April 21, 2008

A "Green" House


Designed by an architecture professor at a leading national university, this house incorporates every "green" feature current home construction can provide. The house is 4,000 square feet ( 4 bedrooms ) and is nestled on a high prairie in the American Southwest. A central closet in the house holds geothermal heat-pumps drawing ground water through pipes sunk 300 feet into the ground. The water (usually 67 degrees F.) heats the house in the winter and cools it in the summer.


The system uses no fossil fuels such as oil or natural gas and it consumes one-quarter electricity required for a conventional heating/cooling system. Rainwater from the roof is collected and funneled into a 25,000 gallon underground cistern. Wastewater from showers, sinks and toilets goes into underground purifying tanks and then into the cistern. The collected water then irrigates the land surrounding the house. Surrounding flowers and shrubs native to the area enable the property to blend into the surrounding rural landscape.


This house is on a ranch near Crawford,Texas; it is the residence the of the President of the United States, George W. Bush.


This information has been circulated in an email, but it has been verified on Snopes.

It was intended as a comparison between the houses of Al Gore, and President Bush, and also included information about Gore's house in Tennessee.

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

This is not only interesting, but truly amazing!

I like this part:

"The water (usually 67 degrees F.) heats the house in the winter and cools it in the summer."

Perfect!!

Jan said...

Donald..thanks, I thought it was quite interesting, too!

Quite a contrast between the houses of Gore and Bush, wouldn't you say? :)

rockync said...

Here's the rub; most of us could not afford the price tag for this "green" house or even to outfit our more humble abodes with some of these great innovations. No matter how they live, it's still all about privilege. While I commend the president for living green, it doesn't do one thing to help me or other Americans any more than Gore's monument to excessive opulence does in relieving our enslavement to fossil fuels.

Jan said...

rockync..and here's another rub: most of us can't even live a half-way decent life, with the bare necessities, unfortunately.

You are right to commend the President for living green when he can afford it..unlike Gore who can afford it, and doesn't.

I think that was the point I was trying to make, anyway.

Yes, priviliege, in more ways than one, is the name of the game, and we probably haven't seen anything yet!

rockync said...

Jan, all I want to do is keep my head above water and sleep well at night. I do commend the Bush family for not only living green ,but not making a big deal about it. In contrast to that Clinton Clown #2 who actually gets paid to circle the globe crying out "the sky is falling!" Yeah, we're melting! Everybody -- RUN!
I think I'd be much more impressed if one of these political bobbleheads actually came up with a plan to help say, less privileged people live greener and cheaper. You'd think they would strive for that warm, fuzzy feeling of knowing they helped some poor folk to survive a cold winter night and not freeze to death or made sure they did not have to choose between groceries and heating oil.
Or maybe I'm asking for too much...

Jan said...

rockync..I'm with you, but needless to say, that is not likely to happen any time soon.

You'd think that would not be asking too much, but the way things are looking right now, the choices being made between groceries and heating oil will continue.

It's about what it has come to with one of my elderly aunts.

The cost of her propane now takes nearly half of her Social Security check, which is her only source of income.

That doesn't leave much for other essentials like food, electric, water, car insurance..and oh yeah, her prescriptions..the ones she hasn't dropped, already.

I've been sending her prepaid phone cards for awhile, because she had to drop the long distance service.

I send her money to help out..otherwise, I don't know what she would do.

But is there anyone out there who cares..really?

rockync said...

The million dollar question, Jan - does anyone really care what's going on out here?
I think more people are realizing that we have allowed our lifestyle, our ideals and our country to be undermined and misused for too long. No one is happy with the current crop of candidates; not the left and not the right, so at least we all agree on one thing! lol
But the elderly and those living at or under the poverty line are in a lot of trouble and most of us a little better off aren't far behind. What we need now, to steal a line from the only true King of America (Elvis, of course! :) we need "a little less conversation and a little more action!"

Jan said...

rockync..well, the candidates have given us a lot of "conversation"..and that's about it.

Anonymous said...

Hey, Jan!

Gypsy Butterfly said...

Hello Jan, I try to live green, though I think I should try a bit harder and stop being lazy. I can't believe how green that house is. I'm sure they save tons of money too. Aside from organic gardening, which I practice every summer, I want to attempt to line dry my clothes. My mother use to line dry our clothes when we were younger and they smelled so fresh. I just have to bother my hubby to hang a rope out there and get some hanging pins.

Papa Frank said...

This is another example of how liberals pay lip service to an idea while conservatives put ideas into actual practice.