Interview with Chris Prelitz - Coast Magazine - August 2008 (original) (raw)

This Laguna Beach sustainability expert talks about why – whether it’s your business, home or health – everything is better when it’s a nice shade of green.

By Terence Loose

Photo by Ralph PalumboChris and Becky Prelitz in their electric-powered GEM car

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ost months, sustainability expert Chris Prelitz is on Southern California Edison’s payroll. He doesn’t work for the company, but thanks to the innovations that Prelitz built into the Laguna Beach home he shares with his wife, Becky, he rarely receives a bill from Edison. Instead, he receives a credit, which not only boosts his bottom line, but also has other, more subtle benefits as well. “I’ll get a bill that says Edison owes me a 1.50,anditgivesmeasmile.That’shealthy,”hesays.He’salsosmilingbecausehebelievesgrowingnumbersofpeopleare“wakingup”totheneedformoresustainablelivinghabits,andnotjustinaradicalchickindofway,butoutofagrowingconsciousnessaboutthefutureofmankindandgoodold−fashionedpracticality.“MostbuildingsinSouthernCaliforniaareonlifesupport,”hesays.“Ifyoucuttheelectricity,itwouldbeverychallengingtokeepthemwarminwinter,coolinsummerorevenlitproperly.”This,hesays,isbecausetheywerepoorlydesigned,witharelianceoninefficientappliancesandanoilsupplywethoughtofasendless.Now,theneedleisonhalfemptyandreality–intheformof1.50, and it gives me a smile. That’s healthy,” he says. He’s also smiling because he believes growing numbers of people are “waking up” to the need for more sustainable living habits, and not just in a radical chic kind of way, but out of a growing consciousness about the future of mankind and good old-fashioned practicality. “Most buildings in Southern California are on life support,” he says. “If you cut the electricity, it would be very challenging to keep them warm in winter, cool in summer or even lit properly.” This, he says, is because they were poorly designed, with a reliance on inefficient appliances and an oil supply we thought of as endless. Now, the needle is on half empty and reality – in the form of 1.50,anditgivesmeasmile.That’shealthy,”hesays.He’salsosmilingbecausehebelievesgrowingnumbersofpeopleare“wakingup”totheneedformoresustainablelivinghabits,andnotjustinaradicalchickindofway,butoutofagrowingconsciousnessaboutthefutureofmankindandgoodold−fashionedpracticality.“MostbuildingsinSouthernCaliforniaareonlifesupport,”hesays.“Ifyoucuttheelectricity,itwouldbeverychallengingtokeepthemwarminwinter,coolinsummerorevenlitproperly.”This,hesays,isbecausetheywerepoorlydesigned,witharelianceoninefficientappliancesandanoilsupplywethoughtofasendless.Now,theneedleisonhalfemptyandreality–intheformof4.50/gallon gasoline – is hitting home. “The irony is that it’s so much easier to work with nature than fight her,” he says. It’s all resulted in what Prelitz sees as a renaissance. A renaissance for which Prelitz has been waiting decades and is fully prepared to help with his upcoming book, Green Made Easy, and his respected consulting business Prelitz + Partners – as opposed to decades past when he was considered merely a green nut. Now, Prelitz is trying to spread his energetic smile to as many others as possible.

When did you first get interested in sustainability issues?
As a child. My grandfather built one of the early straw bale and solar homes back in Illinois. It was during one of the big solar movements. My grandfather bought a book on solar and built the first passive solar home in Illinois. We’d visit summers and they were pretty hot, but we’d go down to the basement it was always in the 60s and cool. So experiencing that, I think I was always enamored with harnessing the natural energy on the planet. I don’t see a lot of coastal Orange Countians wanting to live underground. Luckily, each region has different attributes. In Southern California, we have sun for light, heat, electricity, and hot water. And the big one that we have is we cool off at night. We can use that nighttime flushing to bring that cool air in at night so it can keep us cool during the day.

