Al Gore:How Green Is He?

[DreadPirateRoberts]

Originally Posted by Not Afraid

I'm still stuck on the house size comments made earlier.

There are many things that one can do to one's house to conserve energy. A small, poorly insulated but overly ACed or heated house might just use as much as a large house on a conservation plan. There are many things you can do go "go green" that don't involve downsizing your living space. Does he have dual paned windows? How about solar panal additions to the structures? Energy efficient appliances? A zoned AC/heating unit? But, a large,efficient house is a greener place to live than a smaller house which wastes resources.

I agree, the size of one's house does not have to correlate to its energy efficiency.

Originally Posted by Not Afraid

I have 1320 square feet of house with old windows, big drafts and ineffeciant heating and air conditioning. I wonder how my usage compares with larger but greener houses.

You probably use more, newer houses are normally more efficient because of building code requirements. I believe attics are required to have insulation now with a high R-value. But there are many things you can do to make your house more efficient, as you have pointed out.They don't all have to be expensive. I just got done adding extra insulation to our attic, retrofitting dual glaze lowE windows, and swapping out incandescent light bulbs for the compact flourescent lighting. The new insulation really helped the upstairs temperature, and the new windows are great, no drafts and do a good job of cutting out the outside noise. Its amazing how much cooler the bathroom is when you remove 2 60 watt incandescent bulbs and replace them with 2 13 watt flourescent bulbs and get the same amount of light for less energy.