A
Tale of Two Houses
__
----- VERY INTERESTING!
House
#1
A
20 room mansion (not including 8
bathrooms)
heated by natural gas. Add on a pool (and a pool house) and a separate guest
house, all heated by gas. In one month this residence consumes more energy than
the average American household does in a year. The average bill for electricity
and natural gas runs over $2400 per month. In natural gas alone, this property
consumes more than 20 times the national average for an American home. This
house is not situated in a Northern or Midwestern 'snow belt' area. It's in the
South.
House
#2
Designed
by an architecture professor at a leading national university. This house
incorporates every 'green' feature current home construction can provide. The
house is 4,000 square feet (4 bedrooms) and is nestled on a high prairie in the
American southwest. A central closet in the house holds geothermal heat-pumps
drawing ground water through pipes sunk 300 feet into the ground.
The
water (usually 67 degrees F) heats the house in the winter and cools it in the
summer. The system uses no fossil fuels such as oil or natural gas and it
consumes one-quarter electricity required for a conventional heating/cooling
system. Rainwater from the roof is collected and funneled into a 25,000 gallon
underground cistern. Wastewater from showers, sinks and toilets goes into
underground purifying tanks and then into the cistern. The collected water then
irrigates the land surrounding the house. Surrounding flowers and shrubs native
to the area enable the property to blend into the surrounding rural landscape.
~~~~~
HOUSE
#1 is outside of
HOUSE
#2 is on a ranch near
An
'inconvenient truth.'
I
sure hope this gets passed to everyone! And, yes ... I DID check Snopes prior to
forwarding it.