Increasing Market Penetration? Realtors cast around for inspector referrals all the time. (Much) less common: a Buyer’s agent trying to turn up an inspector qualified to inspect a geothermal heating/cooling system (I received the first such email this am via Edina Realty’s “broadcast” feature). Good! First, homeowners have to install such systems, either as retrofits or...Read More
Hedging One’s Home Energy Bets Will the concept of hybrid cars, powered by dual energy sources, give rise to “hybrid homes?” In a sense, modern homes already are hybrids — at least by one definition. So, at least in the Twin Cities, it’s typical for the appliances and central air to be powered by electricity, while...Read More
Skip Oil, Tap Geothermal Here’s a heretical thought in the wake of the (ongoing?) BP Deepwater Horizon mega-spill in the Gulf of Mexico: Maybe the takeaway lesson isn’t that new drilling be limited to shallower, closer-to-land oil wells. Rather, maybe the lesson is that society should be more ambitious, and instead aspire (if that’s the...Read More
