Energy Rebates

According to the DRC, the Denton Municiple Electric will be explaining the GreenSense energy rebate program this Saturday . The DME reps will be at the South Branch library at 1pm.

Go, Learn, and save some GREEN!

Open Eco-House

Starting this weekend the Colleyville Eco House will be having open house hours. The house will be certified LEED-H Gold, Energy Star, and a list of others certifications and acronyms. The house is enormous. Honestly, I'm not sure how I feel about such a huge house but it does have something I'm really looking at in a new house. A huge open kitchen that can accommodate large groups. I would say two thirds of the first floor is the kitchen/dining/living open area. And the pantry? Nice!

The house is open every weekend this month, and with everything else we have going on, I'm hoping we'll be able to make it.

Rebates, Get your red hot Rebates!

The Denton Municiple Electric has begun GreenSense program and is giving rebates to residents who make energy-saving improvements to their homes. So, now's the time to install those solar panals you've been eyeing. But if that still isn't in your budget even after up to a $15,000 rebate, you can also get rebates on programmable thermostats, solar screens, and even insulation. 

The energy rebates only apply to work done after the 1st and the money is given on a first come, first served basis. Once it runs out, it's gone - until the program gets more funds in October. 

Hurry up and get your red hot rebates!! Program information and forms can be found at the Denton Municple Electric website.

Green Cement Update

Thought I'd give a (late) update on my post about the green cement. Last week the Denton City Council voted to buy cement from companies that use the more eco-friendly dry-kiln techniques. Yea! 

Those of you who contacted the City of Denton's council, feel free to pat yourself on the back...

Denton Green Cement?

This week the Denton City Council postponed a vote on new "green" cement requirements for city contracts. They did this because Ash Grove Cement is suing Dallas, Ft Worth, and Plano, among others for similar requirements.

Ash Grove "alleges that the green cement resolutions violate Texas law, which it says require municipal bodies to evaluate only the competence of the bidder and the quality and price of its products or services." I say requiring bidders to comply with certain requests for the makeup of the product is well within the rights of anyone, including municipal bodies. And what of the quality of other things, like the environment and other costs, such as higher health care costs due to poor air quality

They are the last hold out in the area with wet kilns – the dirtiest way to make cement. This kiln has been around since 1965. 1965!? In between then and now you couldn't invest in some new freaking technology?

Now, they have reduced Iron Oxide emissions by about half in the last few years, but I wonder how much more they could reduce emissions with newer technology and processes?

So, if you want your elected officials to stand up and require city contracts to use more eco-friendly cement manufacturing practices, contact them this week! And then come back and let me know what you said!

Sources: http://www.kansascity.com/business/story/919552.html; http://www.dentonrc.com/sharedcontent/dws/drc/localnews/stories/DRC_cement_1204.289ec206.html

Tuesday Night TV, My Favorite

So, yes, I do try very hard to be at home watching TV Tuesday nights at 8pm. Come on, I don't have a TiVo and I'm lovin' me some Sundance channel The Green. I would also love to be able to see Discovery's Planet Green channel (sweet website by the way), but alas DirecTV doesn't have that one on our plan and I'm not going to pay more for just one channel.

Anyway, The Green is three hours of great greenness. They have several shows and usually an interesting documentary, as well. My favorite by far is the show It's Not Easy Being Green. It's a reality show about this family in England who moved out to the country and is trying to live completely green and off-grid. They do some really interesting things, for example they built themselves a waterwheel to create electricity for the house. As Shinerman says though, they are able to do most of the things they do because of they're location; they have a stream AND a natural spring on their land. This week, they hooked up a wind turbine to run the battery for a pump that is taking water from the spring and supplying the house with water. I'm green with envy.

Of course it's a ton of work and they have a bunch of people who come and help, including two family friends who moved in with them to join the fun. They have two pretty cute kids in college – a guy (who is literally half-naked for the majority of the show) and a girl – for those who might be interested in something of that nature. See related image below. This next week they are supposed to be killing the pigs they've been raising. Mmmm, bacon…

Speaking of interesting Green viewing items, the Angelika is showing The Unforeseen this week. It is about the real estate development of Barton Springs in Austin. The director was on KERA's THINK Wednesday morning. I hope to be able to see the film, it sounded like something that should open up some people's eyes.

Affordably Green

We went to the Denton Arts & Jazz Fest Saturday. Holy Moly! It was packed. With just the one bridge in Quakertown Park (aka Civic Center Park), traveling from one side to the other took waaay too long. Now I remember why we usually go on Sunday morning. We didn't even get a chance to check out the art booths, so no new pottery for me. I guess I don't really need it anyway.

We did get a chance to visit with the folks from the Denton Affordable Housing Corporation. They were there promoting Nevada Court, a community of "green" homes. I've heard of it before, the same guy who helped build the Zero Energy home in Frisco is in charge of this project. However, they had pictures and plans and PRICES! How often do you see that? Anyway, the prices are pretty decent. One of the more expensive ones was only $142,000 for almost 1400sf. And they guarantee the monthly heating/cooling bills to be less than $60 a month. It looked like there were only a few of the houses up for sale and, depending on your income level, you may be eligible for first-time home buyer assistance.