Alviston Blog

For those of you who watch Bill Moyers, I do not need tell you.  He had Jane Goodall on the show to talk about her experiences and life. They showed film of when she was just 26 working with the Chimps in Africa. She talked about some of the programs she has set up and what she is working on now.

What impressed me about Jane was her elloquence. She talked about the environment in a way and with an authority that no one can question. If you missed the show please watch it. I’m sure your can see it on pbs.org. 

Jane gave a much needed sense of urgency to the issues of global warming and how it is affecting all the species on the planet, including us. But she also said: “Don’t give up.” She described how the condor was brought back from the edge of extinction.

Jane Goodall is a powerful voice of reason, in a world that often holds in disregard many of the animals that also call this planet home.

–Mark Alvis

I do not think there is anything more effective at transforming a house than natural light. It seems obvious, but for some reason, many homes have hallways, bathrooms, and even kitchens that are dark in the middle of the day. I call them “light-locked” because for one reason or another, they were built without access to sunlight.

A kitchen may have a small, sink window, but often all the walls are used for cabinets. Therefore, in an area where you really need lots of light, there is often not enough. Therefore, we put skylights in kitchens a lot.

Depending on the roof, the light shaft can be very interesting itself, even sculptural. We have also put skylights in showers, pantries, offices and, of course, garages. I put one in the upstairs bathroom at my parent’s and the glow it gives to the room brings life back into the eighty-year-old house.

Yesterday, we installed a tube-type skylight over a vanity, which was “light-locked.” The new source of light really made the new granite vanity top look great.

On Tuesday, we installed two skylights in a large kitchen here in Fresno. They were dual pane and clear so you can look up and see the sky and the birch leaves turning yellow in the fall. While I am certain that natural light is much healthier than artificial light, I think it is because you can look up at heaven while you are making your morning coffee that makes a skylight in your kitchen so special.

–Mark Alvis

When you’re in a particular industry, you get to know the language, whether it’s medicine, education, plumbing or computers. You learn to speak this particular language partly out of convenience, but also with a bit of “I’m in the club” kind of feel to it.

While I am not certain of the intent, the effect of this “club building” is to keep outsiders out. You do not get to use “lawyer speak” if you are not a lawyer. But who would want to anyway?

This arrangement has pretty much worked for us for a long time. Most of us are really quite content with only having to deal with our own stuff. We have not had the need to talk much about where electricity comes from or what by-products its manufacturing creates. All we needed to know was that it was there and what it cost. We did not need to know the language of energy.

Now, we see that this language is one we all need to learn, because it connects us all in ways we cannot imagine. We have put energy on a pedestal higher than air and water, higher than food, and often, higher than human life. At best, this seems counter intuitive. After all, we started using fossil fuels to make our lives easier, not to have it rule them.

It seems to me there are three things we can all do: learn the language of energy, learn to use less energy, and learn how to make renewable energy. After all, we are all a part of the “energy club” whether we signed up or not.

–Mark Alvis

I had the pleasure of listening to a talk by Mas Masumoto last night in Reedley. Mas is a farmer in Del Rey, in California’s San Joaquin Valley. Mas is also a very successful writer as has written numerous books about life on a family farm. He tells stories about working with his father for many years, growing peaches, nectarines, and grapes.

He also talked about the day his father had a stroke.

At one point during his presentation, Mas asked how many people in the audience had grown up or worked on a farm. I turned around and looked while nearly the entire audience raised their hands.

Farming puts you in direct contact with the Earth. You learn to adapt. When things go wrong, you figure out ways to deal with it. Farming is hard work. When you work closely with the Earth, you understand in a very direct way how intimately connected we are to it. Mas talked about this and about the connections of generations. In talking about his father, Mas spoke about the hard work in farming, and the lessons about the transitions of life.

In listening to Mas talk, I thought a lot about what we are trying to do on this website, and I think one of the most important things is to get people to feel these connections, both to the Earth and to each other. If we lose sight of where our food comes from and the work it takes to make it, we risk losing this sense of connection.

City folks, as Mas might say, may find these connections difficult to comprehend, while farmers have an innate understanding how nature works, how good soil, clean water and clean air are essential to growing a good tasty peach.

