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Scott Adams On the Difficulty of Building a 'Green' Home
An anonymous reader writes "Scott Adams built himself a new house with the goal of making it as 'green' as possible, and detailed his experience for those interested in following in his missteps. Quoting: '... So the architect — and later your building engineer, too — each asks you to sign a document saying you won't sue them when beavers eat a load-bearing wall and your entire family is crushed by forest debris. You make the mistake of mentioning this arrangement to your family, and they leave you. But you are not deterred because you're saving the planet, damn it. You'll get a new family. A greener one. Your next hurdle is the local planning commission. They like to approve things that are similar to things they've approved before. To do otherwise is to risk unemployment. And the neighbors don't want to live next to a house that looks like a compost pile. But let's say, for the sake of this fascinating story, that everyone in the planning commission is heavily medicated with medical marijuana and they approve your project over the objections of all of your neighbors, except for the beavers, who are suspiciously flexible. Now you need a contractor who is willing to risk his career to build this cutting-edge structure. Good luck with that.'"
Adjust the thermostat to require a sweater in the winter, or a cold drink in the summer. Programmable thermostats are a nice feature for many users too.
This is the kind of absurdity that makes everyone write off the idea of living green.
Replacing incandescents with CF, people will do. Having to bundle up or consume cold fluids to suffer the conditions inside your home is not something anyone wants to do... because we don't have to.