Forty shades of green
22/02/2006 09:35 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
izmeinaIzzie has been a busy little serpent. Was originally rostered to work 7-3 today. Knew that the annual open day for the local university (and goblin training school) would be some time around now but was not organized enough to put in a request for the day off. But luckily, found one of the house elves who was happy to grab extra shifts. So she snatched it and the Iz will just request a payout of 7 or 8 hours from our stash of accumulated hours.
Turns out just as well. While yesterday the temperature dropped from a sizzling 40.1 to 31 in around 30 minutes - accompanied by rain and thunderstorms, the humidity did not disappear but actually got worse. So, not the nicest sort of day to be lurking at work.
Set off for the uni around 10am. Still nasty hot and sticky. Got ourselves lots of freebies and munchies and various bits and pieces of promotional literature. It's usually the same old clubs and societies doing their promotions. One of the most intriguing is called the CIA who are into dungeons and dragon, war games, anime and general wacky wierdness. They had strange slogans like "There is no spoon" and cute posters of Darth Vader inviting viewers to "join the Dark Side"
But our favorites just have to be the various born again God Botherers looking for lost souls to save. Things are looking sad when even the Catholics are into pounding the pavements. There's the usual Campus Crusade and Christian Fellowship and a happy clappy mob called Gonzo who are big into having parties and love fests at massively subisidized prices to attract poor and cheap students.
But Izzie could not resist the lure of the evil greenness. A big table full of greenish pamphlets and CDs and copious copies of a certain book. The guy on the stall asked Izzie if we would like a free CD and we said we would prefer the written version. No worries - as long as you treat it with respect because it is not just any old book. The Iz could have been an uber bitch and said that we were on a mission from Donald Rumsfeld scouting for janitorial supplies for Gitmo but - no - that would be totally tasteless. And anyway- the Izzie does intend to peek properly to see if it is still as boring as last time we tried reading it.
Many moons ago, in our flobberworm days - while visiting some of the ma's friends - was nothing to do but sit in the corner like a little mouse so Izzie picked up a Bible from their bookshelf and dipped here and there. Decided to try something different than the usual Gospel stuff and the old snaky stories of Genesis. Izzie picked Leviticus. Bad bad choice. And everytime since then that we have tried to read the Koran - the impression we constantly get is more of the same only bigger and longer. Just rules and more rules.
But even if we do manage to find some tasty morsels in there - Izzie is way way too much of a feminist iconoclast to ever be tempted to give up her infidel ways. Being born into a religion where half of the human race are dismissed as either whores or virgin mothers is one thing - but to choose to change to one where we are regarded equally dismally and are certainly not considered worthy of being included in the audience (who are extolled to be good to their wives) - will leave that for submissive mindless masochists. When Izzie finds a religion whose main requirements of believers seems to be fear, submission and obedience, then it's time to run 100 miles. Strange that our first introduction to Islam was from the Sufis who seemed to be anything but. That scored the religion a lot of brownie points but they got used up rather quickly in the last few years. The more mystical, questioning and quirky sorts such as the Sufis seem to be very out of fashion at the moment.
Izzie could have stayed lurking all day but decided to leave at 1pm as we had other plans. Lsst week, wanted to visit the Green House which is nearing the end of its public life as it will soon be sold.
But the Izzie was zonked after an ickie sticky day at work and came home wanting to do nothing more than slink into the shower and curl up in the serpent basket for an afternoon snooze. It was also a yucky sticky humid day. This house was built around two years ago and has been open to the public ever since but only on Wednesday afternoons and weekends 1- 5pm. Tried once or twice to go there but was never able to find the place on the map at the train station. This time Izzie was organised and visited the university bookshop to take a peek in the street directory. Last night's attempts at googling produced piccies of the house and all sorts of things but no indication of location. Oh we knew the street names of course but just had no idea at all where they were in relation to the train station.
So, after many moons - finally arrived at around 2.30pm and spend the best part of ninety minutes snooping and slinking. Being an icky sticky day - was a perfect opportunity to test the talents of the solar passive designers. These folks are total geeks. Throughout the house - not content with the disbelief of most visitors that there is no airconditioning or heating at all, they provide the odd gadget displaying date, time, temperature and humidity. The thermometers all were around 27-28 but the house seemed somewhat cooler than that.
