Monthly Archives: July 2016

Sustainability

Benchmark for Future Generations – Heron Hall

Heron Hall - A Living Building HomeWe first announced RainBank’s involvement in Heron Hall almost two years ago. Project founder and homeowner Jason McLennan is considered one of the most influential individuals in the green building movement today.

Heron Hall is a Benchmark for Future Generations

Planning has come to fruition and the challenge of building Heron Hall, Jason McLennan’s leading edge green project and Living Building home on Bainbridge Island, WA is in full swing.

Read more about Jason and the project below:

RainBank Rainwater Collection Systems principal Ken Blair is pleased to be a member of the Engineering and Consultant Team for Jason McLennan’s Heron Hall, a living building home McLennan is the CEO of the International Living Future Institute, a non profit organization behind the world’s most progressive and stringent green building guidance system.  He is the creator of the Living Building Challenge and heads Cascadia Green Building Council, the Pacific Northwest chapter for the US Green Building Council and the Canada Green Building Council.

Jason speaks about the living building challenge:

McLennan states, “it’s not enough for architects, construction companies, and real estate management companies to focus on reducing their environmental impact.  The  time is right to be far more ambitious, think instead about recharging and replenishing our planet“, explains Jason.

Click here to read about Heron Hall.

As the world seeks workable answers to sustainable building practices, Heron Hall will be a benchmark for this and future generations to follow.

Rainwater Catchment, Sustainability

Heron Hall and Bullitt Center Take on Living Building Challenge

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Bullitt CenterChances are if you’re from Seattle you have heard of the Bullitt Center.  According to its website, “The Bullitt Center was designed to show what’s possible today, changing the way people think about high performance green building.”

One of the most ambitious aspects of the Bullitt Center was to achieve the goals of the Living Building Challenge,  created by CEO Jason McLennan in 2006 and encourages eco-centric design. The Living Building Challenge carries the strictest green building requirements in the industry. 

HeronHall bulidNow McLennan is building his own home, Heron Hall, incorporating the same design challenges as the Bullitt Center. Heron Hall’s whole house water system is sole source, meaning that rainwater is the only source of water. The water system was designed by 2020 Engineering with RainBank Rainwater Systems as a consultant to the design team. RainBank was contracted to construct the 15,000 Gallon Contain Water Systems tank cistern and now is looking forward to building the filtration and pumping system.

McLennan recently published a blog post about the cistern build, which was completed last week. RainBank’s Engineer, Chad Lindsly, along with president Ken Blair are working on the final details of the system’s components and will be installing that portion of the system soon.

Stay tuned for updates on this exciting project. 

Rainwater Catchment

New Seattle Homeowners Can Save Big Bucks

Galvanized Water TankDo you know that by installing a rainwater collection system for toilet flushing and laundry facility, Seattle homeowners can save big bucks on their water and sewer bill? Considering the expected price increases over the next 5 – 10 years on these utilities, a return on investment is a reasonable expectation.

A study by the American Water Works Association to determine end use of water in 100 single family homes was conducted back in 1999. Even though the study is dated, it is a good indicator of average single family usage with regard to rainwater collection.

The study found that 27.7 % total household use of water is used in toilet flushing and 20.9% total household water use is by laundry facility. These uses can be improved by low usage fixtures such as dual flush toilets and front load washers, however, they do indicate an average of 48.6 % water consumption by these two fixtures.

New home construction in the Seattle area is required to mitigate roof runoff on impervious surfaces on site. Costs of infiltration can be expensive.  A well-designed and installed rainwater catchment system uses this runoff water for domestic use rather than infiltration. By redirecting the costs of infiltration design and construction and considering the savings on water and sewer bills, the average Seattle home owner can see a significant cost savings as well as a return on investment.

With all of the news about aging water systems, poisoned and tainted public water, conservation and sustainability, isn’t it time to design and build your rainwater collection system?

This post was originally published under the title Can Average Seattle Homeowner Benefit From Rainwater Collection?