Cheap Green
 
Plain & Simple Cheap Green Green is expensive but it is worth the cost – this sentiment seems to be permeating the conversation about responsible architecture. Is this a true statement or is it only one possibility? After listening to Al Gore at the San Antonio Convention of the AIA I resolved to do my part to help sustain the planet. I have an existing home but I still wanted to do what I could. Living and working in the Arizona Sonora Desert where the issue of water is a major concern I decided that I would focus in that area. I have discovered that a few small items can make a big difference in the water sustainability of a building. What we did: 1) Took our major trees and landscape plants off drip irrigation. After some consultation with local landscape architects it became apparent that our arid climate-appropriate plants were mature enough to sustain themselves on rainfall, augmented with some harvested water. The roofs adjacent to our courtyard drain to the courtyard. So merely blocking the small area drain allowed us to harvest all the water that falls into the courtyard and onto the adjacent roofs. The result is a courtyard that uses less water, shade for the houses that lets us use less A/C and its required electric power. This seems to be a double hit. Using less water and less power. 2) Use outdoor shower as my primary shower. This apparent luxury item is now a small part of the water harvesting system. The shower surface drains across the sidewalk into a small planter. A morning spent digging a small channel to reach all areas of the planter resulted in another area where we could eliminate the drip irrigation system. The result is using less water for irrigation and reusing the gray water from my morning shower. Incidentally less power is used – no need to heat the water for my shower in Arizona. 3) Direct reuse of washer gray water. I recently replaced a 10-year-old stack washer dryer with new front-loading machines. The front loader, of course, uses less water but in addition I had a second washer box installed. This washer box drains directly to an exterior planter and provides gray water for irrigation. A small hose leads the water to this planter. Again the result is using less water for irrigation and reusing the gray water, this time from my washer. The plants in this planter shade the east side of my house as an additional benefit. 4) Reuse swimming pool backwash water. We have a swimming pool (OK I admit it I love my creature comfort). I dug a small trench from the area where I usually backwash the pool to a small arid plant planting area. These plants are remarkably tolerant of the salty water coming out of the pool. Be careful to check the tolerance of any plants you want to water this way. Once again the result is using less water for irrigation and reusing the gray water, this time from my pool. This also has the side benefit of relieving my conscience a bit about having a pool in the desert.
Wednesday, July 18, 2007