Green paint

Although not an energy saver, paint and primer offer another opportunity to make a different through personal choice. After having some closet organizers installed, i wanted to paint the uncovered areas. i needed paint and primer. I headed to Kwal on Ken Pratt because I know they know the McStain colors. Aspen White is what I need for closets. I asked for low-VOC paint and primer. The salesclerk said it would be more expensive because low-VOC paint and primer were only available in gallons and wouldn't I prefer regular paint.

Ojala (pronounced O-HA-LA...remember this, it's very fun to say)
Arrgh...sales people who want to save you money by making you feel guilty for wanting to spend a few bucks more for a green product!!! What was so lovely was that painting primer, then later with the paint, with my head in the closet, there we no fumes. I didn't have to air out the entire house. It was terrific.

Radon results confirmed, a bit worse

I'd hoped, but not expected, that a second round of radon tests might have more positive results. The second time around I used a different brand: Kidde radon tests. And, the house was closed up for most of the time, as my daughter and I were away on a trip.

Each time I tested the same two locations: the lower level family room (living area) and the crawlspace (unoccupied). The results in picocuries per liter (pCi/l) were:
April (Kidde brand): 4.8 family room, 37.5 crawlspace
Feb (Accu-Star brand): 3.6 family room, 27 crawlspace

Radon mitigation is a for sure part of the to do list now. EPA says do something for occupied areas over 4. As we seal up the house, we want to make sure we're sealing radon out, not in. The high levels in the crawl space reflect radon escaping from the soil into the crawl space air. There are lots of ways to deal with this and we'll just have to figure out a strategy that works with the overall sealing and insulating planned for the crawl space.

Electric heater purrs away

It's so frustrating. Little by little I'm trying to whittle down my electricity usage. Changing lights is saving 30 watts here, 100 watts there. But with snow maybe on the way and temperature of 39F right now, the lower level is cold again, so the electric heater is purring away. Since the heater draws about 1000 kW, even a little use adds up quickly.

The plan is to add solar hot water panels and storage, and underfloor radiant flooring. But until then, we're stuck with the original design which keeps the lower level almost 10F colder than upstairs.

How annoying :-(

Halogen MR16 cfl replacement...not only no, but heck no

Top new CFL, Bottom original halogen
Today I went to Boulder Light Bulb looking for a replacement for the track lights in the lower level family room. Since we moved in in August, already three of the five 50W MR16 light bulbs have burned out. When we moved in the track lighting was using 5 x 50w or 250 watts, and that's a lot. I was psyched to find a compact fluorescent replacement that uses 5W: EcoBulb MR16 from FEIT Electric. That was, until I plugged it in. Oh man, this is ridiculous. Even after five or ten minutes, it produces only the slightest glow in the ceiling in a dull circle. Compare that to the original halogen light with a sprakly, bright, wide circle with the pink additional effects.

Even a greenie nut like myself can't say yes to this one....I gotta keep looking.

Sketch Up...amazing, free

We're now getting a bit deeper into the project and Ali Ray of Ecofutures Building quickly developed a 3D model using Sketch Up. I'd never heard of this program before. It's a free download from Google (there's a Pro version but the free version is pretty powerful now). It's really incredible. I can't wait to play with it a bit more. Allows you to generate a 3D model that you can 'walk around', etc. This is one of those example of how technology really does open up a world to those of us who otherwise would never have the skills or computing power to even think about this. Once we're a bit further along, I should be able to post a 3D version on my website. For now, I just posted a 2D snapshot of it. Fun!