From gridlock to off the grid

[jpak]

http://kennebecjournal.mainetoday.com/news/local/3749640.html

Wall Street funds manager George Callas used to stare out the window in his high-rise office overlooking Park Avenue, long for the life he is living now. Callas had achieved the American Dream, but then discovered it just wasn't his dream.

Callas spent days at a job that paid well into six figures. He went home each evening to his brownstone in Jersey City, to his beautiful wife and a gorgeous baby.

"I remember thinking there's something more important we're supposed to be doing," Callas said.

The more pressing duty, it turns out, was in the rural Maine town of Brooks, where Callas and his wife, Kimberly, built a 2,100-square-foot underground home that produces almost as much energy as it consumes. Here, Callas is free to pursue his passion for creating a home that is the model of sustainability and helping others reach the same goal.

<more>

note: he's the second Unity college faculty member to go off grid...

http://www.unity.edu/news/straw705.asp

[MistressOverdone]

1. Very, very interesting

and inspiring. Wish we could use straw bales down here on the Gulf Coast, but the insects and mold make it rough. Even log homes, unless they are cypress (very expensive) are prone to rot and bugs. We're about to build and are really giving cinderblocks a long look. Haven't decided yet.

[GreenPartyVoter]

2. Cinder blocks are said to be among the best for insulation.

[OKIsItJustMe]

6. Straw bales

http://www.balewatch.com/

[crikkett]

4. I survived two P.R. hurricanes in a cinderblock house

PR: puerto rico

It stays nice and cool, too, in the summer.

[AndyTiedye]

3. I Don't Think I'd Want an Underground Home Here in Earthquake Country

Being buried alive in an earthquake would really ruin my day.

Wouldn't want the whole house underground in any case.
A windowless home would be really depressing to live in.
Skylights wouldn't make up for it.
Keeping it dry would also be quite a challenge in some places.

Falling cinderblocks wouldn't be much fun in an earthquake either.
Would rebars be sufficient to prevent this?

[crikkett]

5. in earthquake country it's hard to even keep the hillsides in place

I wouldn't want to go underground either... but I'm no civil engineer.

[Dogmudgeon]

7. I have a rude question

Why is George sitting on his ass in Maine, when he could be setting up high-yield community-development and joint-stock-ownership funds for building wind farms, solar gadgetry, and (gasp!) nuclear reactors?

All or any, on any scale. (I may be pro-nuclear, but I'm pro-energy first of all. As long as we get to survive, I'm not picky.)

Actually, that was a rhetorical question, and I wish George and his family a good life in Maine. But why the Sam Hill aren't more money managers chasing the money that will be needed to build a thousand nukes and/or two million windmills? And the anti-n folks should take note that with investments, they get their choice.

It's time to walk the walk. We need energy. Whatever preferred form it takes, the basic ingredients are the same: Steel. Concrete. Brains. Sweat.

The Left has an aversion to money. It's just dumb. So those of us who are working should put a dollar or ten in a jar each week. At the end of the year, buy a US Energy Bond.

You say the US Energy Bond does not yet exist? Quick, get George Callas on the phone ...

--p!