Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Cost of Building Green & payback when savings

[Sharon Villines (sharon]

On May 29, 2007, at 8:54 AM, sally thompson wrote:

> If any of you can let me know which "Green" features you used and  
> whether you think it was worth it, that would be helpful, too.   
> (i.e. counter tops made of recycled materials--did they cost a lot  
> more & were they worth it?)

Even though we had a bad installer and have been correcting our  
system ever since we put it in, I would still go with geothermal  
again. Use Water Furnaces, most reliable and best performing  
according to all our sources here. We  have Florida heat pumps that  
are okay but not great, although Bosch has just bought them so that  
may be a good sign.

Also we just found out that it is better _not_ to put in a well for  
each unit. Better to have several water wells connected to a manifold  
so water from all the wells is used by all the units. That way when  
one well dies, you can just do without it.

Otherwise, it is hard to measure, on an individual basis, the value  
of green in terms of use once you are built.

Sharon
----
Sharon Villines
Takoma Village Cohousing
http://www.takomavillage.org