Click here to view the embedded video.

While walking through Grocoff’s own 112-year-old net zero energy folk-Victorian home, we’ll adventure into the past, present and future of lighting, heating, cooling, cooking, food gathering, food storage, entertaining, laundering clothes, bathing, and of course . . . pooping. For 10,000 years humans have labored to build homes to maximize comfort & joy. Yet the 130 million existing U.S. homes are collectively capable of creating a world that has neither. The 350ppm question now is how we transform the buildings we’ve already built. We’ll learn why net zero energy buildings are not only possible . . . but ESSENTIAL.
In the spirit of ideas worth spreading, TEDx is a program of local, self-organized events that bring people together to share a TED-like experience. At a TEDx event, TEDTalks video and live speakers combine to spark deep discussion and connection in a small group. These local, self-organized events are branded TEDx, where x = independently organized TED event. The TED Conference provides general guidance for the TEDx program, but individual TEDx events are self-organized.* (*Subject to certain rules and regulations)

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Restoring History – Protecting Our Future

“What use is a fine house if you haven’t got a tolerable planet to put it on?” – Thoreau

by Matt Grocoff, founder Greenovation.TV, contributor to The Environment Report on Public Radio, and the greenovation guru for Old House Web

The full article is available on OLD HOUSE WEB

When my wife Kelly and I bought our 110 year old Folk-Victorian home in Ann Arbor’s Old West Side Historic District, it was a dream come true: drafty old windows, lead paint, zero insulation, a half-century old furnace, asbestos siding, a gas powered mower in the shed and even a few pieces of coal scattered around the back yard. What more could a couple ask for?

From the start we knew that homes use an astonishing 22% of energy consumed in the U.S. In fact, your home uses far more energy than your car. Home energy costs have skyrocketed to an average of $2200 per year. Old homes use even more than their fair share of the energy pie. . . .

But using resources to build big new “green” homes to save resources just seems ironic. There are 130 million existing homes in the U.S.; half were built before 1972.

So, retrofitting America’s old homes is not just about preserving history, it is indeed about protecting our future.

READ MATT’S FULL ARTICLE AT OLD HOUSE WEB

And . . . here’s helpful resources you must explore before starting your Mission Zero:

One Block Off the Grid http://1bog.org/

Joolze.com http://www.joolze.com/

Transcript

Matt: [at front of old Victorian house] Hi, I’m Matt Grocoff, the green renovation expert for Old House Web and host of greenovation.tv and this is my house.  So when my wife Kelly and I first bought this 110 year old folk Victorian house, it was a dream come true: it had lead paint, asbestos siding, zero insulation and even an old gas powered lawn mower out in the shed.  What more can anybody ask for.

Matt: [in living room] So on move in day we brought two things with us:  a crowbar to rip up all the old carpet and a box of compact fluorescent light bulbs.  We replaced every light socket in this house with compact fluorescents and then we added motion sensors to every light switch in the house.  We leave a room, if we forget to turn it off, it turns it off for us.

Matt: [in bathroom] So at the start of our renovation project, this was the only bathroom in the house.  It was fantastic.  It had pink Formica tiles, an old flush toilet that flushed 5 gallons every time.  This is a Caroma Dual Flush Toilet which only uses .8 gallons every flush and unlike our old toilet never clogs.  But not only have we made it look great, but we’ve made it way more energy efficient.

This is a 1-minute a gallon showerhead.  This is going to use a gallon and a half a minute less than an ordinary showerhead.  This will literally save thousands of gallons over its lifetime.

Matt: [backyard drilling for geothermal] I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard people say “I thought you couldn’t put geothermal into a historic house.”  Well this house proves that wrong.  We were able to put three 150-foot bore holes vertically into the back yard on a very small piece of property.  Not only do we have a heating and cooling system that uses half the energy of our neighbors, we have a house that’s a whole lot more comfortable.