The first thing Izzie noticed from the street was that the single solitary west facing window had a rather strange louvred awning thingie covering the top half of it. The north facing windows were also equipped with these louvres but they were positioned on top and jutting out rather than covering it. All part of an evil scheme to keep the sun out in summer but slanted in such a way that it could sneak in all winter long. Most ingenious indeed. They also used grey water and solar heating where excess could be fed into the electric grid. Iz was particularly impressed at how the laundry and bathroom were in the east to get the light and heat in order to avoid mildew and damp
In addition to the ultra green credentials, the house was also designed to be wheelchair friendly. But the amazing thing - it looked just like a normal yuppie house but was built using a bit of brains for a change
It was most amusing to see that the single solitary small west facing window had a notice saying that the builders did not want it but it was somehow required by council regulations so they compensated by making it small, using double glazing and those cool louvred awning thingies to control the sun. They are all angled at 35 degrees to keep the summer sun out and let the winter sun in.
Looking out another window, you can see that the neighbours have 3 large windows facing west - none of them have awnings or louvres but the blinds are drawn down. Silly buggers.
Izzie of course is blessed with a house design that flaunts every green rule in the book. No north facing wall or windows at all (north is a wall shared with the adjoining house) All the windows and doors are facing due west or east and are damned big. No awnings at all and the single solitary concession to intelligent design is the grapevine on the pergola on the west side of the house outside the kitchen window. If not for the leafy shade of the grapes, the kitchen would be an unbearable hell hole.
So, the angled awnings is just about the only idea the Izzie can snatch from this super cool very green house. Our usage of hot water is so low as to simply not justify installing a solar heating system. Our attempts at diverting grey water onto the garden were squashed by all the drain pipes - even the gutters being inaccessible and leading directly into the sewers. The green house in contrast,had its own rainwater tank and proper grey water system with water filtering and feeding into the garden using netafilm drip irrigation.
Snatched the company name and phone number for the angled louvres. Will be most interested to hear what sort of prices they are.
It's not easy being green and certainly not cheap if you don't get it right from the very start.
Turns out just as well. While yesterday the temperature dropped from a sizzling 40.1 to 31 in around 30 minutes - accompanied by rain and thunderstorms, the humidity did not disappear but actually got worse. So, not the nicest sort of day to be lurking at work.
Set off for the uni around 10am. Still nasty hot and sticky. Got ourselves lots of freebies and munchies and various bits and pieces of promotional literature. It's usually the same old clubs and societies doing their promotions. One of the most intriguing is called the CIA who are into dungeons and dragon, war games, anime and general wacky wierdness. They had strange slogans like "There is no spoon" and cute posters of Darth Vader inviting viewers to "join the Dark Side"
But our favorites just have to be the various born again God Botherers looking for lost souls to save. Things are looking sad when even the Catholics are into pounding the pavements. There's the usual Campus Crusade and Christian Fellowship and a happy clappy mob called Gonzo who are big into having parties and love fests at massively subisidized prices to attract poor and cheap students.
But Izzie could not resist the lure of the evil greenness. A big table full of greenish pamphlets and CDs and copious copies of a certain book. The guy on the stall asked Izzie if we would like a free CD and we said we would prefer the written version. No worries - as long as you treat it with respect because it is not just any old book. The Iz could have been an uber bitch and said that we were on a mission from Donald Rumsfeld scouting for janitorial supplies for Gitmo but - no - that would be totally tasteless. And anyway- the Izzie does intend to peek properly to see if it is still as boring as last time we tried reading it.
Many moons ago, in our flobberworm days - while visiting some of the ma's friends - was nothing to do but sit in the corner like a little mouse so Izzie picked up a Bible from their bookshelf and dipped here and there. Decided to try something different than the usual Gospel stuff and the old snaky stories of Genesis. Izzie picked Leviticus. Bad bad choice. And everytime since then that we have tried to read the Koran - the impression we constantly get is more of the same only bigger and longer. Just rules and more rules.
