The Nutter Green Home Tour!

Come and learn about the sustainable building techniques used to create the Nutter Green Home! We'll be hosting a public tour on Thursday, June 16th at 6:00 PM in the evening. Please email nuttergreenhome@yahoo.com to RSVP. Thanks!

Pool, Deck, and Cabana - FINISHED!!!!

Well, we are happy to announce that the pool area construction is FINISHED. The only thing left to do is landscaping. The deck material is a high performance composite by Fiberon and is their Horizons line in Rosewood. We looked at the Ipe color as well, but decided on the Rosewood. Here's a link to the product - www.fiberondecking.com Be sure to check out their sustainability statement. Our supplier was Moore's Home Center in Campbell County, KY - thanks for your help Nate. We used the hidden fastener system which make it look so clean.

The shade sail is from Custom Shade Sails online - www.customshadesails.com It's their Porcelain color - ask for Bill. The sectional furniture is from Target.com, the wood market umbrella is from Garden Ridge, and the wood outdoor dining furniture is IKEA.

Congratulations to Science Fair Winners!!!!!!!

Hi everyone - we've got some great news to share with you! Several months ago, two young ladies, Lauren Wilkins and Anna Hecht, from the Cincinnati area came for a tour and to interview us about our solar home. These middle-schoolers were studying the effects of thermal mass on solar energy collection, so they thought information from users of a passive solar-heated home would be a great addition to their research and Science Fair project. Well, after months of research and presentation, the girls have made it through their local science fair competition, and onto the Cincinnati Regional Competition. Then, they made it through the Cincinnati regional competition and are now preparing for the State Science Fair in Columbus, Ohio! Below is a picture of them with their awards and ribbons.

Basically, their experiement involves measuring the effects of three types of mass on solar energy. They made solar collectors out of three aluminum pop cans filled with different materials to see how the filling material affected the solar energy collection - measured in temperature at certain intervals. The girls left one pop can unfilled as a control, filled another with water, and the last one with sand. They then took temperature readings of the cans' interiors to see which filling material offered the best thermal mass for solar collection.

Below is an email from one of the girls, Lauren Wilkins:

"Hi Mr. and Mrs. Nutter,
Thank you again for all of your help. We started at our local school science fair competition at St. Susanna School in Mason, OH. It was about a two month research project and out of about 75 students we were one of a small number of projects to receive a Best Display and an overall score of Superior. Then just last week we had one of the highest scores out of approximately 300 students at the Southwest District Competition at the University of Cincinnati. This qualified us to move onto the State Science Fair Competition at The Ohio State University on May 8th. We are really looking forward to a great experience presenting in front of more people and hopefully educating more people on why being green can be a great thing. Thank you so much for letting us start our research project at your green home! Thank you, Lauren Wilkins"

Notice the picture of the nutter green home on the upper right corner of their display!

Our new green car!

Here's some photos of our new green mode of transportation. It's a 2010 VW Jetta Sportwagen TDI (diesel). The 2009 model was named the "Green Car of the Year" - beating out the Prius. In 2010, one of the Audi diesel models won the award. This VW model beat out the hybrid Prius in mpg road tests. This VW, once broken in, will get nearly 50 mpg and it's NOT a hybrid. Ours is Reflex Silver with Titan Black interior, 6 sp manual trans, 17" alloy wheels, bluetooth, panoramic sunroof, and the sport protection package. It also has 8 airbags, including the side AND head curtain airbags in the both the front and back seat. We just had the windows tinted . . . it looks BAD! (meaning GOOD!) VW approves of a biodiesel blend of up to B5 while it's under warranty, and there's a biodiesel station not too far from our house, so we're looking into that.

It's an Eastern White Pine again this year . . .

We picked out and cut our Christmas Tree this year. Yes, we cut a real tree every year as opposed to having an artificial. To learn why this is a "greener" choice - read back through the archives here - December 08 or December 07. This year's tree is our largest yet - about 13 feet! We love it.

Fall Colors and Pool Closing

Above: Fall Colors are finally starting to come along . . .
The pool is now closed. We still have to finish the fence, platform deck, and the landscaping. It was a long summer of hard work, but we'll reap the rewards the WHOLE summer next year! We received the final inspection approval on the pool AND the cabana yesterday. Woo hoo! One gate to go and we are totally legal. By midsummer next year, we should have the fence and platform deck complete.

This winter we are focusing on interior trim and tweaking the HRV. Updates to follow . . .

Equipment is up and running. . .

Fence posts are in . . .

We have the pump and purification system running, the fence posts are in, and we have just a bit more to do to finish hooking up the underwater light. The cabana is ready for rough inspection, and the pool should be ready for it's final inspection this week.