Our house is a zero-carbon house. It has a zero-carbon footprint (meaning it has zero emissions of carbon dioxide) and we pay nothing for electricity and heating. We did this by adding: heat pumps, insulation, triple-glazed windows and solar panels (the “Fab Four”). By installing the fab four we are saving so much money on heating and electricity bills that our investments will pay for themselves in about six years. Our return on investment is about 15%. That’s 15% after tax and indexed for inflation. Sure beats my 401k! In addition to the investment returns, according to a large body of academic research, our house price has increased by between 8% and 14%. Even the low-end estimate greatly exceeds what we invested in the Fab Four. Hence you no longer have to wait until the savings pay for the investment in the equipment, you can get your money back as soon as you sell your house.
A zero-carbon-footprint house (or just zero-carbon house) is also known as a net-zero energy house or carbon-neutral house. Over the course of a year a net-zero energy house generates no net emissions of carbon dioxide. Net-zero energy houses are houses that use very little energy from electricity or heating fuel like natural gas or heating oil. But, because even a single light bulb uses energy, they are do not use zero energy. They can use net-zero energy after subtracting the zero-carbon energy produced on site, such as from solar panels.
If you want a zero carbon house and zero bills for heating and electricity then this web site is for you. By saving money for yourself you will cut asthma-inducing pollution and combat climate change.
I have written three books on how to get to zero carbon, zero bills. You can get my first book, Zero Carbon® Home, for free by attending my free webinar. My second book, Zero Carbon® Pool is not available for free but you can buy it from this website. My third book, the Special COVID19 Stuck at Home Edition of Zero Carbon® Home you can get for free by entering the code COVID19 at checkout. All attendees at my highly-acclaimed webinars get a free copy of the e-book version (for iPad/Nook or Kindle) of my equally highly-acclaimed book Zero Carbon® Home. When Paul Hawken, the author of “Drawdown: The Most Comprehensive Plan Ever Proposed to Reverse Global Warming” reviewed the book he said, “Your book is terrific.” Bill McKibben has also endorsed the book.
If you are part of a local sustainability, environmental or energy conservation group and would like to host a webinar please contact me at: email David Green to arrange it. I can take care of all the arrangements for Zoom hosting and registration so all you need to have is an just add the audience!
I do not work for or get paid by any manufacturer or installer of equipment. All my advice is free of these conflicts of interest that permeate the industry. This webinar is not a lecture and I do not tell you what to do. Instead I show you what we did that worked, and mention quite a few things we did not do (like geothermal, solar hot-water panels and adding insulation to your exterior walls) because they made energy sense but did not make financial sense. The live Q&A period always takes longer than my presentation and I stay on the call until the last person’s question gets answered.
If you are looking for how to make money by cutting the carbon footprint of your swimming pool to zero, (which I have also done – it was quicker, cheaper and made a higher return on investment to go zero on my pool than on my house)