Welcome to Texas Solar Energy Society

Dear Cool House Tour Goers,

If you are anything like me, you bought your Cool House Tour guidebook early, studied it
cover to cover and circled and highlighted your favorites in a myriad of colors to rank them.
You’ve planned the most efficient travel route and know exactly how many homes you want to visit to optimize your sixhour Cool House Tour day. There are, after all, eighteen (18) homes on the tour and so you’ll need to decide which ones exhibit the energy-efficiency features that interest you most. That’s one of the things I find fun and wonderful about this self-guided tour: you get to decide exactly how you want it to look or you.

There’s no right or wrong way to “take” it, but we do have one suggestion:
think about reducing your carbon footprint. Carpool with friends and save fossil fuels. Reduce the strain of each of you driving, navigating and parking. It’s always more fun to do things with friends, and this is no exception. And if you find yourself in a part of town conducive to catching the bus, do it! Jump on the Dillo or call ahead to see if Capital Metro has rides to the central locations.

You can always park and ride for a part of the day, pick up your car and drive again to further adventures. What we’re suggesting is a higher level of thoughtfulness. After all, you already have an expressed interest in environmental sustainability and efficiency. On June 22 we want to add transportation to that value system.

As a final note, please bring your own refillable water bottle. We sold bottled water last year but have since learned that 150,000 barrels of oil a year are used to make over 189 million bottles in the U.S. alone, only 23 percent of which make it to the recycler. Good conscience prevents us from continuing to support this cavalier use of bottled water. Instead we will happily give away water! There will be 5-gallon jugs available at each home, and you may fill up or free. Now where else are you going to see that line? So come along and see for yourself what one house can do to change the world and make it work again. Find out more Here!

Cheers,
Natalie Marquis
Executive Director
Texas Solar Energy Society