PRESENTATION WILL BE AT 7.30 TONIGHT (11-14-2011)

Nob Hill Haus- Virtual Tour

If you haven't had a chance yet to come to one of the open houses, there'll be one more chance to get on a virtual tour of the Nob Hill Haus:

On November 14, at 7PM as part of the Mount Washington Homeowners Alliance general meeting. The location will be the Carlin G. Smith Recreational Center at 511 W. Ave 46 in 90065 (Mount Washington).

So if you want to learn more about the house (and how it has been performing so far)or would like to ask Frank any questions, that's for now the last chance to do so as we haven't planned any more events this year.

Stapelia Gigantea

The little not very prominent plant started to develop flowers earlier last week- and finally, one of them started to open this morning. Unfortunately, they will only last a single day, so I won't be able to take another shot of the fully opened specimen. While closed, the buds resemble the domes of orthodox churches. Stapelia is also called carrion plant and uses flies as their primary pollinator (it attracts flies with a rotten smell). But apart from the distinctive fragrance, the flowers are really spectacular.

Photos of the Nob Hill Haus

Finally a little time to take a couple of good day and night shots of the house. We borrowed a good camera and spend a couple of hours on Saturday to get a few deserving impressions of the house. Enjoy!

It never rains in California-NOT?

Our cistern wasn't even dry for a 3 weeks when the first rain of the season hit and filled almost half of it. The 1.5 days of slow rain have brought us about 3-4" of water- 1/4 of the annual total. The water is also very clear as the picture shows.The drop in temperatures also helps to keep the moisture of the rain longer in the ground and we could turn off the irrigation system on Monday. (Did YOU turn off yours, too?)

Cistern finally run dry

Last weekend we used the last remaining rainwater (from the rains in March- half a year ago. Frank went down into the cistern and scooped up the rest of the water (not fun). There were no leaves or conifer needles in the tank, but a thin layer of black slime at the bottom -most likely from the soot of L.A.'s air (same stuff as the one we washed off the solar panels earlier this month
We hope the remaining moisture will evaporate over the week so that we can vacuum the bottom of the cistern and get it ready for the next rainy season. We'll also get a finer mesh filter, maybe that'll help to keep some of the dirt out. As a summary of our first rainwater watering season, I have to say, that it was a full success and that the water lasted longer than anticipated. We are still taking data of our water and energy use and will be able to provide more detailed information of this year's consumption at a later point in time. Currently, we are on average 50% below a "standard" single family home. But that data was only for the summer, the main irrigation season. The usage should drop more when we enter the rainy season- but keep in mind, the summer was not a very hot one this year.

Solar Wash

Yep, even solar panels need a good scrub every now and then. In order to keep the electric output at optimum levels, the dust and soot from L.A.'s notorious air need to be washed off every now and then- and today was a good time for that. So we went up and hosed and scrubbed the dirt off to make'em shine again. Since the system got turned on, we have produced over 2,400 kWh with an excess of 1000 kWh. The mild summer along with the other energy saving features of the house helped a lot to keep actual power usage low for us. But we have not been in the house for a whole year and it is a bit early to make predictions about the overall performance.