I did get around to posting photos I took on Sunday, October 29, of the second home I looked at on the Tucson Innovative Home Tour - check out this Flickr set of the Passive Solar Home.

It was very impressive to see this place - it’s been designed from the ground up to take advantage of passive heating and cooling strategies, and, in the words of the architect, to last for HUNDREDS of years. This is an architectural long view that reminds me of Stewart Brand’s ‘Long Now’ Foundation. If this kind of development became the standard, think of the long-term savings, not only in terms of the cost of replacing construction materials, but also in terms of the decreased environmental impact of not dumping worn-out construction materials.

Another impressive fact about this home is the water use per capita. In Tucson, the average water use per day per capita is 120 gallons. This house consumes 40 gallons per day per capita - one-third of the average! How is this accomplished? The landscape does not use municipal water but takes advantage of roof runoff and cistern / greywater harvesting. Inside, the single greatest use of water is for toilets - we flush nearly 30% of our treated water right down the toilet. The owner mitigates this with the use of Carroma toilets - a low-flow commode that has been used for over 20 years in Australia, and which apparently does not cost significantly more than a regular toilet. I will be checking into these.