5 Green Homes That Won Gold

Annual awards recognize eco-minded designs
By Mary Umberger, Tuesday, September 20, 2011.
Inman News™

The gulf between "green" and "gorgeous" seems to be narrowing.

EcoHome magazine's second annual design awards singled out an array of houses that are not only environmentally exceptional, but look good at the same time.

It hasn't always been so.

"I don't want to say that good design and green haven't met in the past, but I think that they haven't been considered together as much as they are now," said Rick Schwolsky, editor in chief of the magazine, which recently bestowed its Grand Award designation on five homes from around the country.

Award winners included:
•a subdivision of affordable homes in Hawaii;
•a passive-solar home in Carmel, Calif., that's so energy efficient that it has no air conditioning; and
•a major remodel of a 260-year-old home on Nantucket Island in Massachusetts that also had to meet architectural-preservation standards.

more at link:
http://www.inman.com/news/2011/09/20/5-green-homes-won-gold

You don't really need air conditioning in Carmel, particularly on a bluff top.

A warm summer day in Carmel, very much like a winter day:



Don't forget to wear a sweater, it'll warm up to 66 F if you are lucky. Not a lot of people in the water. It's cold.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carmel-by-the-Sea,_California

On "hot" sunny days up on the bluffs the air will be dry, breezy, and pleasant. At night it will be cool.

Personally I think the most "eco-friendly" house is something old in a city, or something that increases the population density of suburbs, such as apartments and condos on the sites of abandoned big-box stores or factories.