Sustainable Building Sourcebook

Energy & Sustainability

From Austin Energy, here’s a good overview of a variety of sustainable construction technologies. Much of this is Austin-centric, but the reading references and overviews are broadly applicable. For example, here’s the start of the graywater systems page:

In Central Texas, any opportunity to reuse water should be taken because we are using up more water than we have. Not only is our water supply dwindling, but also pumping water from place to place requires extra energy. In Austin we typically use 35 percent of our water for landscape irrigation. If we used graywater for this purpose, it would conserve treated water and save energy.

Recent legislation has made it possible for home and business owners to collect and reuse graywater onsite for surface and subsurface irrigation needs.

Graywater is defined as the wastewater produced from baths and showers, and lavatory sinks. The wastewater generated by toilets, kitchen sinks, dishwashers, and diaper washing in clothes washers is called blackwater .

Anybody have links to other good overviews of sustainable technolgoy, location-centric or not?

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Luke Iseman

Luke Iseman makes stuff, some of which works. He invites you to drive a bike for a living (dirtnailpedicab.com), stop killing your garden (growerbot.com), and live in an off-grid shipping container (boxouse.com).

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