From: Barbara Lamar (altamira@texas.net)
Date: Sun Dec 09 2001 - 23:43:27 MST
Dossy wrote:
>Why should we be looking to create energy sources that are
>more efficient? Wouldn't it be smarter to try and create
>energy consumers that are more efficient?
It would be smarter to do both. We need more efficient energy consumers
until someone comes up with more efficient sources (efficient from a
financial viewpoint as well as from an energy viewpoint).
Damien Broderick wrote:
> The energy that First World nations squander on air conditioning, for
> example, could surely be slashed by some simple design/fashion
> changes--roads and roofs that reflect heat in summer, tree planting for
> seasonally appropriate cooling and pleasurable viewing in one convenient
> package, wall & floor heat sinks, optimized air flow, all that.
This is true. For example, see the Village Homes links and excerpts below.
Because people get used to doing things a certain way and find it disturbing
to change, it can be difficult to get financing for truly energy-efficient
houses, and it can be a pain dealing with city ordinances written in more
primitive times. But in the long run good design is likely to be profitable.
"Although turnover is very low, the few families who have left Village Homes
have realized dramatic appreciation on their homes. In 1991, houses at
Village Homes were selling for a premium of $11 per square foot over other
Davis developments, demonstrating that features once considered of
questionable value by some have become not only mainstream, but extremely
desirable." http://www.context.org/ICLIB/IC35/Browning.htm
>From US DOE web site: "Measures of Success"
http://www.sustainable.doe.gov/success/village.shtml
==============================
The homes in the Village Homes development are 50% more energy efficient
than surrounding homes.
A 1990 study found that Village Homes residents use 36% less energy for
vehicular driving, 47% less electricity and 31% less natural gas per
household than a conventional neighborhood control group.
Tree-lined streets keep the temperature about 10% cooler than surrounding
neighborhoods.
Open space accounts for 25% of the land in the development.
Village Homes residents know 50% more of their neighbors than do residents
in nearby developments.
Initially, Village Homes sold for the same price as others in Davis. On
average, they now sell for $11 persquare foot more.
===========================
Living in energy-efficient houses and neighborhoods is absolutely NOT a form
of deprivation. Well-designed houses and neighborhoods are far more pleasant
to be in than wasteful ones.
I was recently reviewing and updating my goals in life and found that nearby
Austin, Texas satisfies almost all of my requirements for a pleasant place
to live: it has good libraries, outstanding performing arts--especially
music, excellent radio programming, a well educated & cosmopolitan
population, beautiful parks, great book stores, lots of good restaurants,
weather that is tolerable to paradisiacal (except maybe in August when it's
hot as hell), nearby countryside that's some of the most beautiful in the
world with many springs and crystal clear streams. But it has one serious
flaw that, IMO, makes it almost uninhabitable. While the older parts of the
city were designed for pedestrian traffic and are delightful in every way,
the newer parts are strictly designed for auto traffic. And as more and more
cars clog the streets, more land is dedicated to cars, streets are widened
at the expense of sidewalks and green areas; charming old buildings are
razed to make room for parking lots, and so forth.
I'm not alone in feeling this way, and the City of Austin now has what they
call a "Green Building Program." Austin Green Building Program links: "Why
Build Green?" Note the 120,000 gallon/year water use for the average single
family household. By eliminating flush toilets and using grey water systems,
this figure can be cut dramatically. My daughter and I together use about
36,500 gallons per year. This includes watering the garden. We don't have to
deprive ourselves to achieve this figure. We take baths and use an automatic
washing machine. But the bath water, washing machine water, and kitchen
water go directly onto the garden, and our bodily and biodegradable
household wastes are composted rather than being dumped into local streams
and landfills.
Note: the primer below was written in the late 1990's, so when it refers to
"this" century it means the 20th.
http://www.ci.austin.tx.us/greenbuilder/greenreasons.htm
==========================
Energy
Structures use energy, mostly electricity and gas for things such as
lighting, appliances, heating and cooling systems, and office machines. An
average all-electric home in Austin uses 18,383-kilowatt hours of
electricity a year. This releases 266 pounds of sulfur dioxide, 99 pounds of
nitrogen oxide, nine pounds of particulate and 10.5 tons of carbon dioxide
into the atmosphere.
Water
With advent of the indoor plumbing, and the rise in popularity of manicured,
green lawns, water use has risen steeply in this century. The average Austin
single family household uses 120, 000 gallons of water per year. In the
summer months, 45 percent of that is used on lawns and gardens.
Materials
As more homes and structures are built, more natural resources are used and
often depleted. Our world's forests have suffered the most damage. Now, very
few old-growth forests in the United States remain. A typical 1700 sq. ft
wood frame home requires the equivalent of clear cutting one-acre of forest.
Other resources used in the building industry can cause environmental damage
through mining and toxic manufacturing processes. Sometimes materials can
cause health problems for the inhabitants of the home if the material was
made with a toxic chemical that outgasses into the indoor environment.
Because Americans spend 80 to 90 percent of their time indoors, health
problems related to poor indoor air quality have risen significantly since
World War II.
Solid Waste
Finally, people create waste. Americans generate about twice as much garbage
per person as Europeans or Japanese. Nationally, we throw away enough
aluminum every three months to rebuild the entire commercial airline fleet.
It's no secret that landfill space in the country is rapidly declining.
=============================
Here'a another excerpt from the first Village Homes article cited above:
============================
Village Homes has vindicated many of the experimental architectural and
land-use ideas of architect/developer Michael Corbett. Over the strenuous
objections of city planning and public works departments and the FHA,
Michael pressed for and accomplished a visionary design that has paid off in
unexpected bonuses both for the environment and for the residents of Village
Homes.
The narrow, tree-lined streets of Village Homes run east to west and feed
out to an adjacent minor arterial street. Houses are oriented north-south
along the streets to maximize solar exposure. Carports or garages and small
fenced and landscaped courtyards face the street.
Streets are much narrower than conventional subdivision streets to
discourage traffic and allow trees to shade the road during the Central
Valley's intense summer heat.
The concept of using narrower streets is one example of Michael's holistic
design approach, in which unexpected benefits arise from environmentally
governed choices.
"You know you're on the right track when you notice that your solution for
one problem accidentally solved several other problems," Michael says. "When
you minimize the use of automobiles to conserve fossil fuels, for example,
this also reduces noise, conserves land by minimizing streets and parking,
beautifies the neighborhood, and makes it safer for children."
An additional unanticipated benefit of the narrower streets is that the air
temperature over the street is 10 to 15 degrees lower than surrounding
neighborhoods during the hot summer months. This is attributed both to a
reduction in the heat-soaking asphalt mass and the mature trees, which shade
more of the street area than would occur in a typical development.
Initial concerns on the part of city planning officials regarding the
ability of emergency vehicles to negotiate the streets were met by mandatory
30-foot easements on both sides of the street.
Despite official concerns, the crime rate at Village Homes is only 10
percent of the average for Davis, according to the Police Department.
=========================
Another Village Homes link: This one has some photos:
http://arch.ced.berkeley.edu/vitalsigns/workup/siegel_house/vh_bkgd.html
More Austin links with some photos:
http://www.ci.austin.tx.us/greenbuilder/coolprojects.htm
http://www.ci.austin.tx.us/greenbuilder/docs/cs_casaverde.pdf
http://www.ci.austin.tx.us/greenbuilder/docs/cs_gables.pdf
Barbara
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