SanJoseGreenHome.com

When most people think “green” homes they imagine solar panels and fancy energy saving gadgets.  It doesn’t have to be this way.  We invite you to explore with us a passive solar home in Saratoga (Bay Area) designed by a local architect Hari Sripadanna.  The home has achieved a LEED Gold rating and truly stands as a model for sustainability in our community.  After all, Hari bought parts of his house on Craigslist! 

Obviously, we could not cover all the fascinating details in the video so if you want to learn more, please read Hari’s comments and see design plans right below the video.  Enjoy.

by Hari Saripadanna (parts of the article was originally posted on the GAB Report):

With increasing popularity of green building and passive solar design, it is important to understand that sustainable design is more than a collection of credits. The key is to create synergy between building systems and practices that multiply each other’s benefit. One can create more value simply by choosing two or more complimentary sustainable design elements that play off of each other. The combined effect is more than the benefit when these design elements or systems are used alone. 

I would like to share with you some synergistic concepts used in the design of my house and show you how (more…)

Here is a great example how one can take an older home and make it more energy efficient with an element of smart design.  These home owners in San Jose could have built this sun room addition in an old fashion way but instead, they decided to incorporate a passive solar element that not only made their home more comfortable but also chipped off a few bucks off of their energy bills.  You will also learn a few more benefits of a cool roof and see a couple of them in action.

The technical info is fun and educational, however, your favorite part might just be the very end, where Sigmond shares a message with us all from his heart.  Enjoy.

If you have any questions for Sigmond feel free to leave a comment here or give him a call direct at 408-353-6727.

For obvious benefits, many home owners will remodel their home before putting it on the market for a better re-sale value. Being a busy Realtor, my job requires touring a lot of home listings. What I notice is that following the advice of their agent, the majority of folks pick granite counter tops as the choice to update their kitchens and appeal to the modern buyer. But is granite a true must when it comes to style?

Mining of granite so that our kitchen counters can look just like everyone else’s is not only becoming boring but is also blight on the environment. You see, most of it is quarried from an open-pit mine, which then just becomes an open pit that is often used as a landfill. Plus there’s the issue of how far the granite has to be transported and the carbon footprint it leaves behind. Some of the mines are in desert areas of the United States, but others are in China and India. That’s one long way for it to travel before it reaches our kitchen. That is not necessary.

If you are in a mood for a chic new look and a much more sustainable product check out recycled glass counter tops. You may be absolutely stunned by how great this product looks (I sure was). Your friends will always inquire about it and drop their jaws when they find out how it’s made.

At the West Coast Geen 2009 I interviewed Ryan Bloom. He works with IceStone products for Cerami Inc. In this video Ryan briefly discussed environmental impacts of granite mining and provides an overview of the new recycled glass countertops. It’s only 3 minutes long so enjoy!

So you’ve heard about it, with the passing of PACE (Property Assessed Clean Energy) , many homeowners, municipalities and home performance contractors had great expectations of easy and accessible financing for energy efficiency and renewable energy installations.  However, something happened…  Call it a glitch but PACE, as of today, is still not available.  There is a solution though.  Keep reading… 

An innovative tool for financing, PACE provided a solution to declining home values in much of the nation by offering financing that the homeowner repaid as a tax assessment rather than a mortgage lien.  PACE Programs were active or soon to be implemented in California and 22 other states.  

However, the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) that regulates Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, declared that the PACE programs presented “significant safety and soundness concerns” to the housing finance industry on July 6, 2010.  This declaration closed the door on PACE funding.  Even though legislation and lawsuits are still pending against the FHFA, no funding is expected to be available before the end of the year from any PACE program.  Talk about taking the wind out of one’s sails. 

Although PACE funding is now unavailable homeowners still have many options. There are many (more…)

Who said green homes have to look like hay barns?  Here is a great example of how sustainability does not have to define the aesthetic.  This was exactly the idea behind this ultra chic “Hillside House” in Marin that is on track to be the first Platinum LEED certified home in Marin County.  

Scott Lee, the mastermind behind the project and the president of SB Architects, said he and his family envisioned a sustainable and warm home that would be comfortable to raise children and did not aspire to museum quality finishes.  They wanted some quirky interior design elements that would make the house playful and inviting and that is exactly what they have accomplished. 

Lee’s brand-new home, a 2,100-square-foot, four-level dwelling built on a 50 percent slope, is clad in Western red cedar. It’s tucked into the hillside on three floors and fronted with glass, wood and balconies.

