Met Eco (continued)
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MH: These days, there are all kinds of government programs, like rebates, meant to reward people for saving energy. Are they working?
Harrison: I have yet to have a state rebate or tax incentive make a difference in the choices we make on a project. They’re not, in Washington State anyway, large enough to sway the decision. My clients would likely do it anyway, rebate or not.
Freed: And I’ve never seen a rebate for renters. Which is a shame. A renter can’t put solar panels on a house, and a landlord has no incentive to do it. So it’s crucial to have government step in and help.
Shaw: Photovoltaic panels can cost $50,000 or more. That’s a big check to write. But for one house I did in Venice [California], the owners, a young couple, leased solar panels from a company called Citizenre. [www.Citizenre.com] They didn’t have enough roof space to go entirely off the grid, but they’ve gotten pretty close.
Harrison: In Seattle, $25,000 will get you a utility inter-tie system, in which you are still hooked up to the grid, but your meter runs backward when the house is producing more energy than it’s consuming. For panels made in Washington State, you’ll get paid $0.50 per kilowatt-hour for energy you return to the grid.
MH: Are there other things government can do that don’t cost money?
Gitt: In parts of the Bay Area, there is a time-of-sale ordinance: a punch list of energy- and water-saving measures that you have to undertake before your house is sold. Now there’s an effort to take the law statewide. The real estate folks are dead set against it, because they think it will make transactions more difficult. But I think the problems can be resolved.
Lenard: I think government should also work hard to remove regulations that actually make it hard to build green. In many cases, building codes have to be updated to permit use of the latest green technologies.
MH: We’ve talked a lot about saving energy. What about saving water?
Gitt: Put in a high-efficiency toilet. With the new models, you don’t sacrifice function.
Freed: Everyone should have a dual-flush toilet. You choose number one or number two. It saves a huge amount of water. And if you can, install a gray-water recycling system, which takes the water from your sinks and showers and uses it to flush the toilet.
MH: Can you install a gray-water system if you’re renovating an existing building?
Freed: It depends on how extensive a renovation you’re doing, because it does require you to go into the walls. But there’s also a great device called Aqus that recycles the gray water from a single sink to a toilet up to ten feet away. It’s a $300 box, and it’s something even renters can use, because you can take it with you [WaterSaverTech.com].
Harrison: We’re recommending our clients install a rainwater-collection system. For about $7,000 you can install a system with a 1,500-gallon underground tank that will collect and filter rainwater for use in toilets and laundry. In Seattle, these systems will pay for themselves in five or six years. You might say water is the new energy. Everywhere you look, scarcity and quality of water are becoming bigger issues.
MH: Do you use only recycled products?
Freed: We source a lot of recycled products, but you have to be very careful with the word “recycled.” It’s thrown around quite a bit. We ask a series of specific questions about every product we use: Where does it come from? What are the by-products of its manufacture? How is it delivered and installed? How healthy is it? And what are we going to do with it when we’re done with it? And sometimes it’s hard to get the answers.
Gitt: Which is why you should hire professionals with green-building experience. You don’t want to have to teach your architect or contractor about green building any more than you’d want to teach your plumber how to install a dishwasher. That said, green building is always an evolution, and new information becomes available every day.
Harrison: Durability and beauty are as important to me as recycled content. This comes together nicely in some products, like locally made tiles of recycled glass [BedrockIndustries.com].
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