SANDEE Award for ENERGY EXCELLENCE
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To Ingrid Coffin, living green means embracing products and lifestyles that do not deplete natural resources. At her home, the aptly named Blue Sky Ranch,” she practices sustainable behaviors that make living green a high priority. Among her efforts are the installation of five photovoltaic systems totaling 26 kW, organic gardening, composting and recycling. In rebuilding after the Cedar Fire, Ingrid literally recycled an entire house.
After Blue Sky Ranch’s loss – a Sustainable Living community The Cedar Fire of October 2003 was the largest wildfire in California history, burning nearly 275,000 acres and taking 14 lives and nearly 2,300 residences. It is from the ashes of this tragedy that Blue Sky Ranch has emerged, promoting the practice of Regenerative Design not only to allow the surrounding ecosystem to revitalize itself but for the community to assist as a participant in its development. It is our intention that the solutions for healing incorporated here at benefit the inhabitants of both the natural and built environments.
Regenerative Design functions like a living organism, specifically adapted to a place and able to draw requirements for energy and water from the surrounding sun, wind and rain. Its inspiration is from nature; the beautiful terrain, landscape and flowers that surround the architecture.
Sustainability as currently practiced is primarily an exercise in efficiency. With Regenerative Design we do better. By using the health of the surrounding ecological system as the basis for design, we move beyond sustaining the environment to regenerating its health as well as our own. |
In October 2003, the Cedar Fire destroyed more than 2500 structures in East County San Diego, including three of four houses where Ingrid Coffin and her extended family live, three of her well pumps and almost half of the vegetable and fruit trees on her property at Blue Sky Ranch in Lakeside. Following the wildfires, Ingrid Coffin was not sure if she had the will to rebuild for many reasons.
Ingrid decided to go ahead and give it another try, and was, in fact, encouraged when she heard about the programs to rebuild utilizing energy efficient measures and photovoltaics. So, with the help of the energy efficiency portion of the Rebuild a Greener San Diego program, and special pricing offered by Kyocera Solar, Inc. her rebuilding is well under way and is 20 percent more energy efficient than Title 24 Standards.
At the same time, by incorporating five 5kW Kyocera Solar MyGen Photovoltaic Systems, Ingrid has been able to offset nearly 95 percent of the property’s load, which includes the irrigation of hundreds of trees and several gardens as well as the domestic water for the structures.
