I've had plumbers tell me that they will usually increase water consumption because multiple flushes are needed or they hold the lever to allow extra water to run during the flush.What's your thoughts?

Esentially it boils down to evalutating what is truely important to you, then being open to alternatives to the "traditional american consumption based lifestyle".

Two plusses are lower energy consumption and less frequent replacement of bulbs due to longer life; the minus is the higher cost of these bulbs.

@Kevin Page  is absolutely right.Story for your consumption: Local cafe owner that I know personally had an Iraq vet come in with his 'service dog' (I'm also a vet so I have absolutely no resentment toward him for this...generally I would be bias toward his point of view).

If you are considering real estate investment, then you may want to consider looking at other parts of the country as well.I view 'where you live' as a consumption activity.

Once we hit our target cashflow we will likely increase our donations and consumption to around 25% each.

So, that money is going to come out of the investment markets of all kinds, and go into day-to-day consumption.

We migrated to a more efficient HVAC system as part of the retrofit, but actually ran of the older system during the course of the retrofit.Other similar houses in the neighbourhood have average annual energy consumption 80 - 120% greater than this house.We just acquired another near identical house one block away and I am presently modelling a retrofit plan that, once finished, should see the average annual energy consumption be in the range of 30 - 50kW/m^2.  

It’s zero consumption.

You really have to have a handle on your seasonal average kwh consumption to get the best deal.