an “inconvenient truth” for environmentalists who can’t walk the talk.
Background
According to the Associated Press, the Gore’s 10,000 square foot Belle Meade residence (more…)
