Real Green, Real World

I still think that the commune is viable, but after some lengthy conversations with my Father and the honorable Anthony Gonzales, (potentially not his real name) the realization might have to change somewhat.

As everyone has been pointing out, the concept thus far will cost a lot of money. Not even counting the operating costs, you’re looking at a whole bunch of money to build 5 free standing buildings. Plus, the real world applicability of a stand along cabin leaves something to be desired. Turns out, most of us don’t actually live in tiny little cabins off in the middle of nowhere.

While I accept this point, I have been loath to give up my commune in the woods type theory. But then, AG raised a very valid alternative: Wouldn’t it be better, anyway, to see if we can convert a McMansion? Quite a few people live in these large, horribly energy inefficient monstrosities, and you can find one much easier then you can find the perfect piece of land to put up the compound I was envisioning before. Plus, the suburban reality seems more applicable to many then the start from scratch builder commune. And the real kicker: at the end of the day, the house is an asset that other people might actually want. We could even sell the thing!

It’s even more like a greenhouse Real World. We have 5 or 6 people living in this house: A writer, a video man, an internet man, and a techie/builder are our crew of four, plus a few others for the sake of more help. The “others” in this category we imagine would have outside jobs, or be in school or some such, and would be living there and using energy more along the lines of an average person. They wouldn’t be in the house 24/7, and would provide a different level of context for us in comparing to your average consumer.

So, now the plan looks like this: Purchase a house, and live in it for a month or two (or three?) to get an idea of how it was operating. How much power the house used, with what results, etc. After we had a basic control point, we would start installing different energy systems. Say, Solar for a month stretch, then Wind for a month stretch, then Bio-Fuel for a month. We would set up the systems so that they could be the only things powering the house during given periods, so that for a month, we would operate with as much power as each source would provide.

After taking it through the monthly cycle a few times, we could start with the overhauling of the house in different ways, and see how much of a difference things like good insulation, smart windows and intelligent energy use made. Side projects would also be encouraged, so that by year two, one of our commuters might be driving a bio-fueled car, and we might have a greenhouse with some home-grown out back (that’s Tomatoes, for those wondering). However, these side projects should not detract from the overall message of what I hypothesize we will find: that it really doesn’t take that much effort to make your house from a drafty wreck into an energy efficient juggernaut.

The entire project would be recorded on a website, which is sort of the centerpiece of what the public sees. Daily thoughts, information on each product, results and suggestions on how to do it yourself, with many different levels of complexity (E.G: the main page is simple, but the rabbit hole goes as deep as you want to follow it). Utilization of web Video is a must.

The eventual goal is to become the single widest ranging website for everything green energy, while simultaneously making it fun, accessible, and manageable in its scope. The new and improved commune plan actually gets to the goals of the old commune even more directly, because it makes it something that a larger range of people can relate to. Plus, there are more finite goals, because it will be interesting to see if any combo of energy sources plus general work on a house can change it from the poorly constructed and energy inefficient behemoth into something completely self sufficient and possibly even capable of producing net energy gain.