A great and timely question! We are very excited about doing a second season and are working through some key details. On a high level, unlike Season One in which we followed the construction of my home, we are not going to follow one house for the entire Season Two, but will instead follow several projects and visit many locations to find interesting people who are designing and building the green homes of the future. There are so many great projects going on around the country and the world that the problem is deciding what not to include.
We are focusing on three areas of interest: energy, technology and health. In today’s age of global warming we have to use our best, most innovative technology to create buildings that not only conserve energy but produce more than they use, and we’ve found several people who are showing us just how to do that. For us, it’s a given that every home must support the health of its inhabitants so we’ll highlight healthy materials and products that everyone can obtain to improve their homes and keep their families healthy.
Will you be following new builds only or will the show talk about retrofitting?
One thing that concerns me is that in the “Valley of the Sun” (Phoenix, Arizona), we average over 300 days of sun throughout the year. Yet, there is nearly no solar building or retrofitting, which seems counter intuitive. With the Valley’s population over 4 million (and growing all the time), this is an ideal place to be building green. With limited natural resources (such as water), waste is not an option. The one resource we have plenty of (sun) is not being utilized. While it would be nice to see new buildings that use directional positioning and green building to reduce energy use, the reality is that this area is already packed with homes and other buildings that put large amounts of CO2 into the atmosphere.
As you can imagine, more electricity is used to cool buildings during the long, hot summers and (believe it or not) to heat the rather cold, winter evenings in the desert throughout the year than in many other areas of the country. This year, the Phoenix area had 100° temperatures through the end of September, had a record-breaking 32 days of 110° or higher and still averaged 90° in October. At the start of November, the 90° temps continued and record highs were broken for days on end. Still, when the temperatures finally drop, the lack of cloud cover often brings lows in the 30s, causing shifts from cooling to heating. This leads to nearly year-round use of air conditioning units. Today is the first day we've had rain for months. As it finally comes down for more than an hour, I think sadly of how little is collected and saved. I also realize how many sprinklers will still turn on tonight because they will not have sensors to gauge the amount of water actually needed. In these conditions, I look around and wonder why there isn't more retrofitting. With numerous groups of town homes and apartment complexes, there are long stretches of roofs, which are ideally suited to gather solar energy to defray the cost and effects of the extensive lighting used at night. While these lights are important to make outdoor areas usable and safe, the cost to the environment is exorbitant. Also, with water being so scarce, it's hard to understand why more of these buildings as well as large community and government buildings are not gathering and saving rainwater to lessen the impact on water resources.
I look at the town homes in my current community and shake my head. We have two giant water heaters to heat a group of 6 homes. They are in small, uninsulated sheds attached to the buildings. While everyone is at work or school, they spend the day heating and reheating water that is not being used. Sprinkler heads are constantly blowing around the complex and hundreds of gallons of water are lost before they are noticed and fixed. There are lights next to unit numbers, under carport roofs, throughout the parking lots, throughout the open areas and around the pools using extensive energy all night long. None of the roofs have gutters and rain falls straight off the edges into patios, a few inches away from the foundation. Sprinklers are run at the same level, regardless of rainfall or different plant types. There is a lot of ecological waste and inefficiency, yet changes are not made because the costs are considered too high.
In Season 2, will you discuss retrofitting and how to make it affordable? Will you be tackling how to apply these same ideas to larger buildings and communities? Or will Season 2 be focused on first-time builds and individual homes?
Season 2
A great and timely question! We are very excited about doing a second season and are working through some key details. On a high level, unlike Season One in which we followed the construction of my home, we are not going to follow one house for the entire Season Two, but will instead follow several projects and visit many locations to find interesting people who are designing and building the green homes of the future. There are so many great projects going on around the country and the world that the problem is deciding what not to include.
We are focusing on three areas of interest: energy, technology and health. In today’s age of global warming we have to use our best, most innovative technology to create buildings that not only conserve energy but produce more than they use, and we’ve found several people who are showing us just how to do that. For us, it’s a given that every home must support the health of its inhabitants so we’ll highlight healthy materials and products that everyone can obtain to improve their homes and keep their families healthy.
Thanks for your support, and stay tuned!
Kevin
Season 2
Thanks for the info, Kevin. :)
Will you be following new builds only or will the show talk about retrofitting?
One thing that concerns me is that in the “Valley of the Sun” (Phoenix, Arizona), we average over 300 days of sun throughout the year. Yet, there is nearly no solar building or retrofitting, which seems counter intuitive. With the Valley’s population over 4 million (and growing all the time), this is an ideal place to be building green. With limited natural resources (such as water), waste is not an option. The one resource we have plenty of (sun) is not being utilized. While it would be nice to see new buildings that use directional positioning and green building to reduce energy use, the reality is that this area is already packed with homes and other buildings that put large amounts of CO2 into the atmosphere.
As you can imagine, more electricity is used to cool buildings during the long, hot summers and (believe it or not) to heat the rather cold, winter evenings in the desert throughout the year than in many other areas of the country. This year, the Phoenix area had 100° temperatures through the end of September, had a record-breaking 32 days of 110° or higher and still averaged 90° in October. At the start of November, the 90° temps continued and record highs were broken for days on end. Still, when the temperatures finally drop, the lack of cloud cover often brings lows in the 30s, causing shifts from cooling to heating. This leads to nearly year-round use of air conditioning units. Today is the first day we've had rain for months. As it finally comes down for more than an hour, I think sadly of how little is collected and saved. I also realize how many sprinklers will still turn on tonight because they will not have sensors to gauge the amount of water actually needed. In these conditions, I look around and wonder why there isn't more retrofitting. With numerous groups of town homes and apartment complexes, there are long stretches of roofs, which are ideally suited to gather solar energy to defray the cost and effects of the extensive lighting used at night. While these lights are important to make outdoor areas usable and safe, the cost to the environment is exorbitant. Also, with water being so scarce, it's hard to understand why more of these buildings as well as large community and government buildings are not gathering and saving rainwater to lessen the impact on water resources.
I look at the town homes in my current community and shake my head. We have two giant water heaters to heat a group of 6 homes. They are in small, uninsulated sheds attached to the buildings. While everyone is at work or school, they spend the day heating and reheating water that is not being used. Sprinkler heads are constantly blowing around the complex and hundreds of gallons of water are lost before they are noticed and fixed. There are lights next to unit numbers, under carport roofs, throughout the parking lots, throughout the open areas and around the pools using extensive energy all night long. None of the roofs have gutters and rain falls straight off the edges into patios, a few inches away from the foundation. Sprinklers are run at the same level, regardless of rainfall or different plant types. There is a lot of ecological waste and inefficiency, yet changes are not made because the costs are considered too high.
In Season 2, will you discuss retrofitting and how to make it affordable? Will you be tackling how to apply these same ideas to larger buildings and communities? Or will Season 2 be focused on first-time builds and individual homes?
Wendy@CarrotOfHope.org