Although the Begleys are trading up, they will continue to set an example by building their new home to green building standards that few homeown- ers have achieved. They’re going for the platinum; that is, Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Plati- num standards, the highest rating pos- sible for buildings certified by the U.S. Green Building Council (usgbc.org). This premier LEED designation requires an incredible environmental commit- ment in every aspect of the building process, from responsible site develop- ment, reduced water use and renewable energy utilities to the use of recycled and local materials and indoor air qual- ity control. Of the more than 130 LEED Platinum building projects in Califor- nia—the state that boasts the most such projects—only about 30 are private homes. Despite his initial protestations, Ed admits that he’s excited 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 Whatever 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, authoring the how-to books, Living Like Ed and Ed Begley, Jr.’s Guide to Sustainable Living. Ed is often spotted around Hol- lywood riding his bike, his preferred 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 peel- ings 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 inside.


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 cameras are on, his family members put those doubts to rest. Rachelle describes 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 differ- ent 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 being 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 phantom 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 limi- tations—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 running low. He foresees that eventually that sys- tem will be automated, but for now, he’s happy to keep track. The solar power generated onsite is enough to operate the house and professional TV cameras; it also charges an electric car in the ga- rage—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 tubing be- hind a piece of glass. A pump activates when a sensor in the panel senses that it’s hotter than the temperature in the tank. Ed observes: “If you keep things simple, they work well.”


Simplicity also keeps maintenance issues at bay. The upkeep required for his solar electric system is minor; he’s committed only to adding water to the batteries every nine months and occa- sionally getting up to the roof to clean the panels with a brush and a little water.


Embracing the


Great Outdoors One of Ed’s first acts when he pur- chased his current house in 1988 was to rip up the existing lawn and replace it with native California plants and a fruit and vegetable garden. Unless rais- ing cows or running a golf course, he can’t imagine why anyone would need high-maintenance, water-wasting grass outside their home. But, as with many of Ed’s improvements, energy saving


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