Nob Hill Haus in the News

Last Saturday, the Los Angeles Times ran a 3 page article about the Nob Hill Haus under the heading "where the future lives". The article can also be viewed online. We celebrated this by opening the house to the public for the afternoon and although this was on very short notice, about 200 interested visitors came- from Topanga Canyon to Costa Mesa to take part in one of the guided tours.
This tremendous outcome shows that there is a great interest in sustainable architecture and design and we hope that with the Nob Hill Haus, we could demonstrate that sustainability does not mean to make sacrifices to the design- to the contrary- It can enhance the design and function of a building if properly incorporated. we'd like to thank everyone who made their way out here to take a look at the home!

Nob Hill Haus is certified!

Today, we received notice that the house has passed the green building certification-Now we have 3rd party verification of the sustainability level of the project. Build it Green, a California based Green Building Rating System recognized 149 points-the majority being in energy and Water which was our main focus for the project.

Composting Report

As we are using the house with all it's functions now (except the A/C because it hasn't gotten really hot inside the home yet) and testing the facilities we designed for their practical use. One is the composting bin of the recycling center in the kitchen- The location is very practical, since it is located right where the food scraps area being generated- however, the food scraps still need to be taken outside the the actual composting bin in the yard, where worms and bugs can do the real work to generate fertilizer.
So far, we only had the grass from brush clearance in the composter- mostly semi-dry matter that took forever to decompose. With the fresh food scraps, additional moisture should be introduced to help accelerate the composting process.

We are also closely monitoring the power consumption and generation on a daily basis-It is really interesting how this can change user behaviour (turning off lights that you don't need for example) in order to save energy. The solar output largely depends on the weather- While on a clear sunny day up to 21kWh can be generated from the sun, a full "June Gloom" day only results in 9 kWh. A big difference!