Make practical green fixes before going solar

For San Francisco architect Mark English, though, comparing driving a Prius to expensive "green" home improvements like solar panels is apt — especially if your 10-year-old Corolla still runs.

"If you sell a car that's working well and is 10 years old and is not too polluting to buy a brand-new Prius, to me that's conspicuous non-consumption. This is a person with a green Prius saying, 'Look at me. I am green. I am not consuming. But hey, I just sold a car that actually ran and maybe went to the junkyard,' " English says.

"That model applies to houses, too. Knocking down a house that's still got some life in it and putting up a LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design — a rating system for energy-efficient and environmentally-friendly buildings) platinum house that is 5,000 square feet doesn't make sense to me," says the self-described grinch of the green-housing movement.

While English does his fair share of "dreamy" architecture — his firm just won a Grand Watermark Award for an over-the-top master bath done up with gold glass tile — he says the greatest impact homeowners could have on the environment is not through producing their own energy but through using less.

The other side of the English empire is Green Compliance Plus, a department he operates to assist other architects in meeting the energy-efficiency goals set forth by California's Title 24 — a 1978 law developed in response to the 1970s energy crisis that dictates the energy-efficiency standards new and remodeled homes must meet to be permitted.

"Most of the energy in a home goes into constructing it, heating it or powering it. Everyone loves to talk about solar. But it's really a matter of energy conservation versus energy production. Why be producing energy above and beyond what you need when you haven't even done the real work of fixing what's not working right?" English says.

"Solar panels, living roofs, all of that stuff's very sexy ... but things like green finish materials (like bamboo floors) have very little effect on the energy use of the building — either the construction energy use or the overall carbon footprint," English says.

English practices what he preaches. When he moved into a house built in 1955 in the Upper Market Street area in San Francisco, his PG&E bills were about $200 a month. The home had its original furnace and no insulation, and the windows were single pane. He made practical changes (see "Energy-smart improvements") that he recommends all homeowners look into first before shopping for a set of $15,000 photovoltaic solar panels.

Energy-smart improvements