The Dallas Green Zine

We bought our home in August, 2006.  The home is an energy hog.  Immediately, we noticed several things that just sucked up the energy:

• Skylights with old glass (no IR/UV protection)
• Single pane windows throughout
• Old (ok, ancient) HVAC system
• limited attic insulation
• Old, near end of life 50-gal water heater in an inside closet

To be fair, the house did have two big things going for it which are design things that cannot change:

• The house is situated on the lot and 80% of our windows face north/south. 
• We also have two beautiful Live Oak trees on the south side, shading the windows about 80% of the time - minimizing solar heat gain. 

These two things are definite plusses, as it’s very hard to move your house. When we first moved in, we bought an energy star Fridge/Freezer.  The house had a washer/dryer, so we decided to use that for a bit until we get some other items fixed up first.
 
The very first thing (besides some interior redecorating) we did was pull out that old water heater.  It was about 10 years old.  It was also inside the envelope of the conditioned portion of the home - which means it is “negatively” pressurizing the home (pulling outside air through all the cracks in the home to feed it’s gas burner).  I understand that negative pressure = bad.  The closet it was located in shared the wall to the garage.  

We installed a Bosch 250NG tankless heater on the other side of that wall, inside the garage. 

This took care of several things:  (1) removed this source of negative pressure, (2) removed the passive heat exchange between the tank and the inside conditioned air and (3) gave us another closet - one can never have too much storage!  This install is going to save us $80-100/year and the tankless units last a lot longer - so in the long run, this unit is going to save us money every month… and last longer - more than paying for itself over the life of the unit.  Economical and environmentally friendly… this is the model that more products need to gain traction and get mass deployment.
 
Next month, we are getting our HVAC replaced.  Our current unit was built in ‘86… so it’s 21 years old.  the AC compressor has stuck valves (per the HVAC guy) further decreasing it’s capacity.  We are replacing the whole system with a 16-SEER multispeed, dual stage system.  We aren’t going for the top of the line systems, as there is a breaking point between capital cost and operating cost - I am not going to pay a ton of money just to save a little energy… these things must make economic sense.  During the summer, we are going to save a TON on electric charges with this new, much more efficient unit.  For the record, we set our thermostats back (automatically) when we are both at work.
 
We decided to wait on replacing the skylight glass - and take advantage of the solar gain all winter.  In the next couple months, we are going to get the glass replaced in both our units with IR/UV blocking glass from the manufacturer of the skylights.  When we first moved in, I climbed up on a ladder to clean the blinds in the skylight… and just about burned my fingers, as it was letting in that much heat.  That can’t be good for the AC bill!  This is going to cost about $400 for two skylights - that will EASILY pay for itself over the life of the glass (and cut down on sun bleaching of our home’s interior).

After the HVAC is in, I am going to climb in the attic and seal all the rigid duct work myself (rigid duct work is more efficient, as it has less drag internally, but it leaks like crazy - causing a HUGE negative pressure issue - unless you seal the seams) and put on additional duct insulation, then install additional attic insulation. 

These two projects are going to also be relatively inexpensive ($600-800 total) and pay back huge dividends ($125-150/year).  By removing the negative pressure created by leaky ducts (at just a couple hundred bucks), I suspect this project will pay for itself in the first year - two at max.  Again… economical and environmentally friendly.
 
The windows are something that will take a bit longer, but over the next 2-3 years, we will be replacing the windows.  I’ve actually ran simulation programs (RESFEN 5.0) to compare windows in our home.  I was really disappointed in the savings for all the marketing hoopla that’s out there (but to be fair, the trees and position of our windows were limiting the savings - if you have more exposed windows, your savings will be greater).  Going from single pane to dual pane with argon gas and low-e… we are only going to save about $250-300 per year at a cost of $7-8K.  That’s about a window a year.  Economics simply don’t work in the favor of window replacement.  I was really bummed by this.  We have decided to make a conscious decision that the better sound insulation and lower energy usage (from an environmental perspective, NOT an economical one) is worth the upgrade, but we are prioritizing other things first.
 
