Would you like to generate your own power, make your own water, dispose of your own garbage, sewage and enjoy all the conveniences of modern life? It has been done.

Back in my Navy days I paid a port call to Sydney, Australia. There I visited the "Chippendale House" a sustainable terrace Home (that's what they call a town house in Oz) in the Chippendale district of Sydney. Even though the owners were no longer giving tours that year, they took pity on a visiting Yank and the owner. Michael Mobb. and his wife gave me the nickle tour.

The house looks like a normal townhouse from the outside. No different from the "neighbours." Michael showed me a small box, the DC power converter and the electric meter. They are connected to the grid, but most days when the family of four are out of the house the meter runs backwards. PV panels on the roof. OK no big deal.

They have a solar water heater, also on the roof, with a small propane backup. Clever, but nothing I've never heard of before.

They harvest rainwater. This is where it gets clever. The seamed metal roof, leads to crescent shaped gutters along the front and back of the house. These gutters are designed so the wind will blow the leaves out. Next, engineers at the local university calculated how much rain would be needed to give the roof a good rinse before harvesting the rain water. So once "x" number of liters have run over the roof and diverted away from the cistern a simple float valve rises and sends the clean water to the cistern under the deck. When you need a drink, an electric pump moves the water and it is flash sterilzed using ultra-violet light on the way to the tap. I drank a glass of their water. Sweetest I've ever had.

The water that goes down the sink drains goes into a grey water system. That water is recycled to run dishwashers, showers, washing machines, toilets. According to the Missus, the clothes come out looking fine, the dishes are clean and the local Uni takes regular tests and say the water is almost drinkable. Almost. So don't shower with your mouth open and don't pee in the shower. Urine, like karma, goes around.

When you flush the dunny (Australian for toilet) that goes into it's own system, an anaerobic tank also under the deck. There it does its thing and the waste water eventually goes to a little artificial wetland in their backyard. There reeds, cattails and other water plants finish the clean up. It also provides a cool habitat with frogs, dragonflies and such for the kids.

There is also a trapdoor in the deck where they dispose of their organic waste into a special composting bin. He opened the door for me and I was surprised to find no odor.

OBTW, in case you are wondering how big this deck is, it don't recall it being much bigger than 8 ft x 12 ft and about 18 - 24 inches above grade.

Mobb told me that they had not given up anything. TVs, VCR, stereo, fridge, freezer, electric stove, dishwasher, washer and drier. It was all there, all ultra energy efficient of course. He believed that the reason a lot of sustainable house projects fail is because they required really radical changes in the modern lifestyle.

Now I know that without a battery bank, he would probably have to do some load shedding during a daytime blackout and would be really screwed at night.

When I asked them what made them do this, Michael admitted it was a kitchen remodel that got out of hand. They wanted sustainably harvested wood for their cabinets and one thing led to another. Here is the kicker, the whole retrofit only cost AUS $ 78,000.

Now before you think that is a huge chunk of change, consider this: It the 1990's that was about US$ 45,000. Now consider that they had to modify or build around existing systems in the house. Image the cost savings if all those features had been incorporated during the original construction? Combine it with metal framed straw-baled home like SunBale of Tuscon AZ used to build and you've got a very modern and reasonably priced home.

Mobb has since published a book about the house and does environmental consulting work. I've bought a copy of the book and you can learn more about the house at this website: http://www.sustainablehouse.com.au/

Last known contact info for SunBale at the bottom of this article: http://www.ibiblio.org/london/alternati ... /35p62.txt

While a great idea in a long term situation there is no way to grow enough food to keep going on or to save a lot of money by canning your garden each year. Also if you remove the modern systems in a city it will fall apart fast. Living DT is inviting problems with civil unrest every heard of a riot in the country. It's more a yuppie construct focused on lowering their impact on the enviroment wouln;t work in a really situation. Over teh long haul

Yes, I've heard of riots. Yes, they do occur in the country. There were numerous agrarian riots in the U.S. during the mid to late 1800's. Back then rich people lived in the cities and poor folks outside of the urban center. Just last year Argentine farmers rioted in the countryside in response to an oppressive tax proposed by President Kirschner.

While it is not without some weaknesses, any basic economics course shows that self sustaining family units are not economically vibrant either. Did you blow your own mason jars for canning? Did you forge your own stove or even the pots and pans that you cooked in? Probably not. My point is that you purchased them with money you probably earned from your non-canning day job.

If we do everything for ourselves we tend to live rather shabbily. How many of us planted, and picked the cotton for our jeans. Imagine the time you would spend spinning the cotton into thread, weaving the thread into cloth, cutting the pattern and sewing the jeans. Much easier to pedal down to the Gap and buy a pair made in Nepal for $35.

While you could view this urban living system as a yuppie construct to lower an environmental footprint, one could also see it as a way of relieving demand on an overburdened infrastructure and adding redundancy so that if the infrastructure stumbles or even fails it would delay or, if widely adopted, avoid the type of civil unrest that would come following a blackout. I don't know if you could follow the links but you will see in the gallery that the Mobb family has built a clever hydroponic system so growing food (he also has some interesting ideas for community gardens.