Stopping to Smell the Sustainable Roses
For me, this started about 15 years ago with a seemingly simple question: “How can a house be designed so that it doesn’t need fossil fuels?” I’ve been seeking to answer that question since. Having one’s head down, working hard, can make you completely focused on the next task or challenge and sometimes overlook the successes along the way. As I was preparing the slides for this presentation and analyzing the energy use data from the clients I realized something both obvious and profound - “This really works!”
The total utility bills for this remodeled high-performance house, INCLUDING charging two electric cars, were about $20/month for January, February and March, and April’s bill was -$67, meaning they’ve already paid off the first three months of the year. They should not see another positive energy bill until October, and surplus summer solar generation should easily zero this. The homeowners are using less than 1/3 of the energy that most Californians use, and their home is also amazingly comfortable and quiet, with outstanding indoor air quality. It’s a win, win, win that cost 10-15% more upfront than a typical low-performance remodel. It doesn’t involve a lot of exotic materials nor techniques, mainly careful and intentional design and construction.
To put this simply, this is THE SOLUTION to our climate change challenges, and a means for living well doing it. I believe we’re nearing a tipping point in architecture, as we are with electric vehicles, where the paradigm is shifting toward a bright, sustainable future. Please tune in for this introductory presentation (20 minutes, followed by Q&A) and share with anyone you think might find it of interest.
Down with the Dunkelflaute!
Dunkelflaute, aka 'dark doldrums' or 'dark wind lull.' German word for a condition where neither solar nor wind power is available. I LOVE that there's a word for this, and it is a big challenge. Challenge is MUCH easier to meet with efficiency (i.e. high-performance Passive House buildings) vs. just hoping we can replace our fossil fuels one-to-one with renewables. Tune in this Wednesday, May 17, @ 9 AM PST for a prime example.
Ski Superinsulated!
What does high-performance architecture have to do with alpine skiing? Quite a bit, it turns out!
Last week, I took the kids skiing at Heavenly in South Lake Tahoe, California. Part way through our trip, a freak weather event caused the temperatures to plummet to 12ºF at the base and 4ºF at the summit of the ski lift, much lower than typical for the area. Both of my sons and their friend are San Francisco Bay Area natives who’d never been exposed to temperatures that low. I was having grave doubts that they could tolerate it, and seriously questioning whether I wanted to! What to do?
Much like the high-performance homes I design for my Passive House (Passivhaus) clients, we assembled “superinsulated” shells. We were careful to make our insulation continuous and added layers to block wind and eliminate air leakage. Materials were carefully chosen that allow moisture (perspiration) to evaporate rather than accumulate. We topped it off with high-performance glazing (goggles) and small amounts of strategically positioned active heating (hand warmers in gloves), and off we went. We skied hard the whole day in complete comfort, and quite stylishly I might add. 😉
To continue the architecture analogy, did these measures cost more than the cheapest, lowest-performing options available? Yes, but it was a tiny percentage of the overall expense for equipment, lodging, and lift tickets. Without this incremental investment, the entire endeavor would have been severely compromised, if not wasted. Instead, we crushed it!
That’s about all I have to say about skiing at this point, but if you want to know more about our approach to great design, what we consider high-performance architecture, and the building science beneath it, look here.