Green Building: A low tech approach

I've always liked to keep it simple, to take a common sense approach. Sometimes one person's common sense makes no sense to another. For instance, an old baseball saying is "see ball, hit ball". Works for Manny Ramierez, not so well for me .  I can gang cut rafters, but can't use a sewing machine. Some people understand computational physics but can't balance their checkbook. You get the idea.

For me, energy conservation is as innate as breathing. PPV photovoltaic seems like something Trekkies play with. Energy conservation in a home is like a fuel efficient car--the ones that were developed in the 70's after the first energy crisis in 1973. Lighten the car, put in a small engine, walla, 40 mpg (our Chevette in 1976 did this--who made that car?).  Now to get that, you have to buy a Hybrid. My '82 Civic got 46mpg on the highway and it was a run of the mill box. They certainly didn't get the press that Prius gets now. How did it get to 46 mpg? Lightweight, small engine.  Small energy consumer (engine) powering a small load (weight of car).

To use less energy in a home, it's roughly the same comparison. In a home scenario, we lighten the load by allowing the engine (the heating/cooling system of the home) to power a small load (the Btu consumption of the home). A bigger home is a bigger load. More windows yields a bigger load. Poor insulation (or poorly installed insulation)  is a bigger load. Read this from Buildingscience.com for more.

I'm not entirely against solar power. I'm a proponent for it. But it's the fluff after you reduce the load. If Solar is going to cost $4-5 or $8 a watt (I've received quotes all over the board), your first investment should be to lighten the load. When it makes sense in our area to use it--i.e. buyback from the utility companies in Kalamazoo and Southwest Michigan look better, let's do it. I'm not nearly as enthused about tax credits until some other things are in place. Like more development of the technology for PV to make economic sense (that damn accountant in me). Even the UC Berkeley director of the UC Energy Institute. shares that belief.  We're also fighting over 200 hundred cloudy days and under 70 clear days on this NCDC chart for Grand Rapids, MI.  A more efficient system will need to be developed for it to overcome the cloudy days we experience. It's being worked on, but the economics of it are lacking right now.

What I do in new constructions homes right now is to run conduit to the attic from near the electric panel. That readies the home for future solar when the technology is economically viable for individual home panels. In the meantime, I'll keep plugging away at reducing the load so when that super-efficient engine (PV Solar) is ready, the light load vehicle (the home) will be ready for it.

Posted by COASTLINE BUILDING at 4/16/2009 8:51 PM
Categories: Energy
Tags: green building energy efficient building solar energy energy efficiency
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