Matt: [in living room] We’re out to prove that old houses can be the Greenest houses. In fact, with all the renovations we’ve done so far, we’ve made this house ultra efficient and we’ve got a ways to go.  We’re going to take this house all the way to Net Zero.  Meaning it’s going to produce more energy than it uses.

Matt: [at the computer] So you eco geeks, get ready to get geeked out because this is our WattVision Google Power Meter.  And this will tell us how much energy we’re consuming at any given moment.  If everyone knew how much energy they were using, they would probably use a lot less.  [I'm coming to get you, I got you, I got you] Before we get the solar panels up on the roof, you can see we’ve got a lot of work to do.

Matt: [pointing to house exterior] We’ve got to paint the house, restore these old windows, then top it off with some really energy efficient storm windows.  My daughter Jane will probably still be alive when this house turns 200 years old.  So restoring America’s old homes is not just about preserving history, it’s about protecting our future.   So for Old House Web, this is Matt Grocoff reminding you that, “The Green Revolution Begins at Home”

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June 11 & 12 in Ann Arbor.  Don’t miss this extraordinary event.  Named one of USA Today’s Seven Best Green Houses of 2010, the Mission Zero House is America’s oldest and Michigan’s first net-zero energy home – meaning the home produces more than its owners consume.  Learn more and reserve tickets now!



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Check out the house’s website at www.MissionZeroHouse.com

America’s oldest Net Zero Energy residential restoration

Michigan’s first Net Zero Energy house

America’s first Net Zero home restoration in a historic district

What is Net-Zero Energy?

A Net-Zero Energy Home (also called Zero Energy Home) is a home that produces as much or more energy than the occupants consume.  This is accomplished by first reducing energy demand, typically by 60% – 70%, then meeting that demand by adding on-site renewable energy.

www.MissionZeroHouse.com

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In home improvement projects, the popular eco-friendly products are not always the best solution.  Lester Graham has the story of a home improvement intervention.

Kevin Leeser was not happy with the floors downstairs in his one-hundred year old house.

[Transcript of Lester's story for the Environment Report on public radio - Watch video above to see Kevin refinish his floors and see the gorgeous results]

CLICK IMAGE TO LISTEN TO RADIO STORY

Kevin Leeser:  Well, weve lived here five years and just over the five years theyve started to get grayer and you can tell that the finish was in the high traffic areas—you could tell where we were walking it looks like we were hamsters walking through this place.

Lester Graham:  This is maple, right?

KL: Pfft.  Yeah, thats what they tell me.

Kevin toyed with the idea of finishing the maple floors but that sounded really involved.

And then the in-laws visited during the holidays.

KL: My mother-in-law was like “Why dont you get new floors.” (laugh)  And I was like “well, yeah”, it would be easier, cause the things I was concerned about were sawdust, and cause I have a newborn, just dirtying up the house and figured just getting some clean stuff, cutting it outside, sticking it down and be done with it.

LG: So, wanting to be eco-friendly, he thought hed put down bamboo flooring.  Bamboo is renewable and it grows fast and its pretty popular these days.

Then his neighbor stopped by.  Matt Grocoff the eco-friendly home improvement guy with www.Greenovation.TV who had some eh—thoughts about Kevin’s plan.

Matt Grocoff: And, I, like, practically smacked him in the face and I said “What are you thinking?”  This is a gorgeous floor.  Go rent yourself a sander or even hire someone for a few hundred bucks to strip the floor and then refinish it.

LG: So, you’re not a big fan of bamboo?

MG: Bamboo is a great product if you have to do something new.  You have to ask a question: do you need that new product or do you have something that works now and just needs to be renewed.

Oh, yeah.  Reduce.  Re-use.  Recycle.  So, Kevin’s wife, Lauren and their baby were away for a few days.  Kevin rented a sander and then started looking for an eco-friendly sealant for his maple floors.  Matt had an idea for that.

MG: Kevin’s using a natural oil from BioShield which is a mixture of tung and linseed oil that is so easy to use.  It’s easier to use than even a low-VOC or zero-VOC polyurethene finish and easier to maintain in the long run.

