Green Real Estate Appraiser

Mediterranean Herbs, The Ultimate Drought Solution

Posted on July 8, 2015 | Leave a comment

Pungent aromas link plants from the world’s driest regions. This is not the feminine floral essence, but a powerful scent often musky and acrid, carried in the rich oils that are shared by arid zone species. In lands of little rain and hot dry winds such as the Sirocco of northern Africa or the Santa Anas of Los Angeles, oils in the indigenous plants are key to their survival over a long dry season. These oils serve a purpose — to replace moisture lost from foliage and wood. Oil helps to keep cells from collapsing from dehydration, and the potent aromas discourage hungry wildlife that eats anything during drought.

The dry, inhospitable birthplace of our most redolent herbs means they are underestimated as drought-resistant plants. All too often they are coddled in cool, damp gardens where their oils fail to accumulate, leaving these individuals lacking in aroma.

California Reaches Compromise on Residential Utility Rates

Posted on July 6, 2015 | Leave a comment

The new plan also keeps the pressure on the state’s big three investor owned utilities to create time-of-use (TOU) rates to charge more when electricity demand is at its peak. That could provide new incentives for technologies that can manage hour-by-hour energy consumption.

It also denies utility requests for broad permission to impose fixed monthly charges that could make rooftop solar less cost competitive, opting for a minimum bill approach instead, at least as a default for future rate plans.

In a unanimous vote, the California Public Utilities Commission on Friday approved a proposed decision that will flatten out the state’s existing four-tier rate structure to two tiers, with a 25-percent difference in cost between the two.

That move, has been opposed by solar companies and environmental groups, since it will reduce financial incentives for the state’s highest electricity using households to invest in rooftop solar and energy efficiency. The existing four-tier structure was set in place after the state’s 2001 energy crisis, and has gradually grown to a difference of about 13 cents per kilowatt-hour for the lowest tier to as high as 42 cents per kilowatt-hour for the highest tier.

San Diego: New Homes Have Water Recycling Feature

Posted on July 6, 2015 | Leave a comment

KB Home, one of the state’s largest builders, showed off a new recycling system in San Diego Monday that eliminates the need for much of the drinking water now used to quench thirsty landscapes. It would drop overall water use by as much as 72 percent. Water officials say it is the first time such a system is being installed in a housing subdivision.

The $10,000 system comes at a time when California is searching for ways to reduce water use because of severe drought. It is a standard feature in KB Home’s 52-home Sea Cliff project and routes so-called “gray water” from showers, bathtubs, washing machines and bathroom sinks through filters that remove most solids and impurities, and makes the water ready for use in each home’s landscaping.

Mediterranean Herbs, The Ultimate Drought Solution

California Reaches Compromise on Residential Utility Rates

San Diego: New Homes Have Water Recycling Feature

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