The Volokh Conspiracy - A Tale of Two Houses:

An e-mail is circulating (again) comparing two interesting homes.

House #1: A 20 room mansion ( not including 8 bathrooms ) heated by natural gas. Add on a pool ( and a pool house) and a separate guest house, all heated by gas. In one month this residence consumes more energy than the average American household does in a year. The average bill for electricity and natural gas runs over $2400. In natural gas alone, this property consumes more than 20 times the national average for an American home. This house is not situated in a Northern or Midwestern 'snow belt' area. It's in the South.

House #2: Designed by an architecture professor at a leading national university. This house incorporates every 'green' feature current home construction can provide. The house is 4,000 square feet ( 4 bedrooms ) and is nestled on a high prairie in the American southwest. A central closet in the house holds geothermal heat-pumps drawing ground water through pipes sunk 300 feet into the ground. The water (usually 67 degrees F.) heats the house in the winter and cools it in the summer. The system uses no fossil fuels such as oil or natural gas and it consumes one-quarter electricity required for a conventional heating/cooling system. Rainwater from the roof is collected and funneled into a 25,000 gallon underground cistern. Wastewater from showers, sinks and toilets goes into underground purifying tanks and then into the cistern. The collected water then irrigates the land surrounding the house. Surrounding flowers and shrubs native to the area enable the property to blend into the surrounding rural landscape.

The punchline of hte e-mail is that the first house belongs to Al Gore, and the second house is the Crawford ranch house of President George W. Bush.

Whenever I receive e-mails like this, I check Snopes to see if the story is true. In almost every case, the story is an urban legend -- and I promptly inform the sender (in the vain hope I'll get fewer of these messages in the future). In this case, however, it turns out the story is basically true. Go figure.

	[Jonathan Adler, May 21, 2008 at 7:50am] Trackbacks A Tale of Two Houses: An e-mail is circulating (again) comparing two interesting homes. House #1: A 20 room mansion ( not including 8 bathrooms ) heated by natural gas. Add on a pool ( and a pool house) and a separate guest house, all heated by gas. In one month this residence consumes more energy than the average American household does in a year. The average bill for electricity and natural gas runs over $2400. In natural gas alone, this property consumes more than 20 times the national average for an American home. This house is not situated in a Northern or Midwestern 'snow belt' area. It's in the South. House #2: Designed by an architecture professor at a leading national university. This house incorporates every 'green' feature current home construction can provide. The house is 4,000 square feet ( 4 bedrooms ) and is nestled on a high prairie in the American southwest. A central closet in the house holds geothermal heat-pumps drawing ground water through pipes sunk 300 feet into the ground. The water (usually 67 degrees F.) heats the house in the winter and cools it in the summer. The system uses no fossil fuels such as oil or natural gas and it consumes one-quarter electricity required for a conventional heating/cooling system. Rainwater from the roof is collected and funneled into a 25,000 gallon underground cistern. Wastewater from showers, sinks and toilets goes into underground purifying tanks and then into the cistern. The collected water then irrigates the land surrounding the house. Surrounding flowers and shrubs native to the area enable the property to blend into the surrounding rural landscape. The punchline of hte e-mail is that the first house belongs to Al Gore, and the second house is the Crawford ranch house of President George W. Bush. Whenever I receive e-mails like this, I check Snopes to see if the story is true. In almost every case, the story is an urban legend -- and I promptly inform the sender (in the vain hope I'll get fewer of these messages in the future). In this case, however, it turns out the story is basically true. Go figure.