To an interview given to Houzz, Scott says the house is really quite small by custom home standards. It’s just 3 BR and 3.5 BA. “We didn’t want or need a large home.  The house appears (more…)

Many of us have had a relationship with the stock market of some sorts at one time or another.  Maybe you had more luck but when I bought into the hype in 2001 and lost a chunk in one week, my enthusiasm evaporated like the morning’s dew.  Then I came across a statement by Scott Case from EnergySavvy that read: “Home Energy Retrofits are 3.5X More Valuable Than Microsoft Stock: The 5-Year Payback on Home Energy Retrofit vs. Buying Microsoft Stock.”  Hmmm… given the previously disappointing outcome with the stock market, this sounded like an interesting proposition so I asked him to elaborate for us all here:

“To illustrate the impact of doing a home energy retrofit as an investment, here’s a simplified example. Let’s say 5 years ago, a homeowner in Philadelphia named Julie was deciding between buying $10,000 of Microsoft stock as an investment or spending that same amount of money on a home energy retrofit to reduce her utility bills. What would have been the better 5-year investment?

The Microsoft stock worth $10,000 in May 2005 would have turned into just over $12,100 five years later (a return of 21% over 5 years), including the increase in stock price and the dividends paid out over the course of the 5 years. But it turns out that (more…)

A small bungalow front yard is reborn as a shady woodland oasis of natives centered by a naturalistic fountain accented with metal sculpture.  As you’ll read on, you’ll notice from the photo tour that this new garden shows that sustainable landscaping can be accomplished through DIY talent and on a shoe-string budget when working closely with a professional landscape designer.

The home owners of this Craftsman style home in College Park area of San Jose already prided themselves living a green and sustainable life style.  But there was still some unfinished business – their water thirsty lawn.  So they decided to say goodbye to their front lawn and concrete hardscape and figure out a way to design a new, water wise yard on a budget.  They were receptive to many sustainable suggestions including: turf rebate programs, lawn removal, water-wise irrigation, flagstone installation, planting natives and storm water management.

Fact is, if you have the time, patience and willing to learn, you can do a lot on your own.  Here is what I mean… Size of the lawn was 900 square feet.  For about $5 a square foot, I designed the plans and coached my clients through their installation.  They did the install themselves but I helped them locate materials and assisted them in receiving an $800 water rebate by removing their lawn.  Total cost?  (more…)

When many of us think of a solar home we normally envision a specially designed, carefully crafted construction .  Hardly ever we can think of a modest 1,200 square foot tract home in South San Jose as being a model for passive solar benefits that almost all of us can achieve.  This is exactly what Frank Schiavo did when he retrofitted his 1978 home to harvest our greatest energy source – the sun.

Frank was an extraordinary man.  He was an enthusiastic passive solar home consultant, environmental educator at San Jose State and an avid social change advocate.  One of his most fascinating qualities was that he produced no trash.  That’s right; he composted everything and never bought anything that he couldn’t recycle.  He even stopped paying garbage bills to the city which was a highly controversial and highly publicized move.  Gotta love this spirit of sustainability!

Unfortunately Frank passed away very unexpectedly last January, just a week before we planned to meet, but he leaves his solar legacy behind for all of us to marvel at and learn from.  He really wanted to use his house as a way of teaching others about benefits of a green solar home “on a budget”.

As a very tiny way of repaying his years of kindness to the community I would like to share with you some of the things that Frank was able to accomplish in his home (more…)

We all love a good myth. “Goldfish have a memory of only three seconds”, “Water drains backwards in the Southern Hemisphere due to the Earth’s rotation”, or maybe “A dog’s mouth is cleaner than a human’s”.  It’s all fun stuff until we actually spend cash on things that we thought will do us good but end up to be a complete waste of money.  This may come us no surprise but some very commonly believed energy upgrades seem to be just that – myths.

Rob Moddy is a fellow USGBC member who often whips out a masterful blog entry.  It’s just so hard not to share this one with you.  Here he highlights a talk given by building scientist Michael Blasnik at the Department of Energy’s National Weatherization Training Conference, particularly the problems with inaccurate computer models in determining weatherization strategies and effective home energy improvement measures. 

As originally posted on GreenBuildingAdvisor.com, this is a list of common strategies for home weatherization that don’t save much energy. If you don’t want to waste your time and money, these are the strategies to avoid or closely evaluate: (more…)

Unawareness can be costly… Please, someone tell her the facts before she flushes!

Did you know most home owners are not aware that their green upgrades can affect their insurance?  Sadly, most insurance agents are also in the dark.  That is why you should be pro-active and take the savings opportunities into your own hands. 

Truth is, in some ways, homes are like auto drivers – the safer the property the better insurance rate one should get.  Energy efficiency improvements will save you on your energy bills, so why not take an extra step and save on your insurance? 

Here are top 5 ways to save real dough: 

PLUMBING, HVAC, ELECTRICAL:  As homes age, they require maintenance, and at some point plumbing, HVAC, and Electrical will have to be updated. The newer infrastructure is often safer, healthier, and more energy efficient. Not only is this greener for your life, but greener in your pocket. Be sure to tell your agent about home infrastructure updates because it will give you a better rate on your policy. 

SOLAR POWER/ENERGY STAR HOMES:  Often I get asked how and where to buy solar system insurance. I tell people that buying insurance specifically for your home solar system is like buying an auto insurance policy, and then buying a second insurance policy for your tires. It doesn’t make sense! Add the solar system to your home owner’s insurance policy because (more…)