But even if we do manage to find some tasty morsels in there - Izzie is way way too much of a feminist iconoclast to ever be tempted to give up her infidel ways. Being born into a religion where half of the human race are dismissed as either whores or virgin mothers is one thing - but to choose to change to one where we are regarded equally dismally and are certainly not considered worthy of being included in the audience (who are extolled to be good to their wives) - will leave that for submissive mindless masochists. When Izzie finds a religion whose main requirements of believers seems to be fear, submission and obedience, then it's time to run 100 miles. Strange that our first introduction to Islam was from the Sufis who seemed to be anything but. That scored the religion a lot of brownie points but they got used up rather quickly in the last few years. The more mystical, questioning and quirky sorts such as the Sufis seem to be very out of fashion at the moment.
Izzie could have stayed lurking all day but decided to leave at 1pm as we had other plans. Lsst week, wanted to visit the Green House which is nearing the end of its public life as it will soon be sold.
But the Izzie was zonked after an ickie sticky day at work and came home wanting to do nothing more than slink into the shower and curl up in the serpent basket for an afternoon snooze. It was also a yucky sticky humid day. This house was built around two years ago and has been open to the public ever since but only on Wednesday afternoons and weekends 1- 5pm. Tried once or twice to go there but was never able to find the place on the map at the train station. This time Izzie was organised and visited the university bookshop to take a peek in the street directory. Last night's attempts at googling produced piccies of the house and all sorts of things but no indication of location. Oh we knew the street names of course but just had no idea at all where they were in relation to the train station.
So, after many moons - finally arrived at around 2.30pm and spend the best part of ninety minutes snooping and slinking. Being an icky sticky day - was a perfect opportunity to test the talents of the solar passive designers. These folks are total geeks. Throughout the house - not content with the disbelief of most visitors that there is no airconditioning or heating at all, they provide the odd gadget displaying date, time, temperature and humidity. The thermometers all were around 27-28 but the house seemed somewhat cooler than that.
The first thing Izzie noticed from the street was that the single solitary west facing window had a rather strange louvred awning thingie covering the top half of it. The north facing windows were also equipped with these louvres but they were positioned on top and jutting out rather than covering it. All part of an evil scheme to keep the sun out in summer but slanted in such a way that it could sneak in all winter long. Most ingenious indeed. They also used grey water and solar heating where excess could be fed into the electric grid. Iz was particularly impressed at how the laundry and bathroom were in the east to get the light and heat in order to avoid mildew and damp
In addition to the ultra green credentials, the house was also designed to be wheelchair friendly. But the amazing thing - it looked just like a normal yuppie house but was built using a bit of brains for a change
It was most amusing to see that the single solitary small west facing window had a notice saying that the builders did not want it but it was somehow required by council regulations so they compensated by making it small, using double glazing and those cool louvred awning thingies to control the sun. They are all angled at 35 degrees to keep the summer sun out and let the winter sun in.
Looking out another window, you can see that the neighbours have 3 large windows facing west - none of them have awnings or louvres but the blinds are drawn down. Silly buggers.
Izzie of course is blessed with a house design that flaunts every green rule in the book. No north facing wall or windows at all (north is a wall shared with the adjoining house) All the windows and doors are facing due west or east and are damned big. No awnings at all and the single solitary concession to intelligent design is the grapevine on the pergola on the west side of the house outside the kitchen window. If not for the leafy shade of the grapes, the kitchen would be an unbearable hell hole.
So, the angled awnings is just about the only idea the Izzie can snatch from this super cool very green house. Our usage of hot water is so low as to simply not justify installing a solar heating system. Our attempts at diverting grey water onto the garden were squashed by all the drain pipes - even the gutters being inaccessible and leading directly into the sewers. The green house in contrast,had its own rainwater tank and proper grey water system with water filtering and feeding into the garden using netafilm drip irrigation.
Snatched the company name and phone number for the angled louvres. Will be most interested to hear what sort of prices they are.
It's not easy being green and certainly not cheap if you don't get it right from the very start.
