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 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

New Windows on the World

I've noticed that in our sustainability community there are several camps that concentrate on different aspects of sustainability. Some excel at recycling or zero waste, others avoid fossil fuels by installing solar and driving an electric vehicle, yet others choose a vegetarian lifestyle. We fit snuggly into the rainwater harvesting, water conservation camp, but we try our best to practice a well rounded sustainability lifestyle. We take alternate transportation, enjoy a mostly vegetarian diet (though we occasionally eat fish), we  have reduced our plastic and food waste and participate in low-water desert gardening and native tree planting. We do what we can. But if I'm honest, we have fallen behind in one area - solar power.

Some years ago, Robert Bulechek conducted an enlightening presentation at a Sustainable Tucson meeting. He suggested that when it's time to replace gas powered appliances, replace them with electric ones. Then they can be run off of solar power.  Well, some of our appliances are on their last legs, so we will be replacing them soon. We have already replaced our air conditioner with a more energy efficient heat pump. And we finally got on the list to get solar from our respected local solar installer Technicians for Sustainability. But our progress was stalled when they asked how much energy we will be using. We needed to factor in energy efficient windows that we hadn't installed yet.  

We are excited to announce that we finally got our old leaky windows replaced. It was some effort to remove the furniture 3 feet from the windows. 

But it was so worth it. We just love them! Since they block UV light and people can't see in as easily, we were able to get rid of our hard to dust blinds and heavy curtains. What a view!  It's almost like being out in the desert habitat (that is our yard) without enduring the extreme heat. 

Now we can watch a variety of birds splash in the birdbath or rest in the shade of our native plants and trees in our rainwater harvesting basin while enjoying breakfast in comfort.

 

I wish my phone could catch our lovely view out the dining room window.

I look forward to watching the rain fill up our slimline tanks - when the monsoon storms finally roll in. Who am I kidding? I will be out there in the rain! 

Here is the view I get to enjoy out of our kitchen window while doing the dishes. I look forward to getting a better view of the baby squirrels wrestling in our greywater basin.

Every morning I greet the day by watching the birds out of our bathroom window. So glad that we didn't put in privacy panes! 

One unexpected benefit of the energy efficient window is that they lessen the noise from the traffic on nearby Speedway (which is living up to its name lately.) So we get a better night's sleep. 

And because of the UV protection we got to remove the old, dusty blinds behind our black out curtains that were needed to block out the sun in our south facing room. 

And now we are able to easily open up the curtains to enjoy the light of the day instead of being stuck in a dark cave or turning on a light! And we can actually open up the windows to cool off naturally in the evenings. 

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It's not a bad view from outside either...

Quality windows weren't cheap, but at least we will be getting a break on our taxes. 

Next up...replacing our kitchen appliances with (hopefully) energy efficient electric appliances and having solar installed. Then we will be proud members of the energy efficiency camp! 

What Kind of Climate Champion Are You?

https://www.sustainablelivingtucson.com/2020/01/what-kind-of-climate-champion-are-you.html

Later this afternoon...

I took this out of the bathroom window 3 days later. 

#lovemyrainbasin