Oh, and another thing about energy-efficient houses
I was just wondering that if it's so important to have an energy efficient house and to save energy and to use renewables and to be earthy-crunchy so that you don't have to have a vendor ship supplies in from a long distance, why is it then so not important to site your house in the city where you work?
One thing that strikes me about strawbale houses is that the vast majority of them are built no closer to a city than a second-tier suburb, and when you see the pictures of the house sometimes you will even see the (big, energy-inefficient, and no, your " I
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biodiesel " bumpersticker doesn't help with that) truck that the owner/builders use to drive to and from their job in the city. And, you know, it's not as if using gasoline or biodiesel is any great paragon of energy efficiency or use of local resources; the resources you save by building an earthy-crunchy house that's made from locally available materials are then wasted by having to fill your car with Venezulean hydrocarbons for your 20 mile drive to and from work and the shops.
If you're going to be earthy-crunchy, be properly earthy-crunchy. Live near where you work. Do not underestimate the energy-efficiencies of living on a bus or trolley line, or of riding your bicycle down the Portland Traction trail to get to and from the dark satanic cube mills; even with the diesel oil pit that is the Big Yellow House, I suspect that I'm getting close to energy parity with the people who live in ultra-efficient strawbale houses waaaaay out in the country, but drive in to town every day so they can work in their office.
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A few years ago I met a woman in Northern California who had lived for many years in an off-grid home. Her home was in the mountains, powered by PVs, heated by passive solar and wood, and built from local materials. She also grew much of her own food and raised a few chickens.
Her home was 30 miles from town and required a daily commute to go to work. After ten years of this she decided to move into town. When I met her she was living in a moderate sized “conventional” 1940s house in town. She told me that she figured out her total energy usage before and after moving to town. She was using much less energy living in town as she was able to bike or walk to work and the drive to the grocery store was only a few miles.
Her decision to give up her “alternative, hippie, back-to-the-earth” lifestyle significantly reduced her energy use.
In the town where I live (Laramie, Wyo.), an environmental consulting firm recently made a decision to move to a larger office. Their old office was in a mixed use residential neighborhood near the center of town. Many employees could walk or bike to work and those who drove had a very short commute. Their new building was designed to be ultra-efficient and was featured in the local paper as being an example of green design. However, the new building is on the outskirts of town. As a result everyone must now drive to work and the drive is considerably longer. While the energy use of the building is less, their total energy consumption has gone up considerably when you include employee transportation.
When people tell me about their off-grid, energy efficient homes that are 30 miles out of town, I want to knock them on the head with a PV panel.