What's Next? Drywall

The drywall of choice for the Go Green Home are DensArmor Plus® High-Performance Interior Panel for the bathrooms and ToughRock® gypsum board for the rest of the house, both products manufactured by Georgia Pacific.
DensArmor Plus® High-Performance Interior Panel is a GREENGUARD certified highly mold-resistant interior gypsum wallboard, featuring fiberglass mats on both the front and the back for the best in interior protection from moisture currently available. All of the bathrooms feature DensArmorPlus to prevent any possible moisture problems.
ToughRock gypsum board is a wallboard or ceiling covering material for use in new building construction or renovation work, and the gypsum core is covered on both surfaces by 100% recycled paper.
What sold us on using Georgia-Pacific Gypsum is that GP is a committed member of USGBC and supports sustainable production of gypsum wallboard by using reclaimed gypsum, recycled plant waste, recycled paper, and clean fuels.

Convenience and Energy Savings With The Push Of A Button

To compliment the innovation throughout the home and tie all of the components together, the Go Green home will feature a full home-automation system by Lifeware. This efficient system helps save the homeowner time and energy by offering a quick and easy way to access all home controls from one point.

Automatic settings allow users to shut off lights in unused rooms of the house, preheating the oven, or even to control room temperatures. Our favorite features are the energy monitoring system and the Lifescene customization where we can program "Goodbye" and have all energy-consuming fixtures and systems turned off.

We'll be showing you more pictures of the integration as the become available. In the meantime you can check out http://life-ware.com/ for more information.

Go Green Home's Healthy Water System

To ensure healthy water from every faucet, The Go Green Home will feature a state of the art water filtration and softening system.
The Pelican Natursoft Salt Free Softener is the most environmentally conscious water softening/conditioning system available on the market. Pelican Natursoft keeps the healthy minerals in the water so homeowners can enjoy naturally softened water. The system does not require electricity, waste water for the purpose of backwashing, nor does it require the addition of salt.
The problem with traditional salt based softeners is that they waste water and release salt into our limited ground water supply. The state of California has actually prohibited the installation of these types of softerners.

Pelican NaturSoft systems utilize materials that do not leach harmful chemicals back into the ground water supply thus conserving our most precious resource, fresh water. For more information, click here.

High Efficiency Spray Foam Creates Fully Sealed Envelope and Saves Wood

For the Go Green Home we decided to use NCFI's eco-concious spray foam for insulation purposes. When inside the home, you can see and feel an insulation that protects indoor air quality and maintains its insulating value for the life of the home. We also saved on 30% of our lumber consumption by using the spray foam insulation due to its superb sealant qualities and extensive coverage area. Not only does it benefit the builders, but as a homeowner, you can save up to 40% a month on energy costs. Our spray foam boasts an impressive R Value (measure of thermal resistance) of 6.4 per inch due to it's closed-cell technology, which prohibits pests and acts as a natural mold inhibitor for the walls. It also acts a complete air and vapor barrier, perfectly sealing all cracks and gaps, conforming to any space possible. NCFI guarantees that the spray foam will never sag or settle, thus maintaining it's insulating value for the life of the home.

Rainwater Harvest Will Yield Sustainable Bounty

The average American family of four consumes anywhere from 900 to 1200 liters of water daily…
Harvesting rainwater offers many advantages: it conserves municipal and well water; it is free; gravity fed systems conserve energy; it is low in salts and good for plants; and it can reduce flooding and erosion. Rainwater provides an excellent primary, supplementary, or alternative source of water.
The rainwater cistern is historically an underground basin of water, but it can also be an above ground barrel or tank. Cisterns are used to make sure that water is not contaminated nor suffers from evaporation. The rainwater cistern can hold large amounts of water and is completely sealed from contaminants, except those in the water itself. Historically cisterns are put underground because it is one of the safest places to put something that is to be kept under constant temperature. Good materials for cisterns include plastic liners or membrane material in wood frames, ceramic, and fiberglass. Tanks are heavily pigmented to deter algae growth. The two main reasons why people use cisterns are either for the sake of survival in a place where the only potable water is rainwater, or ecological awareness in search of sustainability. A rainwater cistern needs to offer enough capacity to collect enough useable water from a catchment surface.
At the Go Green Home we installed a below-ground 1200 gallon water cistern made of plastic that is approved by the FDA for potable water.
During the 1970s California encouraged water conservation with the California Water Conservation Tax Law. This law provided tax credits up to $3,000 for implementation of rainwater, greywater, or combined storage cisterns or other water conservation devices. However, in 1982 the law was repealed.

On Feb 27, 2009, the state declared a historic declaration of drought, so it is clear that now is the time to start doing things differently.