Both have doctoral degrees, and research is an ingrained lifelong process. They’ve already researched and implemented the easy green options. Now they are pushing the limits. They want to quantify their carbon footprint. Two months ago, they had the first solar unit in their Uplands neighborhood installed on their garage roof. They qualified for a state rebate for one-third of the $21,000 cost. About 25 percent of their home’s electric consumption will come from the panels. On summer days, their electricity meter will run backward, and they will sell energy to Ameren/CILCO. “Some of this is because philosophically it’s the right thing to do even if you don’t immediately make money back,” Marx said. “It’s about more than payback.” Arquette said many people don’t realize solar panels work even on overcast days and central Illinois is actually well suited for solar generation. Further, the impact of solar generation on carbon emissions in Illinois is magnified because so much of the state’s electric generation is from coal, the couple said. Their system includes a monitor in the basement that calculates the carbon emissions eliminated because of the solar units. Their green philosophies meshed when they first met as doctoral students at New Mexico State University, and both talked about one of their favorite books, “Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life,” by Barbara Kingsolver. “We try to consume locally, and we try to consume less,” Arquette said.
Cameroon RPCV Cecile Arquette and her husband Steven Marx are on a green trajectory
Homes: Making a difference
By CLARE HOWARD
of the Journal Star
Posted Mar 01, 2009 @ 01:00 AM
PEORIA —
Cecile Arquette and her husband Steven Marx are on a green trajectory.
Both have doctoral degrees, and research is an ingrained lifelong process. They’ve already researched and implemented the easy green options. Now they are pushing the limits.
They want to quantify their carbon footprint.
Two months ago, they had the first solar unit in their Uplands neighborhood installed on their garage roof. They qualified for a state rebate for one-third of the $21,000 cost.
About 25 percent of their home’s electric consumption will come from the panels. On summer days, their electricity meter will run backward, and they will sell energy to Ameren/CILCO.
“Some of this is because philosophically it’s the right thing to do even if you don’t immediately make money back,” Marx said. “It’s about more than payback.”
Arquette said many people don’t realize solar panels work even on overcast days and central Illinois is actually well suited for solar generation. Further, the impact of solar generation on carbon emissions in Illinois is magnified because so much of the state’s electric generation is from coal, the couple said.
Their system includes a monitor in the basement that calculates the carbon emissions eliminated because of the solar units.
Their green philosophies meshed when they first met as doctoral students at New Mexico State University, and both talked about one of their favorite books, “Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life,” by Barbara Kingsolver.
“We try to consume locally, and we try to consume less,” Arquette said.
In 2005, the couple bought their home on Parkside Drive in the Uplands neighborhood. One of their objectives was a home within walking distance of Bradley University where Arquette is an assistant professor of teacher education.
The family has one car which Marx drives to his teaching job at the Montessori School where the couple’s son Joel, 7, is enrolled.
“Our 9-year-old Acura is the last gas-powered car we will own,” Arquette said.
Their home was constructed in 1906. The first major green project they tackled was replacing 100-year-old casement windows that operated with ropes and counter-weights with thermal-paned windows.
They immediately took out a gas log from the fireplace and within one year invested in a high-efficiency fireplace insert that minimizes chimney emissions. They pay about $350 a year for wood.
“I’d rather pay locally for wood. We buy ‘standing cured’ wood . . . a dead tree left standing, the bark falls off and the wood seasons. It burns efficiently,” Marx said.
A bathroom off the kitchen was once a back porch. The room was frigid in winter. First, they had insulation added under the floor, but the improvement was minimal. Then they had cellulose insulation blown in over the ceiling, and the improvement was dramatic.
They completely redid an upstairs bathroom, expanding the size of the room by removing walls and incorporating space once part of a hall closet.
Some upstairs floors were badly splintered so they had the old floors repaired, sanded and stained.
Compact fluorescent lights — which last longer and are 75 percent more efficient than traditional incandescent light bulbs — are used throughout the home. A whole-house fan and room ceiling fans help avoid the need for air conditioning even in hot summer months.
The family gets a good portion of its produce from a raised-bed organic garden in the backyard. No commercial fertilizers or pesticides are used. All kitchen scraps are composted. There are two rain barrels attached to downspouts, and that reservoir is used to water the garden.
They also buy local produce at farmers’ markets and freeze it for winter consumption. When they shop in grocery stores, they take their own canvas bags.
The couple uses primarily natural cleansers like borax and Seventh Generation products. They avoid products with phosphate. They are transitioning to organic products even with their personal cleansers.
They use a push mower on their lawn, but even that turf grass will eventually be replaced with drought-tolerant perennials.
“We are anti- gas mowers. Do you know gas-powered mowers are one of the highest pollutants? Worse than cars,” Arquette said.
They buy only Energy Star appliances and have a front-load washing machine that uses less water.
They do not buy commercially raised grain-fed meat. They buy local free-range, grass-fed meat.
“It’s easy to get overwhelmed and think what can one person do, but when you combine a lot of small things it becomes significant,” said Arquette, who taught English in Ndikinemiki, Cameroon, with the Peace Corps from 1987 to 1989. There she learned an environmental ethic based on stewardship and sustainability.
“Some of this is an evolution that requires being in a home, in one place, for a number of years,” she said. “Some is simply an interest in trying to make this a better world.”
Clare Howard can be reached at 686-3250 or choward@pjstar.com.