And you incorporate that into the building’s design?
Yes. We think about how the planet spins in front of the sun. It turns toward the sun, is warmed, then turns away and cools. But before we freeze to death, it comes back around. That simple concept is known as the “thermal flywheel.” So understanding the region and using that twelve-hour swing, we can keep a real stable temperature naturally. And this isn’t new; it’s been around for thousands of years.

Are there surviving examples?
Yes – Taos Pueblo, multi-storied adobe buildings in New Mexico that are 1,000 years old and the oldest continually inhabited structures in North America. No electricity, no gas, no anything, and made from what occurs on-site: natural adobe, straw and natural logs. But they learned how to tap into the connection of the earth and survive extreme conditions for 50 generations.

So what changed for the rest of us?
Before the 1800s, people lived on this planet on available daily sunshine, wind – whatever occurred naturally. Then we discovered that there was ancient buried sunshine in the ground in the form of oil, coal and gas. When we tapped into that, we released this huge storehouse of energy that is much more powerful than [the ways in which] we harness the sun.

If you could get one point across, what would it be?
People are so focused on clean cars, which is great, but the fact is that buildings in the U.S. contribute more carbon dioxide and greenhouse gas emissions than all of our cars and trucks combined. Electricity for our homes and buildings is made mostly from coal- and gas-burning power plants. And even nuclear power plants aren’t clean because you use a lot of fossil fuels to mine the uranium, transport it and refine it. Then you have to deal with the nuclear waste. We can easily visually see the difference between a large polluting SUV and a small efficient hybrid car. But we don’t see the hidden impacts of an expensive electric pump, or the impacts of a coal-burning power plant that spews out tons of toxins. That’s the challenge; so many things are hidden. But we’re starting to wake up to that.

What is the difference between a “passive” solar home and an “active” solar home?
Active ones are what we usually think of, like solar panels on your roof for energy or solar water heating. Passive ones are designed to avoid any mechanical systems by designing the building to work with nature.

What are some simple passive and active solar home features?
Facing the building the right way, having the right overhangs so in winter when the sun appears lower, its heat warms your buildings, but in the summer, when the sun is higher, the overhangs shade the building. Again, these are methods that are thousands of years old, which we always used until the use of fossil fuels. It’s also part of natural lighting. In our climate, we should never have to turn on a light bulb in the day; we have a huge natural light bulb hanging in the sky right above us.

You live in a solar home you built in 2000. Describe some of its features.
We have a lot of what’s called thermal mass in our home, like stained concrete floors. And in them we have radiant heating where hot water runs through them for heat. Upstairs, we have opening skylights in every room so we can naturally vent the home. It’s also oriented so most of the glass is on the south side. I also did all the things that clients were afraid to do.

Like what?
Like corrugated metal roofing. It reflects the sun and studies show that cities that have a lot of heavy tile and/or asphalt roofs are up to four or five degrees hotter than their neighboring urban areas. Those materials are sucking up the heat all day long. But the corrugated metal keeps your building cooler and is recyclable. It’s also very light, so in an earthquake it’s safer.

So you think our fascination with tile roofs will fade?
I equate it to the Prius. When it came out, everyone thought it was ugly. Now, with gas prices at $4.50, people are waiting in line to buy one. So in just three or four years our aesthetics can change when we realize something makes so much more sense. I think the same thing will happen with buildings.

But yours is an active solar home, right?
Yes, but it’s very efficient with the lighting and appliances. We have 12 solar panels and we usually get a credit instead of a bill from [Southern California] Edison.

How long does it take for solar panels to pay for themselves?
It takes seven to 10 years, but that may lessen as electric bills rise. But I also tell people that solar electric panels are the last step in going green. Our homes are like big power boats that we want to turn into sailboats. But you can’t just put a sail up. First you have to get your ship streamlined. The idea is to work with nature, not fight against it.

