by the U.S. Green Building Council (
usgbc.org). This premier LEED desig- nation requires an incredible environ- mental commitment in every aspect of the building process, from responsible site development, reduced water use and renewable energy utilities to the use of recycled and local materials and indoor air quality control. Of the more than 130 LEED Platinum building proj- ects in California—the state that boasts the most such projects—only about 30 are private homes. Despite his initial protestations, Ed admits that he’s ex- cited about the prospect. If there’s one thing he relishes, it’s a green challenge.
Life with Ed It’s not easy to live up to Ed’s 30-year- strong waste-nothing ethos. Although he first made a name for himself as an actor, initially as Dr. Victor Ehrlich on the 1980s TV show St. Elsewhere, fol- lowed by his recurring roles in the hit TV series Six Feet Under and Arrested Development, as well as a co-starring role in Woody Allen’s 2009 film What- ever Works, lately he’s become best known as Hollywood’s green guru. He’s the people’s go-to expert on green building and saving energy, author- ing the how-to books, Living Like Ed and Ed Begley, Jr.’s Guide to Sustain- able Living. Ed is often spotted around Hollywood riding his bike, his pre- ferred mode of travel; on weekdays, he and his daughter ride together to her school, pedaling two miles each way. This down-to-earth, affable man is
perhaps eco-conscious to a fault. The success of the show Living with Ed relied in great part on the watchdog antics of Ed catching his wife stuffing vegetable peelings down the garbage disposal, instead of in the compost bin, timing her long showers or opening a running dryer to discover Rachelle’s lone tank top in- side. In each case, the chastised Rachelle vowed to be more eco-conscious, with a raised eyebrow aimed at the camera. “I felt vindicated,” Rachelle says of
her reality show adventures. “They [the viewers] were going to side with me.” If there’s any question that Ed’s needling occurs only when the cam- eras are on, his family members put those doubts to rest. Rachelle describes
April 2011 17
how her husband insists on keeping the temperature uncomfortably low on cold nights for the sake of saving energy; of turning off her curling iron while it’s warming up if she leaves the room; or switching off the TV if she’s listening to it while getting dressed down the hall. Daughter Hayden’s biggest gripe
has to do with TV time. “I love to watch TV for hours on end,” she says. “My dad is very cautious about using power and we have to turn off several different things when we use the TV, like the DVR and its power switch.” But Ed insists that all these little
energy-saving strategies add up. While he was willing to recently trade his obsolete 1992 TV set for an HDTV, he knows it’s a major energy hog—and not only when someone’s watching it. “The phantom power can be as high as 100 watts per hour,” he says—that’s the
power the TV consumes simply by be- ing plugged in. “But,” he notes, “ if you have put power strips everywhere in the house and you just walk around and click off a few of them, all of that phan- tom power is turned off. Then, you can enjoy an appliance like that without using a tremendous amount of energy.” The sun may be an unlimited source of energy, but the solar power stored in their home’s batteries has limitations— and Ed is a vigilant watchdog. With rooftop solar panels provid- ing most of the home’s power, the Begleys remain blissfully unaware when there’s a power outage in the neighborhood. “I only find out about it when I walk to the post office and see the signal flashing to show that power has been restored,” Ed comments. Ed manually switches over to the
municipal power grid only when he senses that the stored power capacity in the home’s solar batteries is run- ning low. He foresees that eventually that system will be automated, but for now, he’s happy to keep track. The solar power generated onsite is enough to operate the house and pro- fessional TV cameras; it also charges an electric car in the garage—an all-electric 2002 Toyota RAV4 that’s clocked 85,000 miles. For hot water, the family comfort- ably relies mostly on a simple solar thermal setup—a 4-by-10-foot panel on the roof of black anodized tub-
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