The efforts of 
GREEN Building is making it's way Worldwide. As I have written in previous posts, people strive for sustainable homes for various reasons. I found this article in the Houston Chronicle that I thought was fascinating.
The article is about a family in Austraila that has built a home I think it is as about as GREEN as it gets. There decision to build this home was a "moral decision" as they call it. I felt it was interesting how Australia is one of the world's biggest contributors of Greenhouse Gasses. I didn't know that. Anyhow, on to the house.
First off, the home has 18 Solar Panels on the roof. The panels produce so much electricity that the excess is fed back into the Electricity Grid. At night, the family switches over to grid electricity to reserve solar power. Since the family contributes electricity to the grid, they receive a rebate from the electric company.
Something else you would see on this roof is an impressive and high tech Rainwater Filtration system. Rain water is taken from the roof to a 6,600 gallon tank that lies beneath the driveway. A small amount of water that first enters the tank is diverted over to the garden to get rid of metals, leaves, bird droppings, and anything else that you would otherwise not want in your drinking water. The water is then filtered to be used for drinking, washing, and toilet water.
The home is also set up on what sounds to be a similar system to our Aerobic Septics over here. Although no term is used, it is a 3 phase filtration that breaks down sewage and then uses the excess for lawn watering. The only difference I see is that the first tank utilizes UV Light is emitted to help kill germs, viruses and other toxins in the water.
The article does not go in to how the home was built. I personally would like to know more about that. It is apparent that they used a white metal roof and used passive solar placement to help reduce heat loss/gain, but other details are not there.
A BIG Thanks to the Cambell Family in Australia for taking a step forward on Sustainable Living. More people appreciate than you will probably ever know. Many people around the world will learn from your experience and hopefully strive for Eco-Friendly homes.
That is just plain amazing. There are so many things one can do to improve the quality of living on this Earth. Too bad there are so few that actually use these things.
Great post!
Sugar Land, Tx
Where Life is Sweet
I just watched on tv about Australia and how the whole continent is fed by coal and they are trying to start with the solar stuff. There's a grand piece of land this one guy is trying to build a huge solar thingy. Anyway, don't understand all that but bottom line Australia is trying to change it around.
Where can I get my own "huge solar thingy", Sally? I WANT ONE!!!! :)