SanJoseGreenHome.com

When you are looking to spruce up your floors, there are several quick and easy updates that can increase your property value without causing you a lot of time and money. One of the main renovations that brings the best return on your investment is flooring.  If you are concerned of not being eco-friendly, you are in luck. There are a quite a few green flooring options available on the market that are pretty, durable, and that any future buyers will love.

Hardwood Floors

One eco-friendly alternative for hardwood is a salvaged wood floor. People are known to throw away old crates and barrels or to send to the dump remnants of older buildings like farmhouses. Instead, this wood can easily be cleaned, sanded and repurposed as a hardwood floor in your home. Once installed and sealed, these floors not only add character to your home, but they add the  beauty of the seasoned wood grain. Old wood can be found rather inexpensive at salvage yards.

Concrete

Most homes have a layer of concrete under their existing flooring. This concrete or a recently poured top can be turned into a great looking natural stone alternative. Etching and acid staining can color and seal the concrete into just about any shade desired. Concrete also works well installed over underfoot radiant heating systems.

Bamboo

Bamboo is great for floors. Depending on the way the graining lays, bamboo flooring can look just like wood floors, or it can have a neat textured or patterned feel. They are hard and resilient, and bamboo is grown like wheat, quickly in a short amount of time. Bamboo is also mildew-, mold-, bacteria- and water-resistant.  Make sure to look into the VOC levels of the bamboo floor and opt for the lowest possible, no need for breathing fumes from an “eco friendly’ product.

Cork

Cork is normally seen in bottles and as bulletin boards or sign hanging places on walls. Cork is designed to be resistant to mildew, bacteria, and mold. It also naturally repels moisture. The best part is cork floor is soft and warm on bare feet, which makes getting up in the morning a little easier and oh so pleasant.

Glass Tiles

Glass tiles make great floors. They are hardy and durable. They can be very slick, but texturing makes them less slippery. Many glass tiles are made from recycled materials, including bottles and jars. Just look for recycled written on the packaging.  Glass tiles make a beautiful, green choice.

Cork, bamboo, glass tiles, concrete, and salvaged wood are great eco-friendly flooring options. These are easily installed, and when you are selling your home, buyers will love the looks of them. Whichever flooring option you use, these environmentally friendly choices will add value to your home.

However, without the proper knowledge, searching for a portable air conditioner can become an overwhelming experience. Between trying to figure out a plethora of acronyms like EER and BTU and wading through numbers all over the 1,000s, the confusion can multiply. But, with a basic foundation, a confusing and/or time consuming experience can quickly become a simple formula that leaves you lingering in the comfort and bliss of a perfectly cooled and de-humidified room.  And not only that, purchasing the right AC, the first time, will save you now and over the long run.

Basic AC Terms

“W”  – A “W” is a watt, which is the standard unit for measuring power.

“BTU” -  A BTU stands for British Thermal Unit and measures thermal heat energy. In terms of ACs, they will generally rank in the 1000s.

“EER” – EER stands for the Energy Efficiency Ratio of any given appliance and basically tell you exactly how much cooling your AC will be able to provide you based on the amount of electricity it’s using. The higher the EER rating, the less energy it consumes. As a basic rule, anything over 10 is deemed “good” in terms of energy efficiency.

You will often see “energy consumed” represented by a “W,” and EERs can also be listed as BTU/W.

This means if you (more…)

After World War II, houses and buildings were erected quickly and cheaply as a means to rebuild Germany. However, many people living and working in these houses and buildings soon became noticeably ill, with all signs pointing to the new buildings as the cause. It was this phenomenon that inspired the baubiologie movement in Germany, and has since been infused in other parts of the world as well. Below are the 25 principles of baubiologie.

1. Building site without natural and human-made disturbances
2. Residential homes away from sources of emissions and noise
3. Low-density housing with sufficient green space
4. Personalized, natural, human- and family-oriented housing and settlements
5. Building without causing social burdens
6. Natural and unadulterated building materials
7. Natural regulation of indoor air humidity through humidity-buffering materials
8. Low total moisture content of a new building that dries out quickly
9. Well-balanced ratio between thermal insulation and heat retention
10. Optimal air and surface temperatures
11. Good indoor air quality through natural ventilation
12. Heating system based on radiant heat
13. Natural conditions of light, lighting and color (more…)

If you had to imagine the greenest home in California, what images would spring to mind?  Would it be some clay, dome shaped structure perfectly exposed to solar angles, or maybe an ultra chic, boxy looking modern beauty with massive windows facing a valley?  What if I told you that this home sits on a pretty standard residential street in Santa Clara and an untrained eye wouldn’t even notice any “greenness” about it if they drove by?

Meet the “Bluebird” residence.  This Earth Bound Home’s show house  is also the personal residence of founder David Edwards.  Rated as the Greenest Home in California by Build it Green organization, the original 1400 sq. ft. ranch style home was added to and remodeled, creating a 3100 sq. ft. 4 bedroom, 3 bath home with an office and workout room.   Awards range from Acterra’s Business Environmental Awards Built Environment Award to Build It Green’s South Bay Best New Home award for the 1996 Green Home Tour. Come with us on a video tour to explore all the ingenuity, design and careful choice of materials that went into this project.  (Also see a list of “green” features below the video.)

