An "Inconvenient Truth"
The Story of Two Houses....
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 gas runs over $2400. 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 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 an arid, high 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. The water (usually 67 degrees F. ) heats the house in the winter and cools it 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.
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 r 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.
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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 the of the President of the United States, George W. Bush
Now That's An "Inconvenient Truth".
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