Home Details

Mike’s Berkeley Home

ENERGY & EFFICIENCY

  • Rooftop Solar (4 kw, installed by Better Earth Solar)            

  • Storage batteries (LG, 10kwh)

  • New Insulation (2021)                                                        

  • Double-paned windows (2021)

  • Passive solar: the main living area faces SW. On a sunny day we almost never need heat, regardless of outdoor temps. A large retractable awning on the deck keeps the main floor of the house considerably cooler in hot weather, and makes the deck a very pleasant place to be!

  • One solar-powered skylight

  • LED lighting throughout

ELECTRIFICATION

  • EV charging (240V outlet in garage for EV vehicle (Tesla Model Y)

  • Heat Pump HVAC  (ducted in bottom two floors, ductless in upstairs bedrooms)                                                             

  • Heat Pump water heater (AO Smith 66-gal)                            

  • Induction range (Jenn-Air)                                         

  • Electric clothes dryer (LG, not heat pump)  

  • Upgraded 200 amp panel  

  • Capped gas line!

WATER CONSERVATION

  • Greywater system (very simple laundry-to-landscape system, no diversion valve - only visible part of it is the mulch basins in the garden that the system irrigates)                                

  • Drip Irrigation                                                                        

  • Native and drought tolerant plants, “no-mow” lawn

SUSTAINABLE LANDSCAPE

  • Pesticide-free yard, native plants                                                                

  • Composting (rotating) and Worm compost system (Hungry Bin)

  • Food production (five fruit trees, in-ground perennial edibles, two covered planting boxes for annuals)

  • Features to support wildlife (Owl box, insect "hotels," water feature)

NONTOXIC & SUSTAINABLE MATERIALS

  • Low-carbon concrete (uses fly ash)                                       

  • Reused materials (when we remodeled in 2021 we kept as much as we could, including most elements of the bathrooms and a few of our newer windows; our bedroom doorknobs were reclaimed from my wife's great-grandfather's farm house in San José!)

  • Furniture made of reclaimed teak

  • Eco-friendly Avocado mattress

  • Bamboo toilet paper & Reusable bamboo "paper" towels

OTHER  

  • App-controlled smart plugs (on fridge and water feature)

  • Solar app to track production and electricity usage

  • Ridwell box for hard-to-recycle trash

  • Bulk containers in the kitchen...I get as many groceries in the bulk aisle as I can, with washable/reusable bulk bags

  • Also many eco-friendly kitchen and bath products that we get from Fillgood in reusable containers

  • Handheld bidet attachments (sprayers) on toilets