Thursday, Oct. 18, 2007
by Maya T. Prabhu | Staff Writer
Brian Higgins and Julie Barnet have always done what they could to make environmentally friendly choices like cutting down their use of fossil fuels and even going without the luxury of TV.
But though they have always been concerned about the state of the environment, owning their own home has allowed them to do more personally to help the earth.
Over the past 10 years, the Mount Rainier residents have made green improvements and renovations to their home including a solar thermal panel on the roof, bamboo and cork flooring, and a cool roof system.
Higgins installed the cool roof system by raising the roof deck 1.5 inches to put in a radiant barrier, an aluminum and plastic sheet that reflects 97 percent of the sun’s rays, he said.
Higgins said he didn’t know how much the family has spent on the renovations over the years.
‘‘The [solar] panel cost about $2,400 to install ... the cork flooring cost $6 to $7 per square foot to cover 150 square feet,” he said.
‘‘So it’s not like it’s out of this world to make these choices, plus there’s all of the other benefits you get.”
The couple’s electric bill is down to $30 a month, though Barnet stresses that it isn’t entirely due to the cornburning stove that they use for heat or the tubular skylight that brings in daylight without raising the temperature.
‘‘It’s a way of life more than any one thing,” Barnet said. ‘‘It’s little things like turning off the light when you leave a room ... and using our ‘solar clothes dryer.’”
In other words, the clothesline.
There are other devices Higgins and Barnet have turned to to help save money while using less energy.
‘‘We have a Sun Frost refrigerator that uses less than one kilowatt [of energy] per day in the summertime,” Higgins said.
‘‘That cut our electricity bill in half,” Barnet added.
Higgins has done most of the renovations himself through his contracting company, Green Home LLC.
He owned a contracting company for about five years before changing the name and switching its focus to green building, additions, renovations and solar heating. Higgins said the company keeps him busy because some form of green additions or renovations is fairly common. In the year and a half since he shifted the company’s focus, Higgins has worked on three home additions using mostly green, non-toxic materials. The costs have ranged between $30,000 and $70,000.
As a result of all of the renovations and additions, their home has been included on the Tour of Solar Homes and Buildings for the metropolitan area for the past two years. This year’s tour, the weekend of Oct. 6-7, covered about 40 homes and businesses, Barnet said.
‘‘We had gone on it before to see other homes, so we contacted them to see if our home qualified to be on the tour — and it did,” Higgins said.
Higgins said he and his wife have always been generally concerned about pollution, global warming and the extinction of species and what they personally could do to make a positive impact on the environment.
But Barnet said all of the things she and her family do to ‘‘lighten their footprint on the earth” aren’t enough.
‘‘We know it’s not enough, by any means, to just do personal changes. We need to make systemic changes as well ... but it still makes us happy,” she said.
To help make the systemic changes, Barnet and Higgins remain politically active.
‘‘We’ve also always written letters to Congress and attended protests. We’re politically aware ... and we support [politicians] who share our concerns,” Higgins said.
E-mail Maya T. Prabhu at mprabhu@gazette.net.
