During my home energy audit last winter, we discovered that my pull-down stairs are poorly sealed and insulated, therefore it'd be a good idea to build an attic stair box to keep the conditioned air from escaping into the attic. Rather than pay $200 for a contractor to do it, I recruited a few friends to help.
4' x 8' Foam board insulation from Home Depot (3" thick = R-13): $25
bits of wire hanger to connect pieces: free from dry-cleaner
duct tape to secure edges $5
Total cost of materials: $30
Annual heating and cooling cost savings: to be determined next winter
Satisfaction of building it with friends: priceless!
Thanks to the attic stair box construction team, clockwise from top left: Construction Skills, Project Manager, General Mischief, Artistic Direction/Photography.
I read a fun, irreverent book over Christmas break: highly recommended reading before you move to New Mexico, buy a ranch, invest in goats, convert a truck to biodiesel, install solar panels and a solar hot water system, or any similarly rash green life-changing actions.
My kitchen will be so much less cluttered come February! Here's the article...
Baltimore County gets with the program! Single stream recycling begins February 1,2010.
On December 10, 2009, County Executive Jim Smith announced that single stream recycling collection will begin on February 1, 2010 for all 240,000 single family homes and townhomes, and multi family units that currently have recycling collection. In an effort to make it very easy for residents to recycle, they will be able to use a wide variety of containers to place single stream recyclables out for collection, though plastic bags will no longer be accepted in the single stream program. Additionally, residents will be able to recycle more items than they can in the current program.
As the County moves forward with its single stream recycling collection program for homes that already have recycling collection, Bureau of Solid Waste Management staff will also be working to bring apartments and condominium units without recycling collection into the program.
For more information on the County's transition to single stream recycling collection, please visit www.bcrecycles.com.
I was surfing around the Department of Energy website today and discovered that Energy Secretary Steven Chu is on Facebook! You too can become a fan.
You can track his travels and view powerpoint presentations like this one he just gave at Copenhagen this week.
The infrared photo on this post illustrates the sort of technologies he mentioned in the context of rolling out home energy outreach programs, iPhone apps, and building energy modeling software.
There are also some neat images of the world map, showing areas of heavy energy use and population density, which reminded me of maps I've seen at www.darksky.org
The International Code Council (ICC) develops standards and guidelines for building safety, fire prevention, construction practices... and now sustainability. These days they're working on a green building code for commercial building in the USA.
This article at Philly.com describes work by the ICC's Sustainable Building Technology Committee on the new green building code. California and Pennsylvania are the only two states with government representatives on the panel.
Happy Cyber Monday! In case you're out there doing your online Christmas shopping right now, here's some news about package shipping: UPS now offers the option to buy carbon offsets for 5 to 20 cents per package.
As I was tending the home fires over Thanksgiving weekend I found some old Dwell magazines and spent an afternoon immersed in the architectural design world...
A beloved local icon fell prey to the economic downturn recently: the Senator Theatre has hosted movie premieres and local gatherings since its opening in 1939. I watched the 2009 presidential inauguration there with a standing-room-only crowd, it was a memorable experience.
After the Senator was acquired by Baltimore City, the Baltimore Development Corporation issued a Request for Proposals to "renovate and rejuvenate the Senator into an active and vibrant center for the community."
I'm biased in favor of our Towson University radio station's submittal: WTMD's general manager posted this blog entry about their proposal to use the space for its originally-intended purpose: movies, music, and events to bring the community together.
This is an elegant solution that addresses both historic preservation of this lovely Art Deco structure and fostering community in Belvedere Square and beyond. I hope they have the opportunity to realize this endeavor!
In green business circles you hear a lot about the "triple bottom line": planet + people + prosperity, or if you prefer Es: ecology, equity, economy.
In the prosperity/economy vein, I've previously shared posts from Cheapskate Monthly (a newsletter and website at www.Debtproofliving.com, by Mary Hunt). Recently I discovered another blog about personal finance that blends commonsense money advice with book reviews and a Lifehacker-esque vibe: thesimpledollar.com
One of my favorite posts this week proposed uncluttering your house as a means of improving your productivity and saving money. As a recovering maximalist, this idea really appeals to me. He says, and I quote: "I link to Unclutterer [blog] frequently because I believe there is a strong connection between clutter and financial problems, since clutter represents having more physical possessions than you can manage and all of those possessions cost money. Plus, dealing with clutter requires a time investment and in our busy lives, time has a very high value."
He also mentions Getting Things Done, a highly-recommended book about productivity. He doesn't mention www.storyofstuff.com but the concept video came to mind as I was pulling together links for this post. Enjoy!
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And for any fellow equestrians cleaning out their attics: horse show ribbons www.ribbonrehab.com and Hodges Badge company. (in Horse & Rider magazine I saw an article about donating ribbons to theraputic riding charities, but now I can't find the link: consider this option also!)
The other day my housemate pointed out that we rarely put out more than one trash bag per week, compared to our neighbors' two to five trash bags. If we had to pay per trash bag like some of my friends in other states, we'd be saving a lot of money! .