What are some easy modifications people can do?
Upgrading your appliances, shading some of the windows so you don’t need air conditioning and lighting. Incandescent light bulbs have been banned in many countries and they’ll be banned in California by 2012 because of their inefficiency. They’re basically little heaters that give light off as a small by-product. So when you walk into a house that has 20 ceiling lights, you’ve got a 3,000 watt heater. In the summer you’ve got to fight that with air conditioning. If you replace them with LED [Light Emitting Diode] or compact fluorescent lighting it gives off hardly any heat, so your environment totally changes.

What’s your advice to people about how to build a home?
First, get really clear on what you want. You can go for green building certifications that will give you a nice plaque. Or, you can design a high-performance green home that will have very low operating costs for the life of the building and will have healthy indoor air quality, because you’ve chosen the right paint and materials that have very low toxin off-gassing. Or, you could try for both. But be clear.

Did people think you were a nut when you built your first green homes?
A little. But no one does anymore. And I have proof of that. Six months ago, in Laguna Woods Village, we did a complete remodel of a 1960s home and made it all green, so the owners could have no utility bills to speak of. People thought we were nuts then, too, but at our open house we had 500 people. That model only sold for 650,000atitshighestpoint.Weputitonthemarketfor650,000 at its highest point. We put it on the market for 650,000atitshighestpoint.Weputitonthemarketfor798,000 and sold it for $785,000 within 13 days. In this market! That tells me there’s a huge demand for green buildings.

How about businesses? Can they benefit from going green?
They already are. Adobe Systems spent 1.4millionretrofittingtheirbuildingsandinthefirstyeartheysavedover1.4 million retrofitting their buildings and in the first year they saved over 1.4millionretrofittingtheirbuildingsandinthefirstyeartheysavedover1 million in energy and water and got 350,000inrebates.Plus,thevalueofthebuildingwentup350,000 in rebates. Plus, the value of the building went up 350,000inrebates.Plus,thevalueofthebuildingwentup10 million.

How about other areas?
Many studies have shown that retail businesses get up to a 16% increase in retail sales when they use natural sunlight to light a space. Student test scores also go up. Worker productivity also goes up. Verizon re-daylit their entire building thinking they’d make their money back in five or six years, but it only took them a couple years because their worker productivity went up so much. And their employee sick days dropped to almost nothing. People weren’t looking for an excuse to not be there.

You mentioned health benefits. Any evidence for that?
Yes. In hospitals, we’re finding symptoms of many diseases declining dramatically with those same modifications. We’re meant to live in nature because we’re part of nature. We forget that so much of life has been turned synthetic. Petroleum jelly, for instance, was just the stuff that formed on oil rigs. Now we put it on our skin. And we wonder why our cancer rates skyrocket. Then there are the toxins that go into the atmosphere and come down in our water supplies. We’re also eating oil in most of our pharmaceuticals. Aspirin, for example, used to come from the bark of a willow tree. Now it’s synthesized from benzene, a petroleum product.

What will our biggest challenges be?
Globally, one of the biggest challenges in the future will be food because food is intrinsically tied to fuel. Transportation of course, but also because 90% of our fertilizer is made from natural gas. A year ago wheat was 5abushel;todayit’sover5 a bushel; today it’s over 5abushel;todayit’sover25 a bushel because it’s tied to fuel. Our founding fathers would never consider spending money on a vegetable or fruit. They knew that basic skills and the earth would provide that. But here, today, we have lawns instead of gardens. Grass is the number one crop as far as money spent in fertilizer and water, with no food to show for it. Consider that in California, 19% of our electricity use is to move water and store it.

Still, many believe the current green movement is just the latest trend in a cycle because of high gas prices.
I don’t think so. If you look globally, we’re the last ones to come on board, and I don’t think it’s a trend because we’ve reached a tipping point. People are waking up to the fact that the fossil fuel age is a limited age. It’s a small blip in the history of mankind. Every dark age is followed by a renaissance, and I think now is a time of a great renaissance in terms of common sense and sanity.

So you’re optimistic.
I’m very optimistic. If we can commit as a nation to put a man on the moon and do it, there’s every chance that we can also take that same creativity on the second half of the oil age and create a life that’s more abundant, more connected and with a better sense of community than it has now.

For more information, visit prelitz.com

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