Yesterday afternoon a team of DOE officials from Washington, D.C.and Coloradodescended on the GIH. They were eager to learn about all the innovative, affordable and off the shelf technologies we put together that gets the GIH to net zero energy and zero carbon. They are doing this to find out
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Interesting and interested participants on the tours and panel presentation made it a joy to share our experiences designing and building the GIH. It was great connecting with old and new friends of the project.
At 9am and 10am we ran tours (outside only) as part of the South Bay Solar
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At 9am and 10am on Saturday May 9th we will be running tours (outside only) as part of the South Bay Solar and Green Homes Tour put on by the Environmental Priorities Network. Nine other families will be opening their houses for the tour as well: SolarGreenHomesTour 2012
Also on Saturday at
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One of Robert’s favorite Green Conferences is the MGBCE sponsored by the USGBC. Robert has been going for the last five years and has been learning something new that he has applied to the project every year. So it was a real pleasure to be able to give back during
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We have been invited to speak about what we learned in the process of designing and building the GIH. Yesterday Robert spoke to 30 leaders and managers at the City of Manhattan Beach about how what we learned could impact the city’s operations and help them save taxpayer’s money. The
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We want to express our sincere appreciation to all of you for making Saturday a huge success. The event was booked solid a week in advance and over 200 people came out for tours and the educational expo. We had to turn people away to ensure the safety of everyone
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We would like everyone to know that all four tours (of 35 people ea) on Saturday have sold out! You are still welcome to come and see the energy upgrade displays and get your name on the stand-by list for the tours.
If there are no openings on Saturday’s tours and
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We had a great experience during our four month trial of a 100% electric Local Use Vehicle (LUV) loaned to us by the South Bay Cities Council of Governments. We are honored that they have asked us to say a few words at an event this morning at 11am.
You are
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The U.S. Green Building Council, Energy Upgrade CA and Leadership Hermosa Beach have asked us to give a series of construction tours on February 11th. The tours will showcase the innovative technologies that make the Green Idea House net zero energy, zero carbon and responsive to the environment in terms
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The U.S. Green Building Council, Energy Upgrade CA and Leadership Hermosa Beach have asked us to give a series of construction tours on February 11th. The tours will start at noon, 1pm, 2pm and 3pm and will be followed by a networking/ green networking event at one of the local
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Many thanks to Gary Klein for sharing his genius with us yesterday. In two hours Gary took us through all the water related systems that are so crucial for us in hitting our net zero energy goals.
Gary is great at debunking myths about things like tankless water heaters and solar
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Gary Klein, one of the country’s leading experts in hot water technologies, will be visiting the construction site and leading a group discussion. We have invited officials from the city, other experts in the field and manufacturers and contractors who could benefit from the wealth of Gary’s expertise. The tour
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Now that he is back from Japan, Robert hopes to get caught up on his postings! The first is a video clip taken from the November City Council meeting.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rQqizZ02Vik
GIH updates to the City Council include:
Steel vs. Wood
Certified vs Non-certified wood
Low V.O.C. vs. Low Toxicity
Reuse vs New
View vs. Solar Panels
As part of his regular day job, Robert is honored to be invited to Japan next week to work with the Rotary Peace Fellows on leadership and strategy for their master’s level studies. It will be hard to be away from the GIH project for the week; but versus war,
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We will be giving one of our periodic construction updates to City Council this evening. The meeting starts at 7pm and we should be presenting shortly thereafter. You can also view the meeting on Verizon Fios Ch. 31, Warner Cable Ch.8, and online at www.hermosabch.org under Agendas/Minutes/Video.
During
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The City Council meeting was packed on Tuesday night as Robert looked forward to giving the GIH update. He was second presentation on the agenda – but the first presentation went much longer than expected.
Sensing the vibe in the room Robert got up to the podium and, out of respect
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AOL’s Patch Press service published an article on the Green Idea House this morning: http://hermosabeach.patch.com/articles/hermosas-greenest-house-of-them-all Eric Farrell, the Hermosa Beach Patch reporter, did a very nice job summarizing the conversation we had last week.
On a related note, we will be giving one of our periodic construction updates to City Council
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Amber Keenoy, the highly respected green building consultant and estimator very kindly mentioned the Green Idea House in an excellent article that is part of her weekly series: http://gogreenamericatv.com/global-green-sustainable-buildings/
Our friends Ken and Dorothy have very generously opened their home to the community for an Energy Upgrade California demonstration. See the attached notice from the city for further details. The program just announced that they have increased the potential rebate amount to $8,000. There may never be a better
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The latest crop of students from the Youthbuild program came for a tour last week. YouthBuild is an excellent program that gives at-risk inner city kids the opportunity to finish school and learn a trade at the same time. Graduates of the program have worked on the GIH and have
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We really appreciated the opportunity to be in the Water and Energy Expo in the morning and on the EPN Green and Solar house tour circuit in the afternoon.
We were impressed by the interested and engaged group that showed up. Thanks to all our friends (old and new) that
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We have been invited to talk about the Green Idea House during two events on Saturday the 21st:
1. Our partners West Basin Water District and So Cal Edison are putting on a Water and Energy Smart Expo. They have set up a booth for us to explain the Green Idea
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We will be briefing the Hermosa Beach City Council at their meeting at 7pm tonight!
The South Bay Environmental Services Center asked us to speak at the quarterly South Bay Cities Green Task Force Meeting to share information about our 97.5% landfill diversion milestone. We will be complementing Lisa Coppedge’s presentation on Grades of Green’s incredible efforts to reduce trash and how that translates into
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We are off to the Torrance Environmental Fair, a free event from 10-2pm today.
During Earth Hour at 8:30pm we will be sitting in the dark with millions of other people – a good metaphor for our energy policy, or lack thereof.
Robert was honored to speak about the GIH at the “Green Building: Legal and Regulatory Realities” conference. It was held at the Annenberg Community Beach House, an unbelievable public facility right on the water in Santa Monica.
The conference had an outstanding faculty. A couple of the standout speakers were
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The conference, Green Building: Legal and Regulatory Realities is on March 18, 2011 in Santa Monica, CA. A discount of $100 off your regular tuition rate is available when you register by phone using the code “FAC101” to 206-463-4400 or 800-574-4852.
Read more about the conference here: http://www.theseminargroup.net/brochures/11.GRNCA%20Brochure%20ni.pdf
Hermosa Beach is hosting an event on Jan 26th. Find one near you. http://www.sbesc.com/programs/residential
You are invited to the Groundbreaking Ceremony for the Green Idea House on Tuesday, October 5th, 8:45 am at 1556 Prospect Avenue, Hermosa Beach.
The ceremony will be done by 9:30 am; but information about the Green Idea House and the Southern California Edison Mobile Energy Unit (MEU) and demonstration
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Interesting day yesterday, spent the morning with our terrific mechanical engineers redoing the systems. We all want to make sure they work in terms of efficiency and affordability.
The afternoon was with some great people in the Emerging Technologies Group at Edison. They have the interesting job of searching out the
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