Here is the latest update on Ben’s new home where he and his wife are renovating it to be the greenest home ever (well maybe not ever, but pretty close.)
He is the owner of a business called HARVEST HOMES. The link to his website for info on what he can do for you with your home is in my link section. Check it out!
So here is the latest article from the Guelph Mercury about the use of “grey water”.
Enjoy:
January 23, 2009
Scott Tracey
Mercury Staff
A simple request of city hall landed home builder Ben Polley in a pilot project that could revolutionize how residents flush their toilets.
Really.
Polley and his wife, Jen Woodside, bought a heritage home on Manitoba Street last fall. The couple wanted to make the house as energy efficient as possible, and while speaking to city officials about whether they could reuse grey water in their new home, Polley learned a pilot project was in the works to do just that.
Polley is the owner of Harvest Homes, which builds houses with straw bales, and asked to be part of the pilot.
“We got involved a little bit by accident and good fortune,” he said yesterday.
As well as Harvest Homes, the city has partnered with Reid’s Heritage Homes, Fusion Homes and Terra View Homes on the grey water reuse project.
Grey water reuse systems will be installed in 30 homes, beginning later this year, and will be monitored to see how effective they are at reducing water consumption.
Wayne Galliher, the city’s water conservation project manager, explained “grey water” is used water leaving sinks, bathtubs and washing machines. Such water will be collected, disinfected and stored in tanks in the homes’ basements, and then used instead of clean water to flush toilets.
“I think most people agree that potable water isn’t required for toilet flushing,” Galliher said.
Polley said reusing grey water makes economic sense.
“Economically it’s not really worth cleaning that water to a higher grade for something like drinking, but it’s ideal to use for something like flushing toilets,” he said.
Galliher said there are other economic benefits to reusing grey water.
It is expected using grey water for toilet flushing should reduce consumption in those homes by about 30 per cent — and reduce the water bill accordingly — “so there are some large-scale benefits to be realized,” Galliher said.
Polley, who has been incorporating energy-efficient measures into every project since starting his company in 2000, praised the city for proactively taking on the pilot project.
While solar panels and wind turbines have been used for some time to reduce reliance on electricity, Polley said increasingly his clients are also “looking for alternatives which will reduce our grid water dependence.”
Polley noted while most of the homes in the pilot project will likely be located in new subdivisions, he will install a grey water reuse system in his new home just outside Guelph’s downtown core.
“It ought not to matter to the city where we decrease demand, as long as we decrease demand,” he said.
