What can you learn and use from this video in order to go carbon neutral?
- Efficiency & Conservation - upgrade the insulation, fill any cracks around doors and windows, reduce energy demand with high efficiency appliances including your fridge, lighting, washers and dryers. Look out for "phantom loads" such as VCRs and TVs that when "turned off" are actually in a "standby mode" that consumes a trickle of electricity all the time (put a power bar with a switch on these devices and switch them off when not in use).
- Green electricity - switch to a green electricity provider such as Bullfrog Power . The premium for clean green electricity can be compensated for by the efficiency measures.
- Passive solar design - adjust the design of your home to take advantage of the solar heat provided by sunlight that can penetrate deep into your home in the winter while reducing heating with shading in the summer. Check out more award-winning designs by Martin Liefhebber the architect for the Wilson Natural Home.
- Solar thermal - install a solar water heating system on your roof to reduce the demand for energy required to heat your hot water. Up front costs are reasonable and payback on this investment can be in the 5-7 year timeframe. For a CSA approved solar thermal system check out EnerWorks.
- Solar photovoltaic - put some solar photovoltaic (PV) panels on you roof. You can run your existing meter backwards, connect on a "net-metering" basis or look for a "standard offer program" that pays you a premium for the clean green electricity you are providing. Many states and provinces now offer a significant incentive for you to produce clean and green electricity. Ontario offers 42 cents/kWh for solar PV electricity that you generate (Ontario SOP). The Wilson Natural Home was supplied with solar PV by Solera Energies. Contact them for a quote today.
- Beyond the home - once you've got the carbon footprint of your home heading towards neutral you can also be looking at other aspects of your life. To help with this do a carbon footprint analysis which only takes a few minutes to start with. See www.fightglobalwarming.tv for a free community oriented carbon footprint calculator.
Construction
By keeping a journal
of the process of designing and building the Wilson Solar house you too
can learn what it takes to make solar living a reality. The house was being
built on a 10 acre lot near Hockley Valley about 1 hour north of Toronto.
Occupancy
date was May 1, 2001.
See the the construction process:
- Take the full tour that documents the construction.
- Go straight to the latest pictures.
- Read the book about how you too can make your dreams of a natural dream
home true.
Design
Find
out more informatin about the architect and designer of this home - Martin
Liefhebber at Breathe
By Association.
Construction
Colin Richards built the house. His company is C & R Construction. His crew includes
Bernie, Doug and Richard. Occasionally John Wilson and Leigh Geraghty,
the owners, spend a day or two during vacations helping out. Ian and Claire
have also provided assistance. Martin Liefhebber is frequently on site
reviewing the design and construction challenges with Colin.
C & R Construction
and Colin Richards can be contacted at the following email address: gregory.richards@sympatico.ca
In-floor heating system
by Alternative Combined Energy Systems, contact Lyle
Jory, 416-463-5835 or (888) 773-6893, P.O. Box 546, Sta. P, Toronto,
ON, M5S 2T1. ACES specializes in radiant floor heating, solar heating
and heat pumps.
Straw Bale
The straw bale construction
was coordinated and constructed by Camel's Back Construction. Pete, Chris
and Tina know just about everthing there is to know about straw bale construction
as they have developed many of the new ideas and concepts in this brilliant
construction material. To find out more about this great team of straw
bale home builders check out there web site at - http://www.strawhomes.ca/.
They are the BEST! Literally they wrote the book on straw bale home construction.
It is a great book, a must read for anyone contemplating building with
straw.
Get the book before
you design and build.
Click
here to buy a copy at New Society Publishers.
Some good web site
resources which Chris and Pete recommend in their book are:
The Last Straw: www.strawhomes.com
Black Range Films: www.StrawBaleCentral.com
Start doing something now. Tell others to see this video. Refer them to our web site at www.wilsonnaturalhome.com .
