dagblog - Comments for "Brick and Mortar"

We'll probably have to.

Donal — Tue, 21 Jun 2011 17:23:54 +0000

In reply to Something about making old

We'll probably have to.

Something about making old

EmmaZahn — Tue, 21 Jun 2011 16:41:04 +0000

In reply to Brick and Mortar

Something about making old buildings greener from Bill Clinton's 14 WAYS TO PUT AMERICA BACK TO WORK

4. COPY THE EMPIRE STATE BUILDING

Just look at the Empire State Building—I can see it from my office window. Our climate-change people worked on their retrofit project. They cleared off a whole floor for a small factory to change the heating and air conditioning, put in new lighting and insulation, and cut energy-efficient glass for the windows. Johnson Controls, the energy-service company overseeing the project, guaranteed the building owners their electricity usage would go down 38 percent—a massive saving, which will enable the costs of the retrofits to be recovered through lower utility bills in less than five years. Meanwhile, the project created hundreds of jobs and cut greenhouse-gas emissions substantially. We could put a million people to work retrofitting buildings all over America.

Passiv Haus, probably.

Donal — Tue, 21 Jun 2011 14:18:33 +0000

In reply to I can't remember the name of

Passiv Haus, probably. Expensive to build, but cheap to own.

I can't remember the name of

Peter Schwartz — Tue, 21 Jun 2011 14:09:44 +0000

In reply to Brick and Mortar

I can't remember the name of this design, but I believe it originated in Europe. Something like The Perfect House. It's WAY "over built" such that it doesn't need a furnace to heat it in the winter--even in Vermont--retains every BTU it gets from the sun and atmosphere. And it doesn't need an AC either. Expensive to build, but fascinating...