And in the end renting the sander, buying sanding pads, buying the floor sealant, paint brushes and all that stuff ended up costing Kevin about HALF of what it would have if he put down bamboo.  Not a bad deal.

But the big question what did his wife, Lauren, think of the refinished old floors.

Lauren: It looks absolutely beautiful and we didnt have to get new floors.  Win, win.  We love it.  Beautiful.

Matt Grocoff says he was sure Kevin and Lauren would be happy, because he did the same thing at his house.

MG: The first thing that I did when we finished with our floor is I took a glass of red wine when we were celebrating and I poured half a glass of red wine on the floor and my wife was like “What are you doing?!”  And I was like, “look, were going to spill wine on it eventually, lets see what happens now.”  The wine beaded up on the floor.  We took a little sponge, wiped it clean and its gorgeous, five years later.

LG: That’s Matt Grocoff with Greenovation.TV.  Thanks, Matt.

MG: Lester, this is always so much fun.  Im glad to be doing it.

LG: That’s The Environment Report.  I’m Lester Graham.

WHAT TO LOOK FOR:

Bioshield Natural Paint & Oil Finishes (In the story Kevin uses Bioshield Hard Oil #9)

Safecoat Paints and Finishes

Home Depot Tool Rental

The U.S. Green Building Council

The EPA’s site on green building techniques

LISTEN TO THE RADIO STORY: The Environment Report

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Read more about Matt’s clean and green bath addition at Old House Web.

More cool stuff

Materials Unlimited – for salvaged material, clawfoot tubs, bathroom hardware

Habitat Restore

Permaglaze

BIO  > > > > >

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Case Study: Window Restoration & Energy Efficiency for 110 Year Old Net Zero Home

By Nick Helmholdt
Read more at Old House Web: Save Big Bucks By Restoring Your Old Windows and Making Them Energy Efficient

Founders of www.Greenovation.TV, Matt & Kelly Grocoff own a 110 year-old home in Ann Arbor’s Old West Side Historic District. The Grocoff’s Folk-Victorian home includes sixteen original, single pane, wood frame windows. They knew that the windows were a major source of cold, wintry drafts that made the house uncomfortable. GreenovationTV and Clean Energy Coalition (CEC) were interested in understanding how repairs to original wood windows would affect air infiltration in old homes. CEC agreed to perform blower door tests before and after the repairs to his windows.

The original blower door test was conducted with the windows in their original state of disrepair. The sashes of several windows refused to close completely and in some cases the original hardware was missing or damaged. The blower door measured air leakage of 4,400 Cubic Feet per Minute (CFM) at 50 Pascals. This rate of air flow was equivalent to leaving a 241 square inch window open year round (that is the size of a rectangular opening 1’ x 1’8”). Under normal conditions, just over 100% of the air in the Grocoff’s house was replaced with outdoor air every hour. These figures describe a house that has high, uncontrolled air infiltration.

A second blower door test was performed after the wood window repairs were completed by Lorri Sipes & Maggie Hostetler Wood Window Repair Company in Ann Arbor, MI. The repairs included re-glazing the original single pane glass, repairing any damage to the wood sashes, installing bronze spring weather-stripping on both jambs (Image 1), cutting a kerf (saw-cut) and installing silicone tube seals (Image 2) in the head of the upper sash, at the meeting rail of the lower sash, and at the sill of the lower sash. The hardware was repaired or replaced and adjusted to draw the two sashes tightly together, push the top sash up, and the lower sash down, effectively sealing both sashes all the way around.

This second test revealed a substantial reduction in air infiltration. The blower door measured air leakage of 1,530 CFM at 50 Pa. By comparison, the effective leakage area was 84 square inches (a rectangular opening 1’ x 7”). Now under normal conditions, 35% of the air in the Grocoff’s house should be replaced with outdoor air every hour. Effectively 65% of the air infiltration was eliminated by the repairs to the original 110 year old wood windows, and the addition of two types of weather- stripping.

