House
#1:
A 20 room mansion (not including 8 bathrooms) heated by natural gas.
Add on a pool (and a pool house) and a separate guest house, all heated by gas.
In one month this residence consumes more energy than the average American household does in a year.
The average bill for electricity and natural as runs over $2400 per month.
In natural gas alone, this property
consumes more than 20 times the national average for an American home.
This house is not situated in a Northern or Midwestern "snow belt" area.
It's in the South.
House #2:
House #2:
Designed by an architecture professor at a leading national university.
This house incorporates every "green" feature current home construction can provide.
The house is 4,000 square feet (4 bedrooms) and is nestled
on ahig h prairie in the American southwest.
A central closet in the house
holds geothermal heat-pumps drawing ground water through pipes sunk 300 feet
into the ground.
into the ground.
The water (usually 67 degrees F) heats the house in the winter and coolsit in the summer.
The system uses no fossil fuels such as oil or natural
gas and it consumes one-quarter electricity required for a conventional heating/cooling system.
gas and it consumes one-quarter electricity required for a conventional heating/cooling system.
Rainwater from the roof is collected and
funneled into a 25,000-gallon underground cistern.
Wastewater from showers, sinks and toilets goes into underground purifying tanks and then into the cistern.
The collected water then irrigates the land surrounding the house.
Surrounding flowers and shrubs native to the area enable the property to blend into the surrounding rural landscape.
HOUSE
#1 is outside of Nashville , Tennessee ; it is the abode of
the"environmentalist" Al
Gore.
HOUSE #2 is on a ranch near Crawford , Texas ; it is the residence of ex-President of the United States , George W. Bush.