Feng Shui and Eco-Projects

Are Eco-Projects Good Feng Shui?

What inspired this article about eco-projects was a client calling to ask if putting solar panels on her roof top would have any Feng Shui implications. One of the reasons she asked is because my clients know that when any kind of remodeling is done, the location and the timing of it could influence the occupants who live or work inside. Another reason someone might ask is because the roof is a critical feature to a house and in fact, the primary enclosure of a roof on a new building will establish what we call the “flying star chart” for space, having semi-permanent influences on the health and well-being of the occupants.

In the case of solar panels, it would hardly be considered a construction project since the application of the panels is fairly easy to do and it does not disturb the roof in any significant way. I happen to have solar panels and know that they were installed in a day with little disturbance. Re-roofing and tearing away the old roof might be considered more imposing than the installation of solar panels.

Another eco-project is roof top gardening, where again, there really should be no negative consequences to using your roof top space for gardening. There would be no remedies needed in any conventional way, compared to what classical Xuan Kong Fei Xing has to say about interior spaces. One would only hope that coming and going from the roof top would be made safe and stable. Some people have wondered however because we normally don’t want to see any thick hedges or vines completely covering the exterior walls of a building. That has a potential actually to create mold on the walls underneath the plants.

Composting is another question that comes up because in Feng Shui we speak about noxious odors or anything in a decaying state as being “sha qi,” or a potentially negative influence. Most people, out of common sense, place their compost pile in an area that is far enough away from a house, its windows or views. I know some people like to add worms to their compost, and it could all seem questionable, but really it is just part of nature and not even on par with living in view of a trash dumpster.