A Tale of Two Houses (clarified)

2007-09-11T22:08:00.002-04:00

There’s an annonymous blog spamming around right now comparing the relative green-ness of George W. Bush’s ranch house in Crawford, TX, with Al Gore’s house in Belle Meade, TN. The blog implies that Mr. Bush is progressive because of his rainwater collection system, passive solar design, and ground source heat pump; while painting Mr. Gore as hypocritical because of the tremendous energy use and in-ground pool at his over sized mansion. You can see it at http://www.ataleoftwohouses.com/ a site registered to a guy named Daryl from Deltona, FL.

The blog was emailed to me featuring the photos seen at right, Mr. Bush’s house is pictured first and Mr. Gore’s house is pictured second.

When I looked at these pictures, I knew I was looking at a hidden agenda being sold at the expense of the green building movement. First of all, I knew that Mr. Bush’s house was designed by University of Texas architecture professor David Heymann. The house pictured above, while a fine little house in its own right, looks nothing like what a renowned architect would design (trust me, I work for Fine Homebuilding; I can spot things like this). Secondly, I used to live in Nashville. I was a remodeler. I renovated a couple of houses in Belle Meade; the photo above at right looks nothing like Belle Meade.

So I started digging a little bit, groggily Googling for images of the two houses while waiting for my morning coffee to brew. It didn’t take long to validate my misgivings. As it turns out, the above houses are indeed owned by Mr. Bush and Mr. Gore respectively. I even found an AP photo of President Bush walking past his house with Australian Prime Minister John Howard.

The problem is that these two houses aren’t the houses whose relative “greenness” are scrutinized in said blog.

President Bush’s real Crawford, TX house, the Prairie Chapel Ranch, is a lot bigger. The little ranch pictured above existed on the property when Mr. and Mrs. Bush bought the land in 1999. And that’s when they hired Heymann to design a house for them at the other end of the compound.

Even though we can only see about a third of this house, we see that it’s much bigger than the original ranch house.

What about Gore’s house; does the photo in the blog show the house that’s causing all of the hub-bub over high electricity bills? No, it doesn’t.

The house pictured at the beginning of this essay is part of the Gore family farm in Carthage, TN. A Getty Images photo of the actual Belle Meade house is pictured at right.

Some inconvenient questions for the blogster:

Is it greener to buy an existing house or to build a new one?
In my opinion,10,000 square foot houses are not green. Unless they're going to house a family of fifteen. But it's less not-green to buy an existing 10,000 sq. ft. house in an established neighborhood that’s hooked up to city water and sewer than it is to dig a 10,000 sq. ft. hole in the Texas desert.

Which is greener: a single story or a two story house?
Two story house because there’s twice the living space per square foot of footprint. This makes the house easier to heat and cool because there is less roof area to absorb heat in the summer and less floor space to heat in the winter.

Why would Mr. and Mrs. Bush go to the trouble of rainwater collection? Because they built a house in the Sonora desert. By definition, deserts get 10 inches of rainfall per year or less. You need to save rain water when you build in the desert.

Is Mr. Gore’s energy consumption extravagant? Yes. But it should be considered that the residence also houses offices for both Mr. and Mrs. Gore and their staffs. And the electricity comes from clean sources, not coal.

Is this blogster comparing apple to apples? Of course not. If the blogster lumps Mr. Gore’s guest house into the equation, shouldn’t Mr. Bush’s guest houses, helipad, helicopter hanger, and others buildings be lumped in too? And if Mr. Gore's swimming pool is highlighted, shouldn’t it be mentioned that Mr. Bush has a swimming pool too?

Some realities that the AP, the blogster, and others missed:
Ground source heat pumps (GHSP) aren’t all they’re made out to be.
It’s stated by the AP, repeated in the blog, and then “verified” by the watchdogs at about.com and snopes.com, that the ground source heat pump at Mr. Bush’s ranch is 75% more energy efficient than a “traditional heating and air conditioning system.” Inasmuch as most central air conditioning units are much bigger than they should be, and most ducts in America leak 30% of the air they transport, it’s not too hard to beat the “traditional heating and air conditioning system” by a huge margin. But the more important (and overlooked) point is that a heating and cooling system’s energy usage is dependent on the thermal envelope of the house: insulation, air sealing, and windows. If a house is leaky, the HVAC system uses more energy; it doesn’t matter what kind of system it is. If a house is tight, the HVAC system will use less energy.

According to case studies modeled by the US Department of Energy’s Building America program, after envelope improvements are maximized, a GSHP reduces energy consumption by only 3.3% (adding solar hot water, which cuts consumption by 8%, or a small 2kwPV array (10 panels), which cuts energy consumption by 14% would be a much smarter investment). For reasons like these, it’s not surprising that many energy performance specialists are luke warm to heat pumps. In fact, at this year’s Westford Symposium on Building Science (hosted by Building Science Corporation) boiler expert Henry Gifford gave an hour-long presentation entitled Ground Source Heat Pumps Don’t Save Energy. There were no quibbles from the audience with Henry's analysis.

Another green aspect of GSHPs is the refrigerant used: Freon isn’t green, and the replacements don’t work well. Take your pick: ozone depletion or more pumping and less energy saving.

The energy comparison is neither fair nor balanced; in fact, it’s grossly misleading. Even if Mr. Gore’s energy usage is off the charts (which it seems to be), he pays Nashville Electric Service a $400 per month premium to buy from clean energy sources. Mr. Bush’s electricity comes from coal-fired plants. In fact, Mr. Bush decided against installing the solar thermal panels that could have provided much of his water and space heating needs because the GSHP heated the backyard pool just fine. In Texas, using the sun for water and space heating is a no-brainer. And Photovoltaic panels are too, but there are no PV panels at the Prairie Chapel Ranch.

And speaking of PV, it’s been widely under-reported that upon buying the house in Belle Meade, the Gores undertook an energy efficiency renovation including new furnace, windows, and air sealing, but were blocked by the city of Belle Meade from installing PV panels to provide electricity. In fact as it turns our, Mr. Gore's house was certified green by LEED for homes. See a slideshow of the house here.

The square footage of the two houses is misrepresented.
Mr. Gore’s 10,000 sq ft house is split between two levels whereas Mr. Bush’s 4,000 sq. ft. house actually covers a 10,000 sq ft footprint. Both houses are too big.

What can we learn from all of this?
A few things. Smart people can do dumb stuff and dumb people can do smart stuff. The reality is that neither of these men had much to do with these houses; Mr Bush's wants were for "a king sized bed and a porch with a rocking chair," Mr. Gore bought an existing house in a great neighborhood; but 10,000 square feet is too much house, so they're both wrong. Oh yeah, and don’t believe everything you read. In fact, don’t believe this, check the facts.

Our great country was founded on the principle that the people could rule themselves. Putting power into the hands of the people requires that truth be treasured above convenience. Democracy depends on an informed citizenry. It depends on a vigilant citizenry. Telling the truth, confronting the facts, and promoting logical debate are integral to America’s foundation and future. When people lie for political gain it’s un-American.

--The Green Grump is the alter ego of former Fine Homebuilding senior editor Daniel Morrison