Environmentally Friendly Homes (Alamo: condo, buy, DMV)

[_yb]

PNM is the local gas and electric company for the Albuquerque area and other areas of NM. It's a monopoly.

http://www.pnm.com/

[GregW]

Closed loop heating systems need an expansion tank regardless of how they are heated. The tanks keep the system pressurized to avoid boiling and provide room in the plumbing for the changes in volume caused by the changes in system temprature. There are charts and formulas available to determing the size of the devices. Searcvh your local library for books on hydronic (water based) heating or do a Google search on radient floor heat.

I like the water barrels near the window heat storage units. Cheap, gets the job done and you can put flower pots on top and grow peppers all year round.

[HOLA]

Thank you yb.

[pattihabs]

hi. i'm from connecticut. my hubby and i just bought property in north-west az. we want to build a house in a few years and i have been goofing on the internet for some ideas. all of your info here is great. we pay $250. a month here in ct.(NO LIE). it stinks. our taxes are over 4g a year and heating fuel prices are outrageous. i have been trying to learn about environmental building. we will not be able to have a well on our lot. we want to go totally off the grid. i am glad to read all your posts. anymore info for me would be great. thanks, patti

[HowAmIinABQ]

EARTH SHIPS! look it up! The community in Taos is amazing!

[GregW]

Pattihabs - living completely "off grid" is possible but generally much more expensive and time consuming. It is also very dependent on the exact environmental conditions of the site. Your ability to maintain the energy generation, collection and storage system will be a critical factor because having to depend on outside maintenance and repair is likely to be prohibitively expensive and inconvenient. There is a lot of do it yourself involved with “off grid” living. There is a lot of information available. Some of the information is decent and some wildly inaccurate so you have to be careful when you are investigating this subject.

BTW – why can you not drill a well? Where will you get your water? This is a very important consideration and the primary reason that really rural living is difficult in a desert environment. It may be difficult but countless generations of people have done it and done it fairly well.

[mortimer]

pattihabs proposed:

> ... we pay $250. a month here in ct.(NO LIE). ..

How much do you consume? The utility doesn't tell you how much
to use, only how much you will pay per unit of power/fuel.

> we want to go totally off the grid.

If you do that, how will you sell your excess power back to the utility
company. I've had a number of emails with an expert in the field who
makes a pretty convincing case for selling your energy back to "the grid."

[GregW]

IIRC there are substantial restrictions on how the "excess" energy is generated before it can run the meter backward. I assumed that she meant completely separate from the utility. .

[Naima]

I am sure you are aware of the pioneering work Mike REynolds has done with Earthship Biotecture? I personally like a modified earthship better, in other words, a smart house using plenty of solar exposure/gain, and water catchment. Some of my friends just had a 600 sf strawbale art studio built for $65K and it's gorgeous. One CAN build and find affordable housing if one really does the research. I love the tiny homes too and even though I am a Realtor, I can't relate to the huge homes....all that space and all those resources and poor solar gain to boot makes no sense and seems very antiquated.

[Naima]

P.S. Research taxes in New Mexico...they generally run only about $500 per one hundred thousand dollars of appraised value! I can't imagine paying megabucks in taxes.