Mas celebrates the life of the small family farmer, and with his books, allows the rest of us to celebrate too.

Thank you Mas.

–Mark Alvis

Mon: Remediation of contaminated soil at old dry cleaners in Merced.

Tues: R-38, blown-in, cellulose insulation job in Reedley.

Wednesday: Training class for USGBC Green Associate in Clovis.

Thurs: First concrete pour at the Buchanan Energy Center project.

Fri: Confirmation of ICF project at resort in Three Rivers, new insulation job in Merced, research on tankless vs. high-efficiency tank-type water heaters.

It has been quite a week.

For a while there, I was concerned about a report I heard that people were starting to lose interest in “green,” that they had become fixated only on the economy. However, after this week, I have regained my confidence that people are hungrier than ever to “go green.”

In addition to individuals, entire cities, school districts, and companies are realizing that making long-term and sustainable decisions are not only cost-effective, but also feel-good. Because deep down, we all know we are part of nature, and when we do something that harms it, we have to lie to ourselves to cover it up.

For me, this Thursday was an affirmation of how people, en masse, are waking up not only to the value of energy-efficient buildings, but how buildings affect our air, water, land and ourselves.

When I was in Merced, I was amazed at the effort that is going into cleaning up the Earth. I really got the feeling that the people working on this project were not doing it just to get a paycheck. They were doing it because they actually love the planet. It may seem hokey, but that is what I felt.

On Wednesday, I was in a classroom full of teachers learning about green building, and I felt the same thing. Yes, the people in the class were there to learn how to pass a test so they could get some letters behind their names. However, none of them would have been there in the first place if they did not really care about the planet and their children.

While watching the insulated concrete forms being filled with concrete at the new Buchanan High School Energy Center, I felt what I could only describe as relief, that here, in the heart of one of the most conservative parts of California, was a building coming out of the ground that is a virtual testament to the virtues of green. Relief, because as this building takes shape, I can feel the brains stretching, expanding to take in what the future is handing us, children who will think differently than we have in the past: that the Earth is something we need to care for and nurture, as we draw our life from it.

The people who have made the Buchanan Energy Building a reality have taken a huge risk in turning away from the norm. Not just five or six degrees, but more like one hundred and eighty. You can feel the current beginning to shift. The great thing is, the ones who have not quite bought into it are not being cast aside; they are being pulled along with it, as the strength of the “rightness” of this building acts like a magnet to the thing inside of us all that really wants to be a part of something bigger than ourselves.

That something is nature.

-–Mark Alvis

Marlin and I took a ride out to visit my friend Steve who works on a huge orange farm east of Fresno. It took us a while to find but it turned out to be the quintessential California home. Spanish tile roof, huge back yard with a pool nestled amongst the orange groves on the gently rolling foothills of the Sierra Nevada Mountains.

We met with Steve to discuss doing a photovoltaic system on the roof of the barn, a 40’ X 60’ metal building adjacent to the house. The roof had plenty of space with only a portion of it shaded by trees. We took some measurements and Steve gave us the electric usage of the house and barn for the past year.

Even for a large home and barn/shop, the average was quite high. Marlin and I asked if we could look around a bit.

First, we noticed that the eave vents on the house had been partially obstructed by stucco. There were large, gable-end vents but without proper attic venting, the attic space temperature could soar during the Valley’s hot summers. This accumulating heat will eventually move through the insulation and warm the house. This could certainly account for part of the high electric bill. A powered gable vent would help a lot and something as simple as clearing the vents would have a dramatic effect.

Next, we looked at the pool, which was gorgeous. (We are always suspicious of pool pumps because they can use a lot of electricity.) Sure enough, this one was an older model, 1 ½ horse. It was working great but using excessive power than necessary to do the job.

Knowing there were several energy efficiency measures they could do to reduce their usage was very helpful, as it allows us to reduce the size of the solar system. Buying fewer panels means the system would be less expensive from the beginning and way more likely to happen. Furthermore, the payback time-the time it takes to recover the cost of the system-is shortened as well.

When it comes to energy efficiency, a little detective work can really pay off.

The key here is to make sure all energy-saving measures are done first; otherwise, when you put up your solar power system, (the PV system,) you are simply spending money to pay for wasted electricity.

–Mark Alvis