Which one of these homes is "greener"?

House #1

A 20 room mansion (not including 8 bathrooms) heated by natural gas. Add on a pool (and a pool house) and a separate guest house, all heated by gas. In one month this residence consumes more energy than the average American household does in a year. The average bill for electricity and natural gas runs over $2400 per month. In natural gas alone, this property consumes more than 20 times the national average for an American home. This house is not situated in a Northern or Midwestern 'snow belt' area. It's in the South.



House #2

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.

Which one of these homes is "greener"?
Yup I know. You also forgot about Gore's private jet. I Wonder how "green" that is.



All you'll ever get from Liberals is stupid excuses and rants. I guess it's better to make one's self look like a moron than question wtf is really going on with Al "ham sandwich" Gore.
Reply:I wonder if this is a "trick" question. I want to say #2.

I do know that major improvements were made in the Crawford home since Bush became President - security and otherwise....Much of it financed by the American people.

What was the construction year for these homes, I wonder. "Green" is mostly a new feature.
Reply:I think that the house in Crawford, Texas is greener cuz if you go to google and look for images on the places the terrain is much more green in Texas. :)
Reply:house two is greener its ironic hmmmmm intresting bill gates home is really intresting you should look it up
Reply:Definitely House #2 is greener and better for the environment.
Reply:House#2



Nice post. I enjoyed reading that.



It proves a lot that I've long suspected about Mr. Gore.
Reply:but Al Gore buys green energy subsidies to make up for the energy he spends, which offsets it. Please, the Bush ranch is a joke. He spends far more time at Kennebunkport in Maine with at his father's compound, or his Houston place. They not only use more energy than Gore's, but they don't have solar panels like Gore's does, or buy the carbon offsets. Stop with this sad attempt to insult Al Great Gore.
Reply:So, the point is that Al Gore is a goof who talks a good game but doesn't play by the rules he hands out to everyone else, right?



This isn't news. The carbon footprint created by his big concert series set the planet back in a huge way....but it "raised awareness". Sure....awareness at a price.
Reply:Mr. Gore bought that house (a historical relic) not too long ago, and then he spent the next two years retrofitting it to have the newest insulation, CFL lighting, geo-thermal heating, and then he fought the local homowner's association for 18months to get the right to have a solar on-grid system installed.



So he took an old house, and he updated it to be more "green".



I live in Tennessee, so I get to hear the whole story where it concerns locals, so I know you are lying by omission.



Are you proud to be spreading lies? He bought an energy pig historic home, fought for years to get the neccessary permits, and then spent years having it updated to become one of the most energy efficient homes in Nashville, and you cite what the house was when he purchased it. So you have lied.



Now, neither I nor Mr. Gore are responsible for you spreading inaccurate information and outright lies, so your anger is misplaced. It was your own partisan zeal that lead you to repeat nonsense without checking your sources and finding out if there was more to all of this, and if you were a reasonable person, you might have suspected there might be.





But... I looked on the web, and there is even part of this story in the national media:

-----------

The former vice president has installed solar panels, a rainwater-collection system and geothermal heating. He also replaced all incandescent lights with compact fluorescent or light-emitting diode bulbs -- even on his Christmas tree.



"Short of tearing it down and staring anew, I don't know how it could have been rated any higher," said Kim Shinn of the U.S. Green Building Council, which gave the house its second-highest rating for sustainable design.



Gore's improvements cut the home's summer electrical consumption by 11 percent compared with a year ago, according to utility records reviewed by The Associated Press. Most Nashville homes used 20 percent to 30 percent more electricity during the same period because of a record heat wave.



Shinn said Gore's renovations are impressive because his home, which is more than 80 years old, had to meet the same rigorous standards as new construction. How to turn your home green ?



"One of the things that is tremendously powerful about what the Gores have done is demonstrate that you can take a home that was a dog, an absolute energy pig, and do things to correct that," Shinn said.







Gore bought the mansion in the Nashville suburb of Belle Meade in 2002 for $2.3 million. It houses his offices and those of his wife, Tipper, as well as a commercial kitchen for formal events.



Gore spokeswoman Kalee Kreider declined to say how much the couple spent on the improvements.



"The Gores decided to take a series of steps over time that might be logistically or financially out of reach for many Americans," she said. "But they were fortunate enough to have the ability to do so.



"But everyone can get started, whether it's changing light bulbs or purchasing green power."



In February, a conservative think tank criticized Gore for using an average of 16,000 kilowatt hours a month for an average monthly bill of $1,206 in 2006. The typical Nashville home uses about 1,300 kilowatt hours a month.



Gore has said the criticism was unfair because the 10,000-square-foot mansion was undergoing extensive remodeling. He said this week that "global warming denier" groups were trying to discredit him because they don't like the attention he has given to climate change
Reply:I do have to say I'm surprised...not so much at the Gore house, but at Bush's ranch. I have lots of thoughts...



One...good for him. And I'm not being sarcastic. I think it's great that Bush had his ranch designed like this.



Two...WTF? Why does he see it as important for himself, but ignores it for the rest of the country? What's going on here? Is he a closet green?



Three...he has pretty much the worst record on the environment of any recent president. Being 'green' requires more than rainwater harvesting, a small house and locally sourced stone but rather a conscientious awareness of the effects of your actions...Bush has a most appalling record on every ecological front, Kyoto, oil sponsorship and lack of support for every environmentally progressive activity.

Bush is in the position where he is able to effect more people and more environmentally progressive projects than any other person but he does nothing. in fact he hinders sustainable visions.



This is the same George W. who believes arsenic and drinking water might not be such a bad combo, the same man who reneged on his campaign promise to lower carbon dioxide emissions from power plants, the same man who thinks mercury in our groundwater is not a problem.



How does the President reconcile an eco-friendly abode for his own family with his persistent stand against anything that smacks of an environmentally friendly agenda for the nation as a whole? The answer to that perplexing question is a real mystery.





Finally...I wonder how many homes he owns and lives in and what the energy consumption is like in those other places.



All that said, however, I do appreciate learning about this (again...not Gore...that doesn't surprise me...Bush's ranch does surprise me), even though it seems pretty bizarre.

rene