the editors's blog

It's sunshine, it's free, it's simple enough—right? With all the things to consider, from interpreting the power bill and reviewing solar proposals to comparing paying cash with lower-cost offerings, the process of switching to solar can leave a homeowner buried in paperwork and as confused as ever.

In recent years, a number of innovate companies and business models have emerged to help lower the initial costs and barriers to entry for consumers. Examples include New Resource Bank's solar financing initiative, CitizenRe's solar rental plan (still in pilot phase), and Solar City's group buying program, which also makes it easier to sell power back into the grid in states where this is possible. People can find lots of great information on financial and other aspects of solar at The Solar Guide website.

Another company who provides an innovative financing and service solution for consumers is Sun Run , who’s borrowed a model from commercial markets. We’ve written about them before , and we recently caught up with President and COO Nat Kreamer to get his thoughts on what people should be thinking about as they evaluate solar and solar service providers.

"Californians know that solar power saves money and cuts global warming. Now homeowners are asking us how to go solar in the most financially responsible way, so they can avoid hidden costs or hassles down the road," said Nat. "We're all concerned about the same things: making smart spending decisions that also help protect our environment."

Here's a list of the top seven questions homeowners should answer before they can triumphantly watch the meter spin backwards.

Q: I know solar is great for the environment, but I want to know the economic benefits--How do I compare the long-term cost of solar to what I currently pay my utility?

Regular readers of BGTV have followed the exciting design journey of our star member GreenModernKits, also known as Copeland Casati.

Today, Copeland announced her new prefab green cottage kit, available at GreenCottageKits.com.

The kit "offers affordable, traditional cottage and larger cabin kit home design with green energy efficient technology" such as passive solar, rainwater collection, and the use of Structural Insulated Panel ("SIPs").

The 2000 (or smaller) square foot modular homes were inspired by traditional Virginian architecture including farmhouses, browstones, and colonial buildings.

Copeland teamed with architect Eric Drivdahl to complete the design, and floorplans of the two story homes are available on the kit's website (the sister site of GreenModernKits.com).

You can read more about the new design on Copeland's announcement in our Share section, and you can follow Greenmodernkits blog on our website.

Congratulations to Copeland and GreenCottageKits.com!

We're looking forward to watching these kits being assembled and turned into homes!

It's hard to believe that another year has passed, and today is Earthday again. That's right, it's Earthday 2008! Earthday is one of those days that always makes us stop and wonder, what is this day all about?

We first visited Senator Gaylord Nelson's account -- he was the founder, so he it seemed like a good place to start.

We then took the opportunity to visit some of our favorite sites to find out what others were seeing, thinking and how they were honoring Earthday today.

Planet Green had a few links to last minute Earthday events, suggesting that people were getting together in many different local celebrations.

WorldChanging wrote a fantastic piece about how the tone of the day has shifted from facts and figures about pollution, to discussions about solutions spanning business practices, innovative technologies, and lifestyle behaviors.

In one of our favorites posts of the day, JetsonGreen gives a simple photographic homage to the earth, and announces that he'll be publishing material from his readers all week.

And finally, we enjoyed the Earthday at theme at Youtube (where one of ours was featured on the front door--thanks youtube!), which allowed us to watch the living web celebrate Earthday around the world.

Please come check out the Share section of our site, and tell us what Earthday means to you, and how you spent the day.

Happy Earthday everyone!

They may be. The International Code Council, which establishes model codes for, among other things, energy conservation, has its next meeting in September of this year. The Alliance to Save Energy hopes to convince the ICC to change the modelbuilding code to reduce residential energy use by 30 percent. Branded “the 30 percent solution,” ICC members will have an opportunity to vote on a slate of code changes as well as consider the changes individually if the package doesn’t pass. The Alliance has put together an Energy Efficient Codes Coalition which includes a number of industry and environmental groups. They are hoping to pack the hall with enough members to push the changes through.

Building energy use makes up about 40% of total U.S. energy consumption, so making residential building codes more energy efficient is good place to start. In addition, making buildings more energy efficient, while costing more up front, pays back big dividends over the life of the building. While some groups like the National Association of Home Builders have not supported this measure because it believes that most of the measures would not be paid back within 10 years, one study by the Energy Department’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory found that a 30% increase from ICC’s 2003 model codes would result in annual savings of $723 on utility bills with $4,000 in upfront costs.

If this passes, residential buildings may not only become greener, they will likely become cheaper to operate. That’s a “win-win” in our book.

Although intuitively it would make sense that green buildings are better investments than normal buildings, until now there has not been a lot of data that back this up. The Co-Star Group recently released a report (download here) that analyzed approximately 1,300 LEED and Energy Star buildings. The verdict? Both types of buildings significantly outperform their non-LEED and Energy Star counterparts.