That leads us to those “other things”.  We are planning to replace out top loader washer with a Bosch front loader.  We are also looking at replacing the old, inefficient dishwasher with an Asko highly efficient model.  We have done some things that are certainly not what all environmentalists would want - we are installing a larger jacuzzi type tub in the master bath, we have a dedicated 20-amp circuit for a fancy shmancy espresso maker and we have an outdoor jacuzzi.  I believe in helping the environment, but I also believe in enjoying life - we just try to limit our impact on it.
 
All things considered, I think these upgrades will take this environmentally unfriendly house and dramatically lower it’s “carbon footprint” (as that’s the current buzz phrase). 
 
I would certainly entertain grey water catchment systems - but think they may be a bit more economical on new construction, where you could install TWO meters - one going to places you are going to recapture the water/hook to the lawn sprinkler and one for the rest of your water - since the sewage costs are the highest part of your water bill… without removing that, I find it hard to believe that grey-water system could pay for itself.
 
I would love to install solar or wind or some sort of alternative energy generation solution… but they just aren’t economically practical at this point in time.  I’m definitely watching the thin film solar industry with great anticipation.  If they can cut the overall initial costs in half… I think we would have something that would be adopted on a massive scale.

Can restaurant food be healthy and fast? Snappy Salads at the northwest corner of Preston and Forest shows that not only can you have healthy fast food, but you can enjoy it in a healthy environment that has been designed with a reduced impact on the planet.  

‘There is no reason we can’t have healthy restaurants,’ said Chris Dahlander, the owner of Snappy Salads.

     

Dahlander, a former marketing director for Romano’s Macaroni Grill and a 13-year veteran of the restaurant business, launched Snappy Salads just 10 months ago.

Design Your Own Salads 

First there’s the food. At Snappy Salads, you can create your own salad for under $7 from a large selection, most of which is organic, including different types of lettuce, roasted corn, Kalamata olives, tomatoes, mushrooms, roasted corn, nuts, cheeses, roasted red peppers, capers, peppery arugula, garbanzo beans, dried cherries… and almost a dozen homemade dressings. For a small fee, you can add chicken, shrimp, salmon, fajita meat, pulled pork, etc. There are also tasty soups and lemon cookies for dessert.

Green Features 

Then there is the 2000 sq ft restaurant itself, which has many environment-friendly features.

• There are three long family-style tables made of reclaimed wood. The wood was taken from a barn in Oklahoma that was almost headed for a landfill.
• The walls are painted using milk paint, which has low VOCs.
• Employees’ shirts and aprons are made of hemp. Hemp doesn’t require chemical fertilizers or pesticides, needs minimal amounts of water, thrives in different climates, and is stronger than most other fabrics. Dahlander said that the first pair of blue jeans was made from hemp and so were the sails on Columbus’ famous three ships.
• To-go containers and cups are made from a corn-based plastic called PLA; the utensils are composed of potato starch. Both materials are biodegradable and can be composted. Where conventional plastics require hundreds of years to break down, the plastics made from PLA and potato starch can degrade within six months.

  

Although employees’ clothing is made of hemp, this new shirt uses a technology similar to the container: corn-based plastic

• The faucets, paper-towel dispensers and lights in the restrooms used motion-sensor technology, which conserves energy and makes the fixtures ‘touchless.’
• Stained concrete floors
• Menus, bags and napkins are printed with soy-based inks on unbleached, recycled paper.

Lighting conservation was more difficult to achieve. The lighting in the food area is fluorescent but the wattage has to remain high for food preparation requirements. In the dining area, Dahlander said ‘we had to compromise because when we tried fluorescent, people just looked too green.’ However, they were able to put in lower watt bulbs (40w), and despite a few compromises, Snappy Salads is way ahead.
 
Future Plans

Dahlander has plans for a North Park Mall store and another store at DFW airport by mid-February. He wants healthier food choices at the airport. He said that you can’t get healthy food, running from one gate to another, without missing your flight. He hopes that getting into DFW airport will help launch the store nationwide. He said, “My goal is to be the next Chipotle.’

Steve Ellis, the founder of Chipotle made a commitment to having ‘food with integrity’ and now tries to get sustainable farms to produce for their menus. Similarly, Snappy Salads includes organic turkey and all-natural free-range chicken.

Dahlander said that his concerns about looking out for the environment started early when as an Eagle scout on a hiking trip, a guide told him: ’Just leave it better than the way you found it.’