Re: Cohousing-L Digest, Vol 84, Issue 25
From: Joel Plotkin (joelsunyit.edu)
Date: Sat, 29 Jan 2011 18:54:49 -0800 (PST)
Tom,
At this point it's just a concept. I'm not sure how "best intentions" fits
into a scientific method, but certainly we can look at total amount of
electricity generated and at amount of electricity generated per house. We
can certainly get a figure for BTUs generated per solar hot water system,
total and average for a community. What are the average R-values for House
construction? We recycle wastewater, which other communities may not do, but
water usage averages per person or per household are relevant and can be
compared with national or regional averages. Are there valid ways to compare
natural gas usage, propane usage or electricity usage? Probably only within
each energy source category. Food produced per community member in community
gardens? Hard to measure... Construction cost comparisons? Most of our
systems were built before the more generous State and Federal tax writeoffs
and/or grants, so I'm not sure how we can compare those. I'm interested to
see what factors others may come up with.

The point is neither bragging rights nor a peer-reviewable precise audit,
but a forum that other communities can use to decide on their own energy
efficiency paths. Anyone interested, please contact me off the list (let's
save some surprises for the conference)
Joel Plotkin
Hundredfold Farm
Orrtanna, PA

  1. Ecovillage Faceoff (Thomas Lofft)
> -------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> From: Thomas Lofft <tlofft [at] hotmail.com>
> Subject: [C-L]_ Ecovillage Faceoff
>
>
>
> Joel:
> This is a great suggestion, hopefully not just to create bragging rights,
> but to adopt the scientific method to evaluate the effectiveness of the 120+
> different permutations based on best intentions, limited budgets, personal
> preferences and even misguided rumormongering.
>
> How would the evaluations be conducted?
>
> Tom Lofft
> Liberty village, MD
>
>
> Date: Wed, 26 Jan 2011 08:13:45 -0500
> From: Joel Plotkin <joel [at] sunyit.edu>
> Subject: [C-L]_ Ecovillage Faceoff
> To: cohousing-l [at] cohousing.org
> Message-ID:
> <AANLkTi=gvXC5=YBUrX4rVHku2rGaE5cnVvWSJhbseV=6 [at] mail.gmail.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1
>
> I've proposed to the National Coho Conf group an Ecovillage Face-Off, a
> humorous game show format to compare Hundredfold Farm's energy savings with
> other ecovillages. Categories could include Electricity Generation, BTUs or
> Therms produced, R-value Construction, Water Efficiency, maybe a Wild Card
> category? Could be fun...
>
> We're issuing the challenge. Any takers?
>
> Joel Plotkin
> Hundredfold Farm Cohousing
> Orrtanna, PA
>
>
>
>
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> End of Cohousing-L Digest, Vol 84, Issue 25
> *******************************************
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