I had the opportunity to attend the launch of the Better Building Company and the raising of a new Mariah Power Windspire at the Altmann residence here in Reno. The Altmann Residence is an innovative, exceptionally contemporary and sustainable green home of the highest quality with the goal to use 100% green building materials for major components of the house. This is where the Mariah Power Windspire comes in. This wind turbine gives you the power to create clean energy from the natural wind just outside your door. To find out more about the Windspire go to www.mariahpower.com.
Fred Altman’s 20+year tenure in Northern Nevada began when he built the first home in Caughlin Ranch then on to Montreux, ArrowCreek and Lahontan. Being the great innovator that he is and a believer in sustainable solutions before it became a common household word, the Better Building Company, a one-stop solution center for energy efficiency and sustainable construction was born. Better Building Company performs energy audits, retrofit work, and green building in addition to installing renewable energy solutions including the Mariah Power Windspire. If you are interested in energy efficiency for your home, reducing monthly utility bills, improving your home’s livability, installing renewable energy solutions, remodeling or building a new energy efficient home check out www.betterbuildingcompany.com.
7 comments
how exactly is this guy an innovator. most of this stuff has been around for years.
Not really impressed with him. If he was building LEED Platinum buildings or even LEED certified buildings I would be a lot more impressed. Some people may claim that LEED certification is “just a name” but it’s a huge incentive to work with somebody who is LEED certified over one who is certified with another organization.
This guy Altmann has built some nice homes, but I’d hardly call a lot of them “green”. Monstrous, ostentatious, and a waste of natural resources is how I’d describe them.
Maybe that’s why he’s not LEED certified?
We should all be in favor of energy conservation. As Steven Chu, the Secretary of the DOE (and a Nobel Prize Winner) says, conservation savings are not the low hanging fruit because the fruit is already on the ground. A energy audit is probably a great thing. Let’s hope BetterBuildingCo does well by doing good.
On the production side the wind turbine is interesting but not impressive, especially for a location like Reno. The vertical design is slick but it doesn’t operate when the wind is under 8 mph, and even with an average wind speed to 12 mph it only generates 2000 kWh per year. Reno has an average wind speed of 6.6 mph so you’d need a special location for this to be remotely cost effective. Solar is probably a better bet.
To DonC,
I agree with you about the wind component. Add to that windmills shut down at 50 mph windspeed to prevent damage to the mechanisms, and you lose the ability to take advantage of the windier conditions that abound here, particularly in the winter.
Perhaps a battery backup system for solar would be the best compromise, with solar recharging the batteries after they have been discharged.
I think he had to start a new company cause Altmann Ott homes went into bankruptcy. They built garbage and charged too much for them. Good riddance to Altmann Ott