Archive for November, 2009

The main reason we’ve included LED in our recommendations, is because they’re quite eco-friendly, compared to all other options. LED produce much more light per watt of electricity. To be precise they produce around 18-22 lumens per watt, much higher than the incandescent and fluorescent lamps. This means they use less power to produce more, which cumulatively adds up to a lot of energy savings. In fact, the US DOE estimates that if LED lighting were used on a large scale, it would convert to savings of $265 billion, reduce electricity demand for lighting purposes by 33% ; and avoid the set up of 40 power plants across the country.
Also, every time you turn on the lights, you’re contributing to CO2 emissions to the tune of 196 pounds per year, for every light bulb in your house. LED lamps bring this to just 63 pounds every year. LED lighting is also non-toxic, it does not contain mercury like fluorescent lamps and thus recycling them is less hazardous. A few other benefits:
• LEDs are extremely small and are available in different colours. This goes well when you try to get creative with lighting in your house.
• LEDs can be dimmed quite easily. Repeated on-off cycles don’t damage LEDs the way they damage other lights. Thus, using LEDs for Christmas lighting is the ideal option
• They’re shock resistant, not fragile like usual bulbs.

The Eco Builders Guild \ South Sound Chapter has announced it will host the South Sound Green Tour on April 17th and 18th, 2010
The theme of the event will be Innovation – Education – Inspiration

It will be a community event to celebrate green innovations through education in sustainable building and inspired living.
This year’s tour will showcase the greenest homes and buildings in our area that incorporate significant use of solar or other renewable energies, new and reclaimed materials, low energy consumption and water conservation technologies, and sustainable design techniques.
Educational sessions will be held at various locations and feature real life topics on how to build and live greener. See our website for more details – www.SouthSoundGreenTour.com ( The site should be up and running by January 1, 2010

South Sound Green Tour is looking for participants and sponsors. If you are interested in either contact me at info@laupenhomes.com. After January we you will be able to contact us directly at SouthSoundGreenTour.com

If you’ve been to a house that was recently done up (in a rather fashionable manner) – you might have found a lot of small whitish lights used in places where the conventional bulbs and CFLs used to be. These tiny things are LED (Light Emitting Diodes) a new entrant in the field of home lighting.
LED is a certain type of lighting device which is being increasing used in homes for many reasons. Largely, they are used more for decorative purposes, but their efficiency and long-life as compared to other fluorescent and incandescent lamps have led to LED using lamps to be used as the main source of light in a house.
The main factor working in LED’s favour is its efficiency. Unlike regular bulbs and fluorescent lights, which waste almost 90% of the energy they consume in the form of heat, LED release very little heat, using up most of the energy to produce light. Thus, its input/output ratio is quite high, and typically LED’s last about 20,000 to 35,000 light hours (compared to CFLs which last 15,000-20,000 hours and incandescent bulbs which last about 1000-2000 hours). This makes them an extremely cost-effective option, when compared to other forms of lighting.
To add to this, LED is available in a variety of colours and can be used very effectively for home decor. Also, LED is a point source of light. Which means if LED lighting is recessed into a wall, all the light it emits will go straight ahead into the room? When incandescent bulbs are recessed, only a fraction of the light will actually make it into the room.

We recently hired Todd and Kari Harris of The Stone People to install a rain water harvesting system at our current project “The Cooper House” The system is designed to collect approximately 1000 gallons of rain water and store it under ground. During the summer months the homeowners will be able to use this water for their lawn and plants. They also will use the water to feed the water fall which is part of our landscape. Here’s how it works.

The Cooper Water Fall

The water is first collected from the roof with normal rain gutters. From there each rain gutter down spout is connected to a series of drain pipes which carry the water to a filter. As water enters the filter, the first twenty five gallons runs right through the filter and into the ground. By allowing the first twenty five gallons go into the ground we get rid of any bad things the water my have picked up from the roof. Once that occurs, the ground around the filter is saturated and the filter begins to fill up with water. When the water reaches a certain level in the filter it begins to drain into an out feed pipe and is carried to the 1000 gallon tank.

The tank is just a hole we dug, which we then wrapped with a heavy rubber liner. Inside the liner we stacked crates similar to milk crates which provide the structure for the tank. We then wrapped the top of the crates with the liner to provide a continuous cover. Also in the tank next to the crates is a pump chamber were the pump that runs the water fall is located. There is an over flow drain on the tank to allow water to escape once the tank is full.