The Grocoffs also had low-e storm windows installed to replace the wood-framed versions that came with the house. The low- emissivity (low-e) coating on these storm windows reflects heat back to its origin: to the outdoors in the summer and indoors in the winter. A third blower door test was performed and again air infiltration was reduced noticeably; down to 1,330 CFM at 50 Pa. This resulted in an effective leakage area of 73 square inches (an opening 1’ x 6”). The combined effect of the storm windows and the repaired windows resulted in a 69.8% reduction in air leakage.

It is clear that the wood window repairs performed here resulted in an impressive air infiltration reduction. This case should be evidence that repairs to windows may be a potential energy-saving measure to consider for homes in historic areas. What’s more, the storm windows were able to further reduce infiltration by a noticeable fraction.

Resources:
Wood Window Repair Company in Ann Arbor:
Trapp Storm Windows:
Robertson’s Storm & Screen in Ann Arbor:
Clean Energy Coalition

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Track Your Compact Fluorescent Bulb

I recently had an unusual occurrence at my house: one of the lightbulbs in my kitchen burned out.  What’s so special about that, you ask?  Lights burn out all the time.  But I’ve been using compact fluorescent bulbs (CFLs) for the past few years, so it is rare that I need to change a bulb.

Sure, you’ve heard about the advantages of compact fluorescent bulbs.  Maybe you don’t think that they are going to be cost effective, and you can’t bring yourself to invest in one or two in order to find out.  I have a couple of suggestions for those of you who are still holding out.

We think about the energy savings from using CFL bulbs, and that’s one of the big advantages to using them.  But they also save time and effort.  If an incandescent bulb has an average life of 750-1000 hours, then you’re going to end up changing that bulb about twice a year, if it’s being used an average of 4 hours a day.  CFLs have an average life of 6,000-15,000 hours, so they last about 10 times as long, which means you would be changing that bulb about once every 5 years (maybe 10), instead of twice a year.

Maybe that’s not a big issue for a table lamp, but if you have ceiling lights that are harder to reach, changing bulbs is more of an undertaking.  (Those of you with high ceilings that need a maintenance visit and someone with a ladder to replace your bulbs should definitely be thinking about this.)  Isn’t that a chore that would be better if it needed to be done less frequently?

Most of the standard light sockets in my house now have CFL bulbs of one variety or another.  Some I like better than others.  I’ve identified a couple manufacturers and brands that I won’t buy again.  But others have good brightness and a color that I like.  I was dubious a decade ago when I first started trying CFLs.  One way I tried it out was to put one CFL and one regular bulb in a two-socket fixture.  That balanced out the color and let me find that the fluorescents weren’t that bad, and it also gave us some instant-on light with that fixture (since the first CFLs were often dim for the first couple minutes).

Compact fluorescent bulbs are now available for only a couple dollars, and, even if the energy savings aren’t convince you, maybe the longer life of a CFL will make a difference for you.  If you absolutely don’t like them, you can still swap them away into a utility space like a closet or basement where, if you only turn on the lights there occasionally, the bulb might last for decades.

If you want to convince yourself (or perhaps a dubious relative or neighbor) that your compact fluorescent bulbs are really lasting for a long time, write the date on the base of the bulb when you put it in (you can use a Sharpie or a pencil and write on the plastic covering on the base).  Unfortunately, I didn’t do this with that last bulb, so I can’t tell you how long that one lasted (our kitchen light is on for more than 4 hours a day, especially in the winter time, and I think this one was about 3 years old).  But if you check in with me in a few years, I can tell you how long the new one was good for.

Philip Proefrock is a regular contributor to GreenovationTV and a registered architect with p s proefrock architecture, based in Michigan. He is a LEED accredited professional and has taught sustainable design architectural studio at Lawrence Technological University and assisted with LEED study groups for other building professionals. He is also an architectural photographer, writer and blogger. Philip is senior contributing writer for EcoGeek.org where he concentrates on green building systems, renewable power, and transportation, and a regular contributor to JetsonGreen.com

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