EcoBrokers Sponsor EcoLumina

This week was the Southern Builders Show in Atlanta. EcoLumina is the 2008 Showcase House for the Southern Builders Show. Harry Norman was one of the sponsors so I spent Wednesday and Thursday afternoons there mostly learning about all of the features of the house. We were supposed to be showing builders around the house but honestly I really didn't see very many builders coming through. They were coming over on buses and I guess I just missed them. I could not have been happier with my time spent there. All of the vendors that had a hand in the house were on site and were very kind to spend a lot of time walking me through all of their products. For me the coolest part of the house was the "plumbing" room in the basement. The folks from GeoThermal Energy Solutions were there and were showcasing the geothermal heat and air system that was installed in this house. There is a considerable investment up front to install this system but it really does start paying you back immediately, seeing savings of 60% over a traditional HVAC system. Another really cool thing we learned yesterday is that during the summer months (or any time when the system is cooling), you can turn off your hot water heater as the geothermal heats the water for you. That in itself would be a huge savings especially in the South where we do a lot of cooling... The house also has solar powered hot water, (and tankless water heaters for the upstairs), a major rainwater harvesting system that will essentially keep them off the city water grid, a sewage treatment system that will clean up the black water and reuse it for irrigation & other grey water purposes, recycled (looks like/feels like/works better than)"slate" roof. I was actually lucky enough to sit down with the owner of the house and get his perspective on everything. One thing that really jumped out at me was that he felt the most important aspect of the house was the tight building envelope. This is where everything has to start. A tight well built house gives you the foundation to add all of these other ingredients. One thing that makes it a tight house is the Icynene insulation that was used in the walls and attic space. It really is the best option when insulating, like their logo says, "Healthier, Quieter, More Energy Efficient". There is so much more in the house than I can put in this post but check it out online at http://www.ecolumina.org/Prod/index.shtml. This is a link to their product page which lists all of the vendors that were involved and has a link to all of their websites. Many thanks to Matt Hoots and Carl Seville for letting us be involved in EcoLumina. It really has been a great learning experience.