Episode Nine: Lighting

Lighting & Electricity

"What makes a house sexy, makes or breaks great architecture, and allows paint on canvas to become great art? Lighting, whether natural or created, is essential. Today it's all about lighting and electricity, from the panels on the roof to the wiring in the walls to the home automation system that controls it all. Lighting and electricity, and how we get it and how we use it are vitally important."

— Building Green host Kevin Contreras

Electromagnetic Radiation

Building Green health expert Alyssa Alvord explains that electromagnetic frequency is all around us and discusses the dangers of low-level exposure: "Studies show and have proven that electromagnetic frequencies are not healthy for chronic, low-level exposure, meaning all the time at very low levels. What we want to avoid in the home is this chronic low-level exposure, especially near our heads and especially when we're sleeping. More and more, we're seeing Alzheimer's, We're seeing brain cancer, leukemia, these things coming from high or repeated EMF exposures for these long periods of time."

Kevin speaks with electromagnetic radiation expert Michael Jordan who explains that most problems arise from wiring errors. When those errors are corrected the radiation is alleviated and you have a much more comfortable home environment.

Michael uses a Gauss meter to measure electromagnetic frequency and reccomends that homeowners do the same.

Alyssa Alvord then shows us a trifield meter, which can be used in the home to detect trouble spots, and can be rented for as little as $5 a day.

Inside the Design

To his family from this sort of radiation, Kevin has his electricity panel placed on the far side of the garage, where no one will be near it more than a few minutes at a time.

The breaker panels are also placed far from where anyone spends significant time.

Kevin also installs an X10 system that will actually turn off the wiring in his home at night. It will control all the lights, the plugs that we designate, as well as the heating system and the landscape lighting.

Building for Natural Lighting

Building for natural lighting is important for our health and the health of the environment. Kevin's windows are placed so that no lights need to be turned on during daylight hours, even on cloudy days.

In the center of Kevin's house is a stariwell, which would normally be a dark placed that required artificial lighting; however, Kevin installed a cupola. It provides light and sucks warm air out of the home on hot days.

In rooms without windows, for a few hundred dollars, a solatube can be installed. It will provide free light everyday. George Murdoch, a solatube expert, explains that solatubes work by transferring and diffusing outside light into the home.

Installing Wiring

The electrical wiring lays right on top of the first cours of bales inside what is called Smurf tubing. Where Kevin wants to place switches on the bale walls, they carve a groove into the bales with blade called a lancelot.

Lighting

A compact flourescent bulb (CFL) uses 1/3 the energy of a regular incandescent bulb; produces 70 percent less heat; and saves $30 per bulb over the course of its lifetime. One CFL bulb can outlast 13 incandescents.

Everywhere task lighting is required, like garage, laundry room, pantry, closets, kitchen counters, and outside, Kevin decides to install simple fixtures in which he'll put compact fluorescent lightbulbs.

Kevin would like to install CFLs everywhere in the house, but they don't dim well. So, where he wants light to beautify the house, he'll install low-voltage fixtures for halogen MR16 lightbulbs.

Saving Green

Halogen and CFL lightbulbs save in many ways: They save hundreds of dollars a year in electrical costs. While incandescent bulbs are cheaper to buy, they are much more costly to operate. A CFL uses 1/4 to 1/3 the amount of electricity to give the same light as an incandescent.

Solar Panels

Solar energy systems generate clean power from the sun, reducing the CO2 that contributes to global warming. Power plants in the U.S. have now surpassed transportation as the leading cause of air pollution.

Kevin invites Gabe Davis of REC Solar to discuss solar power. Gabe explains that Kevin is going to be able to produce 100 percent of his own electricity with his photovoltaic system. Because Kevin's home is already very energy efficient, he will be able to have a smaller system -- a 2.4 killowatt system.

For any solar installation in the northern hemisphere, a south-facing roof is the best location for a home's solar panels. Kevin's panels will be on his garage. Once installed, his system will actually feed back into the power grid when it creates extra electricity, so that neighbors will benefit from the clean energy. However it is ideal to design a system that meets 90% home's needs and does not overproduce.

Using a tool called a solar pathfinder, Kevin is able to determine the best spot for the solar panels.

Gabe explains that the solar panels will be attached directly to the seams in Kevin's roof. The panels clip to the seams and then a rack is intalled that the panels will sit on. There will be no extraneous holes made in the roof.

Home Automation System

Kevin's system will save power by using motion sensors to briefly turn on lights at night or turn off lights when there is no one in a room. The automation system has a small computer brain that controls the alarm system, the heating and/or cooling system, and every light switch or electrical outlet or device he wants it to.

It is controled by a touch screen and has a thermostat built-in.

The system is sophisticated but not too complicated for the average homeowner.

Green Extreme -- Solar Oven

Kevin prepares a chicken dinner using a solar oven that uses the power of the sun to cook meals. In four hours dinner is ready.

Next week on Building Green: Water