This home’s many green features include:

• Small 2.7 kw Photovoltaic solar electric panels provide all of houses electrical needs
• Solar thermal renewable energy systems
• An inexpensive and no maintenance Grey water system waters the only plants in the entire landscaping that require water, the clumping Bamboo.
• A 1400 gallon underground rainwater cistern collects rainwater every winter
• All FSC wood framing and FSC certified Brazilian Cherry Flooring
• Home built with Structural Insulated Panels(SIPs)
• 65% more efficient than Californias’ Title-24 Energy Efficiency requirements
• $155/year gas bill, $4/year electric bill, $132/year water bill
• 93%  recycling and reuse of building demolition debris
• Half of all windows were purchased from salvage yards, saving over $10,000 over new windows
• All doors on the first floor were salvaged, saving $3,000.
• All trim throughout the house was salvaged from old redwood decks, fences and the siding on old houses. It was milled on site and the shavings used as mulch on the landscaping.
• New One Lawn Synthetic Lawn contains no heavy metals and requires no maintenance or water. None of the landscape requires supplemental water and saves approx. 50,000 gallons of water a year.
• House uses 31,285 gallons of water a year, for 5 people. This is approx 84% less. than the average household uses(~110 gallons per person/day- including irrigation)

Photo and home description courtesy of Earth Bound Homes

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…)

So do green homes cost more? When comparing construction costs of green homes there seem to be all sorts of figures floating around.  Some builders say it does not cost much more to build sustainably, and some say it could cost anywhere from 5-20% more to build a truly green home.  Much of those added costs however, can be recouped via numerous rebates and long term operational costs as in the case of this newly build home in Menlo Park.  Come with me on a tour and meet Bill Lacs from Lacs Design and Construction and see this newly constructed property that boasts many elements of sustainable design and technology.  Perhaps you will be surprised why this home owner decided to spend a “few” extra bucks at the end…

If you’ve never been to Newby Island Landfill in Milpitas (near San Jose, California) you would be up for a treat if you visited.  It would totally blow all of your concepts on how our trash is managed.  During an annual Earth Day event, organized by Allied Waste, one can go on a romantic date with one’s trash in a comfy limo bus.  

State of the art landfills like Newby Island are quite effective at managing food scraps for compost materials, yard waste for mulch, concrete for paving the roads at the facility and many other great things.  Perhaps you would be most impressed to learn how the methane from rotting organic matter is captured and then used for electricity production that helps power some of the surrounding homes in the area. 

The thing that hit me during that trip is that no matter how well our waste is managed it takes tremendous amount of energy and resources to further sort, downcycle and burry our trash.  Furthermore, when I asked whether they truly “recycle” plastic bags, the lowered tone response was not a very clear one – “Yes, but into lower grade plastic bags that are further shipped to China.”  You be the judge whether this makes any sense to you or sounds anything close to the truth.  

Frankly, you can’t blame the guys if these plastic bags simply go up in fumes.  Recycling plastic bags is a total financial disaster; it’s nothing but a big headache and a huge expense.  It’s really up to us to use more bio-degradable trash bags and cloth or at least paper bags at the grocery stores.  

Enjoy the short video of the tour that started with a wonderful lunch and a few speeches.  (Make sure to click off on the Google ad so that it’s not in your way of viewing.)

This was fun.  A beautiful day on a roof of an Eichler home in San Jose (off Meridian and Curtner).  I met up with my friend Jarom Ferriante and learned a few cool things about solar panels and foam roofs.  This is a home of a crafty clay artist – Harriet, who’s art is shortly featured in the video as well.  Hope you enjoy!

Jarom can be found on: www.dura-foam.com
More of Harriet’s art is featured on her website: www.AcrylicAndClay.com

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.

In a market where hardly anyone is building green in San Jose, this newly constructed house in Milpitas area stands as a monument of energy efficiency and inspiration.  

It is about 35% more energy efficient than a standard home and prides itself on green elements like engineered lumber, radiant barrier roof, solar water heater, energy star furnace, extra thick insulation, excellent indoor air quality and much more.  

Come with us on a video tour and discover for yourself what makes this property truly unique.

This beauty is a five year project by Green Earth Construction, a Milpitas based and family run company.  Sylvia Leung and her husband had a vision to go green 15 years ago and are finally able to marvel at the fruits of their labor.  In addition to what you’ve seen on the video, keep in mind that the home is wired for solar and if one decided to invest into solar panels, one’s utility bills for the most part of the year could be virtually zero.  Now that’s a good number, isn’t it? 

Building green normally commands higher costs so perhaps the most pleasant detail about this home is that when considering a dollar per square foot basis, the home is priced comparably to a 25 year old home.  If you like more details, you can find all the info under Featured Listings on http://GreenHomeParter.com.  Feel free to contact me directly with any questions.