For example, on average LEED buildings sell for $171 more per square foot, while Energy Star buildings sell for $61 more per square foot. Similarly LEED buildings rent for more than $11.25 per square foot while Energy Star buildings rent for more than $2.38 per square foot. Both have an approximately 4% higher occupancy rate than regular buildings. The report also stated that Energy Star buildings had 10-20% lower operating costs compared to regular buildings (it did not offer a similar analysis for LEED buildings).

The report doesn't offer reasons for this difference, but it's reasonable to infer that there is a greater demand from consumers for these buildings and they are in relatively short supply. While LEED is by no means perfect, it's encouraging to know that there are measurable economic benefits to achieving LEED certification.

Here's another great event to look forward to. Though it's not for 6 months, mark your calendars for West Coast Green, scheduled for September 25-27 at the San Jose Convention Center. WCG was by far our favorite green building show in 2007, featuring the fabulous Michelle Kaufmann and her unveiling of the mkLotus, an impressive list of speakers including Ed Begley Jr and Van Jones, and how shall we say it... an overall great vibe.

So it is with mixed feelings that we see the show move from San Francisco's Bill Graham Auditorium to San Jose's convention center, a move that adds an additional 110K+ square footage of exhibor space and walking area. We'll miss the intimacy of before, but are happy to sacrifice that for the increased interest in residential green building. The event organizers explain the move as an effort to be closer to the center of technology and Cleantech innovation: "Moving to the heart of innovation enables us to deliver the type of brilliant, out-of-the-box ideas from thought leaders, to the people who seek solutions."

Hopefully the new venue will attract more-better exhibitors, making the show perhaps the largest residential green building show in the country and possibly worth making a special trip for if you are new to green building. One thing staying consistent is a solid line-up of speakers, which is enough to get us excited to give the new set-up a shot.

As green buildings become more mainstream, real estate brokers will become key players in marketing these buildings to potential buyers. However, there are as yet few mechanisms available to allow brokers to speak with authority about the sometimes technical features of green buildings.

One program, Ecobroker®, is attempting to change that. According to its website, http://www.ecobroker.com, EcoBroker is an educational and marketing program “designed to help communities across the United States and internationally take advantage of and encourage energy efficiency and sustainable design in real estate properties." The program provides continuing education credits as a way to educate real estate brokers and industry affiliates about green buildings through a series of courses that allows them to become certified EcoBrokers® and address buyers’ and sellers’ increasing sensitivity to building features like energy efficiency and environmental design.

The program, which is available online, addresses environmental issues such as radon, asbestos, lead, water, mold, indoor air quality, and other issues that may arise during real estate transactions. It also covers energy efficiency technologies, sustainable energy options, and green mortgage options for energy efficiency improvements. It explains green home certification programs, such as Built Green® Colorado, Energy Star Qualified Homes, and LEED. So if you're in the market for a green house, see if there are any Ecobrokers in your area before you start to look. It could make finding your green dream home a whole lot easier.

San Francisco is close to enacting some of the strictest green building codes in the nation. Last week, the city’s Building Inspection Commission voted to pass the revisions to its building code onto the city’s Board of Supervisors. Mayor Gavin Newsom, who established a task force last year to come up with these revisions, has promised to sign the regulations into law.

Unlike many green building standards, which only apply to public buildings or buildings that receive a certain amount of public financing, these will affect private developers and commercial projects. The regulations would be phased in over a number of years and would apply to new residential high-rises over 75 feet, new commercial buildings over 5,000 square feet, and renovations on buildings over 25,000 square feet. Other new residential construction would have to comply with Build It Green’s GreenPoint Rated standard, which is similar to LEED (but more user friendly).

According to city officials, by 2012 the new green building codes could reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 60,000 tons and save 220,000 megawatt hours of power and 100 million gallons of drinking water. Pretty impressive. This could be a model for other forward thinking cities who have passed green building laws but have not yet greened their building codes.

Ever thought of getting green home insurance? Sound far fetched? Not anymore. Fireman's Fund Insurance Company now offers two types of "Green-Gard" insurance for homes.

For people who already have a green-certified building or a building with certain green features, the insurance will cover the cost of replacement and will even hire a LEED-certified professional to oversee the repairs.

For people who would like to rebuild a home with green features in the event of a loss, the insurance will replace standard systems and materials with green ones such as non-toxic paints and carpeting, Energy-Star rated electrical equipment, energy efficient lighting systems and water efficient interior plumbing.

The insurance even covers the hiring of a commissioning engineer to ensure that all building systems operate properly and are in allignment with one another. To top it off, the company offers reduced rates to building owners who commit to green standards. Who says it doesn't pay to be green?

More information is available on the Fireman's Fund site.