Nob Hill Haus received recognition by City of Los Angeles

Recently, the Nob Hill Haus has received a certificate from the city of Los Angeles, for "outstanding creativity in architectural and sustainable design" - We are really proud of the recognition and the attention that the project has received and hope that this will further the thrive for water and energy conservation. Our natural ventilation systems work like a charm- and during the heat wave last weekend, we had to turn on the A/C for only 2 hours a day (for the first time this year) i.e. from 2PM to 4PM- then we could turn it off and do the rest with natural ventilation (while our neighbors' A/C systems were still running for a few more hours). Especially the fans prove to be a great help to move air around the building. We then use the night-venting effect to cool down the building components before the heat of the day hits us again. In the garden, our little fig tree is producing fruit like a maniac- The tree was a stick, less than 3 feet tall when we got it (and we seriously thought about returning the sad thing) - but it is carrying more fruit than all the other trees combined- Amazing!

4th of July at the Nob Hill Haus

Yesterday we had an amazing spot to watch the independence day fireworks- the official ones at the Rose Bowl- and the many more unofficial ones that kept going from 8PM to way after midnight. The deck was an ideal platform to enjoy the spectacle with a glass of wine or two.

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!

Interiors

After the USGBC tour, we spent some time to decorate the interior, most notably with artwork by fellow designer and architect Nerin Kadribegovic. We also made a trip to Germany in May to visit Freiburg, the Route du Vin in Alsace and Basel in Switzerland and brought back 2 Gavina Wassily chairs for the living room (quite a logistical endeavor I have to say)- but they look great in the house. Our PV system has been producing a lot of power from the sun- with about four weeks into energy generation, we banked about 300kWh in surplus energy. The concept of using dimmable fluorescent light fixtures in conjunction with the high insulating properties of the walls, windows and roof (no A/C use this year so far) have reduced our energy consumption dramatically. We also had an energy audit performed and the home now scored 24% better than the California title 24 energy requirements due to improvements made during the construction phase of the project. We are now confident to achieve the high goal of “net-zero” over the course of the year.

USGBC Tour

Last Saturday's USGBC Tour was a full success and over 30 people took the tour of the Haus- It was also the first time we opened the cistern lid and discovered that it was full to the brink with rainwater!
We've been using the water to irrigate the plants, but the low water pressure led us to believe that there was almost nothing in it- well we were wrong. Our solar system continues to produce more than we use at this time (still no AC running) and we hope that we can build up a reserve before the heat of the summer hits us with $$$ in electric bills.
We also had the Solar water heater inspector in house to verify that the installation complies with the CSI requirements and the deck coating installer put on the last coat. We also finally cleaned the garage to a point that we can park the car inside. It's looking more and more like a house now...