Thanks to German Engineering and the New York Times for printing a story on Passive house design... no furnace just a heat exchanger and an airtight shell of "...ultrathick insulation and complex doors and windows."
"Even on the coldest nights in central Germany, Mr. Kaufmann’s new ‘passive house’... uses about one-twentieth the heating energy of his parents’ home of roughly the same size."
"Why not reuse this heat you get for free?" Architect Nabih Tahan.
How about taking some stimulus package money, a closed down GM plant in Dearborn Michigan and retooling it to manufacture the type of "off the shelf" passive house components that are available in Germany.
Biden, get on it!
In the 1950s, German BMW had Bosch mechanical fuel injection while GM cars and trucks had leaky and inefficient Rochester carburetors. Any one who ever road in a pre 1972 American car before vapor recovery canisters knows the sweet smell of gas fumes in and around a car.
Heidelberg was the most accurate and well machined printing presses leading the industry with cutting edge water systems and sheet transfer technology running at speeds unheard of by their US competitors like, Miller Industries of Pittsburgh, Pa. Until of course Miller starting building printing presses in Germany...
Once again, leave it to the Germans to lead the technology in home building and energy efficiency. Efficiencies so great that even the dysfunctional US military procurement system is interested in building passive design barracks for US military troops stationed in Germany.
Thanks to the New York Times article "The Energy Challenge: No Furnaces but Heat Aplenty in 'Passive Houses'" the reader gets an excellent run down on the benefits of avoiding American mass produced, cost minimizing, "semi custom," tract home, stucco...what is the word I am looking for... crap.
http://www.nytimes.com/...
The article features the brief history of passive house design starting with German physicist Wolfgang Feist in the 1990s, Wolfgang Hasper of the Passivhaus Institut in Darmstadt Germany and Berkeley architect Nabih Tahan building and remodeling passive house design in California.
"There are now an estimated 15,000 passive houses around the world, the vast majority built in the past few years in German-speaking countries or Scandinavia."
Didn't Obama say something about making schools more energy efficient as part of a stimulus plan?
"The industry is thriving in Germany... for example, schools in Frankfurt are built with the technique."
According to the Passivhaus Institut website:
http://www.passiv.de/
Can a house really stay warm without a heating system?
Passive houses that have been tested and are already occupied have conclusively proven: Even in our middle European climate, houses can be built with such low heating energy requirements that minimal additional heat added to incoming fresh air, is sufficient to keep the house warm and comfortable in winter.
Following are the basic features that distinguish passive house construction:
Compact form and good insulation: All components of the exterior shell of the house are insulated to achieve a U-factor that does not exceed 0.15 W/(m²K) (0.026 Btu/h/ft²/°F).
Southern orientation and shade considerations: Passive use of solar energy is a significant factor in passive house design.
Energy-efficient window glazing and frames: Windows (glazing and frames, combined) should have U-factors not exceeding 0.80 W/(m²K) (0.14 Btu/h/ft²/°F), with solar heat-gain coefficients around 50%.
Building envelope air-tightness: Air leakage through unsealed joints must be less than 0.6 times the house volume per hour.
Passive preheating of fresh air: Fresh air may be brought into the house through underground ducts that exchange heat with the soil. This preheats fresh air to a temperature above 5°C (41°F), even on cold winter days.
Highly efficient heat recovery from exhaust air using an air-to-air heat exchanger: Most of the perceptible heat in the exhaust air is transferred to the incoming fresh air (heat recovery rate over 80%).
Hot water supply using regenerative energy sources: Solar collectors or heat pumps provide energy for hot water.
Energy-saving household appliances: Low energy refrigerators, stoves, freezers, lamps, washers, dryers, etc. are indispensable in a passive house.
Architect Nabih Tahan is currently building passive designed houses in California. He has a detailed website with information and profiles of his work.
According to Tahan’s website:
http://www.nabihtahanarchitect.com/
An interesting case: "REMODELING A LEAKY BUNGALOW INTO A PASSIVE HOUSE" which includes a link to a detailed article detailing Mr. Tahan’s work.
And of course from the Times article, allow a German to hit the obvious American over consumption nail on the head:
"Most passive houses allow about 500 square feet per person, a comfortable though not expansive living space. Mr. Hasper said people who wanted thousands of square feet per person should look for another design.
‘Anyone who feels they need that much space to live,’ he said, ‘well, that’s a different discussion.’"
In the face of rising unemployment and plant closures, why not convert these resources into producing the components necessary for lower cost passive designed house construction in the US?
- Take your basic stimulus package.
- Take your basic closed down GM plant in Dearborn Michigan.
- Take the window, door, insulation, heat exchange components necessary
to produce passive houses in the US on a larger scale.
- Add tax incentives for builders and home buyers.
- Combine the above and invest.
Biden, get on it!
NOTE: A Siegel gives us an additional informative web site on alternative energy and public policy:
http://www.architecture2030.org/
Thanks A Siegel!!