After the tank was complete we poured a concrete walkway right over the top of it. Since the creates are incredibly strong, you can actually drive vehicles over them if you choose. Our concrete is part of a walkway that takes you from the street to the front door of the house. We plan to install a bench at this spot in the walkway so you can sit and watch the waterfall if you choose.

The city of Olympia bases homeowner’s sewer bill on how much water they use. They get the numbers from the water meter. By using water from the roof for irrigation you not only cut down you water bill but also you sewer bill. Imagine the savings if we could use this same water for the toilets inside the house.

An eco-friendly option not many have explored in developed countries is rainwater harvesting. Today this option is not about placing barrels or cisterns on your roof top and no, it’s not uncool. Collecting rainwater for uses apart from drinking severely reduces the load on your water supplier and water supply facilities. It also reduces your water bills. In developing countries that get a good amount of rainfall, rainwater harvesting is implemented on a large scale and used for everything – including drinking, even though water is not a paid-for service. It is done purely as a way to conserve a resource from running dry.
Today, you can buy and install any of the modern and easily available rainwater harvesting systems. These systems collect, filter and then pump rainwater to parts of the house that it can be used. Depending on the amount of rainfall your region receives; and the amount you’d like to harvest, rainwater harvesting systems come in different capacities and with different installations. Systems are also distinguished by where the water will be used. Domestic systems collect and treat rainwater so that it is usable for domestic uses like laundry and cleaning and if purified further even cooking. A garden system on the other hand collects water and pumps it through your garden’s irrigation system. This gives you two benefits – you save on water bills, plus you also save on sewage treatment bills, since the water you use is automatically introduced back into the ground and thus (recycled).
A simple rainwater harvesting system is also quite affordable and makes a lot of economic sense in the long run. An eco-friendly option not many have explored in developed countries is rainwater harvesting. Today this option is not about placing barrels or cisterns on your roof top and no, it’s not uncool. Collecting rainwater for uses apart from drinking severely reduces the load on your water supplier and water supply facilities. It also reduces your water bills. In developing countries that get a good amount of rainfall, rainwater harvesting is implemented on a large scale and used for everything – including drinking, even though water is not a paid-for service. It is done purely as a way to conserve a resource from running dry.
Today, you can buy and install any of the modern and easily available rainwater harvesting systems. These systems collect, filter and then pump rainwater to parts of the house that it can be used. Depending on the amount of rainfall your region receives; and the amount you’d like to harvest, rainwater harvesting systems come in different capacities and with different installations. Systems are also distinguished by where the water will be used. Domestic systems collect and treat rainwater so that it is usable for domestic uses like laundry and cleaning and if purified further even cooking. A garden system on the other hand collects water and pumps it through your garden’s irrigation system. This gives you two benefits – you save on water bills, plus you also save on sewage treatment bills, since the water you use is automatically introduced back into the ground and thus (recycled).
A simple rainwater harvesting system is also quite affordable and makes a lot of economic sense in the long run. An eco-friendly option not many have explored in developed countries is rainwater harvesting. Today this option is not about placing barrels or cisterns on your roof top and no, it’s not uncool. Collecting rainwater for uses apart from drinking severely reduces the load on your water supplier and water supply facilities. It also reduces your water bills. In developing countries that get a good amount of rainfall, rainwater harvesting is implemented on a large scale and used for everything – including drinking, even though water is not a paid-for service. It is done purely as a way to conserve a resource from running dry.
Today, you can buy and install any of the modern and easily available rainwater harvesting systems. These systems collect, filter and then pump rainwater to parts of the house that it can be used. Depending on the amount of rainfall your region receives; and the amount you’d like to harvest, rainwater harvesting systems come in different capacities and with different installations. Systems are also distinguished by where the water will be used. Domestic systems collect and treat rainwater so that it is usable for domestic uses like laundry and cleaning and if purified further even cooking. A garden system on the other hand collects water and pumps it through your garden’s irrigation system. This gives you two benefits – you save on water bills, plus you also save on sewage treatment bills, since the water you use is automatically introduced back into the ground and thus (recycled).
A simple rainwater harvesting system is also quite affordable and makes a lot of economic sense in the long run.