Cope Environmental Center

Energy Use Monitioring

This is what we need to do to monitor our power use.

Links

• Cope Environmental Center

Landscaping

From Green Remodeling:

general landscaping

kentucky bluegrass-conventional, need lots of water and chemicals to thrive in our area "xeriscaping": landscaping that minimizes water demand -->proper soil prep, drought-tolerant plants, rainwater harvesting, mulching. Costs half as much as standard landscaped yards.

native species: beech tree http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/environment/rdsduse/in.htm

--landscaping for wind-- might be a concern for us because we are working with an older and leakier house. could reduce our energy use by 10-40 percent, depending on how windy it is in our area and how much draft gets in. -most effective windbreaks are trees or shrubs with low crowns and dense foliage -where to place them? -page 180 has placement of trees around hypothetical house

--landscaping for heating/cooling-- trees can assist in cooling by the shade they produce and by the process of evapotranspiration deciduous treeson east and west sides of the house only in areas that are more than 60 degrees e or w of due south from the house. Don't place on south side where winter sun will be blocked from providing energy (even bare branches can block a lot of sunlight).

what is our "solar window"?-how much sunlight do we get per day based on our placement? http://oikos.com/library/energy_outlet/landscaping.html http://oikos.com/ http://www.ext.colostate.edu/pubs/garden/07831.html

we need to think about how much space we have above and below ground for the vegetation to grow--tree roots can be very wide spread