A tour of how we live & work off grid in our straw bale home – Riverstone Studios showing the interior of our home/studio, wind turbine, solar panels, and the finishing work in our home. This is our version of Green Living. What’s yours?

A lot of comments are asking about building codes. We live in Rural Saskatchewan Canada. Our particular Municipal Government required building plans and a business plan for sustaining our livelihood on a section of land they deemed as the “Eco-village” which allowed us to be pretty flexible with our building style…the catch – In order to build a building not recognized by building code means: no banks & no insurance! Lending institutions want proof of insurability so they rely on insurance companies…Insurance companies want low risk so they rely on building codes and passed inspections. Permits were taken on our gas connection but the rest of the build we did ourselves. Because it is non commercial and rural, we are allowed to wire and plumb ourselves. We are not connected to municipal water or to provincial electricity, so again, there are no governing bodies with direct interests in our build.

If you are interested in seeing the Before and After of our house go here: http://riverstonestudios.blogspot.ca/2010/08/two-steps-forwardno-looking-back.html
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Plotting a Path to Sustainability with The Green Grid’s Data Center Maturity Model and Assessment Tool

This session presented the future of the Data Center Maturity Model (DCMM) and the newly created assessment tool. The tool allows you to assess your data center and IT portfolio against the DCMM, access your personal DCMM equalizer, and obtain benchmarking results — see how you are doing against the industry and similar types of data centers. The DCMM outlines capability descriptors by area such that users can understand their current performance, determine their levels of maturity, and identify the ongoing steps and innovations necessary to achieve greater energy efficiency and sustainability, both today and into the future. The maturity model touches upon every aspect of the data center including power, cooling, compute, storage, and network.

Green Homes: A tour of how we live & work off grid in our straw bale home – Riverstone Studios

| Green Roofs | 19 Comments
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19 Comments

  • Bless K

    Quite magnificent ingenuity, beauty and simplicity. I am looking forward to purchasing land in ON, NB, SK or BC for an eco building homestead project. I am planning on utilizing the post and beam timber framing method for load bearing with straw bale as a wall infill. Any suggestion on how to properly insulate with the straw bale for our long inclement weather season here in Canada. Thank you

  • mainHERO88

    This is very motivational! Great work! I am wondering tho, how did you learn how to do all of the power work in the house? Every time I see these videos, I see the houses and walls and sun lights and think "cool!" But then I see the power work and all the verbage that you guys use that I don't understand and I think "damn!" hahaha so do you have a background in that stuff? Is there one resource in particular that you used that helped you? Was there a LOT of trial and error like I would imagine there would be?

  • Kyle Lindgren

    I live in MN and am thinking of building with cob.  Would you happen to have any references to look into for researching for building with cob in cold weather.  I was also wonder how well your walls inside your house and outside your house hold up. Love your home.  Ty for making this video.

  • urgentcareguy3

    Going off-grid and self-sustaining is a tremendous journey. Particularly if you work in a world with the typical corporate business job expectations. Even if you don't work in a towering skyscraper, the corporate impersonal ideology is nearly everywhere. "Get it  to me faster and cheaper, didn't I say yesterday??!!" One feels more like a cog in a machine than a human. A pawn in someone else's profit game.

    The journey to self-sustaining will help you see how the industrial age of the 1920's brought us from the farm fields to the city. We were told it would be an exciting new life, full of vibrant colors. Production mentality. Synthesized happiness. The media projects what our wants and needs should be. In case no one noticed, Rome is burning. 

    I heard it said recently that the capitalism of today is not the capitalism that originated in North America. In the past there was some degree of balance between profits and people. This is now all but gone. Corporate profits rule. In the US, corporations have more legal rights the human beings. This is no accident. 

    In my opinion, those with the information will rule the future. The common man doesn't stand a chance unless they retake the basic necessities of life. Take the brave step to the self-sustaining. Take back the Land. Once you get that "self-sustaining bug", you will change the landscape, and you will change as a person. A worthy journey indeed~!

    As of this writing there are 473 thumbs up on this video, 22 thumbs down. May I suggest that we relabel the thumbs down to "I'm jealous" ? : )

  • urgentcareguy3

    I am in the process of going off-grid. For most people it is just that, a process. I'm not sure what the proper term for going-off-grid is, but it does not matter.

    This video speaks volumes to anyone who is attempting to be self-sustaining. At times, going against the current is very challenging. 

    These guys have simple elegance and function in their design. A+  Nice job guys! 

  • SickKnowledge82

    VENTILATION "MAY NOT BE REQUIRED FOR THOSE BATTERIES" BUT I GUARANTEE YOU SHOULD BE VENTING THEM OUTSIDE OF YOUR LIVING AREA. EVEN IF ITS A PC FAN. ENCLOSED WITH A PC FAN. ENCLOSED WITH A SMALL 50 WATT FAN.. ALL ELECTRONICS IDEALLY SHOULD HAVE VENTING TO THE OUTSIDE WORLD WHILE YOU ARE ENCAPSULATED IN YOUR LIVING ENVIRONMENT.

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