Our Sustainable Home Journey

Ever since Dan moved in about a decade ago, we've had the dream of retrofitting our little brick 1950s house to be more sustainable. We attended a Sustainable Tucson meeting with Robert Bulechek on transitioning to electric appliances run on solar.  He gave a great piece of advice - replace your gas appliances (stove, heater, hot water heater) with electric as they break down. We took that to heart. 

It has been quite a process. Similar to our journey with our rainwater harvesting system, we worked on it through the years when we had the time or money - or when appliances could no longer be fixed. 

Back in 2017 Dan dug a trench to direct greywater from the outdoor washing machine to the basin to water some heritage (low water) fruit trees. That washing machine provided about 17 gallons of water per load. The greywater basin also collected rainwater. 

While our cisterns and basins have done a great job supplying water for our low-water native plants and our veggie garden, Tucson Water recommendeds installing a super high-efficiency toilet for saving even more water. They even provide a $100 rebate for a MaP Premium toilet. Handy Dan installed ours. 

We even repurposed our old toilet. 

When the old air conditioner broke down, we replaced it and the gas-fired heater with a more energy efficient heat pump in 2017.

Our biggest dream was to get solar, but it turned out to be a more complicated process than I imagined. We needed to give the solar company an estimate on how much power we would use. Before we could do that, we had to replace our leaky, 74 year-old windows with energy-efficient windows. After looking at a lot of reviews, we chose Renewal by Anderson UV blocking windows with cool forest green frames. The new windows have really enhanced our lives as we now spend hours watching the birds in our front yard and we hear a lot less of the "Speedway" we live near.

Meanwhile... in the backyard, Dan fixed the washing machine for the last time. We replaced the washer and dryer with water and energy-efficient models. The only drawback is that the new washing machine uses less than five gallons of water per load, so our poor pomegranate tree isn't getting the 17 gallons it was used to.

The last step (we thought) was getting the electrical system redone to add new circuits for electric appliances inside the house.

Unfortunately a roof inspection from the solar company (Technicians for Sustainability) uncovered hail damage. So we had to get the roof retiled. 

We finally got the solar panels and battery storage installed this January (just after the federal incentives ended. Sad.) 

We celebrated our dream come true! We were able to run most appliances and the air conditioner on solar and storage! 

Now we just had to get the rest of our gas appliances replaced with electric ones. 

This time we lucked out with 50% discounts from Efficiency Arizona. We got in just under the wire before the federal government stopped covering transitioning to electric. We even got in on a sale at Lowes that paid for delivery and installation. They also took the appliances away to be recycled at Los Reales Sustainability Campus. 

Check out our shiny new induction oven. It will be nice not to breathe in those natural gas fumes.

Out with the old and in with the new. 

Just one last gas appliance to replace! 

We replaced the gas hot water heater with a heat pump water heater and the installers noticed some wiring from a previous installation that needed to be fixed. 

So all of our appliances now run on electricity and can be powered with our own solar panels. 

One last step: sealing the ducts and increasing the insulation in the ceiling (with 50% also covered by Efficiency Arizona). We more than doubled the thickness of the insulation. Our last electric bill was $65 due to record heat. But after the insulation it should be down to nothing!  

One last surprise, we had to redo a sagging roof before the crew could work up there. Brian did an amazing job! And now we know our ceiling won't be falling down on us! Thank you, Advantage Home Performance!

At last we had our gas disconnected! We are so blessed to have a sustainable home that we can leave to our children after us.  

More information: 

Efficiency Arizona (for rebates on insulation, wiring, duct sealing, and upgrading electric appliances)

Commercial High-efficiency Toilet Rebate

Residential High-efficiency Clothes Washer Rebate