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"Unless something corrodes the electrical contacts, it will still keep working."

Probably not a bad idea for the factory to be a little modest with the specs to begin with.

The article does read more like a SolarCity ad than anything else. They certainly don't bring anything new to the table.

We did 6" of exterior rockwool, triple pane windows with storms. GREATly reduces outside noise.

http://www.greenbuildingadviso...

It is not cost-effective immediately, however adding that much insulation on the house has about a 15-year payback on heating an cooling costs so it is cost-effective in the long run. Rockwool makes the house fireproof too.

Agreed: for more details green building advisor has done a number of writeups on doing unvented crawl spaces and the building science behind the : http://www.greenbuildingadviso...

That's the worst-case scenario, which recently turned out to be pessimistic. (Multiple times, actually.) The worst problems seem to be the various modes of hard failure (water ingress, for example) rather than overly rapid continuous degradation.

I was astonished to measure mine at about 68 watts average consumption over a week. It looks like the new federal standards are less than 50 watts. That's some good design.

( haruchai posting as AC due to previous mod )

I think the PassivHaus case should be pushed more strongly in North America. There are so many, many areas that would benefit from this method of housebuilding but yet so few have been built outside Germany, which has thousands.

I was astonished to see just how efficient they can be - the Villa Nyberg family home in Sweden claims 25 kWh PER YEAR. Even if they're off by a factor of 4, that would still below 1/2 my average monthly usage and I'm well below average in my circle of friends.

http://www.kjellgrenkaminsky.se/en/blog/portfolio/all/villa-nyberg/

And the idea actually was adopted from Canadian & American designs in the '70s - http://www.greenbuildingadvisor.com/blogs/dept/musings/forgotten-pioneers-energy-efficiency

Here in the northeast you can get PV installed for $3.50/watt in many cases (PRE SUBSIDY). we broke the tipping point not long ago compared to our cost for grid electricity. I just updated a PV quote here and we'll do about 13kw array for about $45k. this morning's numbers, using canadian solar panels (not even chinese units). In some areas like the NW we won't hit parity anytime soon (cheap hydro) and a few others who are just burning coal with no thought for anything else will be slower too. but we're the leading edge, and most of our electricity is more expensive hydro, nukes, and natural gas... not the dirtiest mix around, and it has your magic wunderkid, nukes, well represented. that won't be saving us anytime soon. PV will make building nukes cost prohibitive in comparison.

http://www.greenbuildingadvisor.com/blogs/dept/guest-blogs/pv-systems-have-gotten-dirt-cheap -- note, I know the writer of that blog, he's a sharp and very thoughtful guy who cares about environmental causes but has no patience for solutions that aren't.

also note: when he wrote the article, it was $4.50/watt. That was last fall, so the price has continued to plummet per watt. now, our grid electricity's standard offer will drop to 0.14, but that just puts it back to parity at $4.50/watt... and we're still doing a lot better at $3.50/watt..

finally, remember that distributed solar has very little in the way of transmission and overhead costs like centralized generation does. cost for generation is only part of the equation. backyard nukes might also benefit from that advantage, but really... cheap solar vs a backyard nuke? yeah, I wonder which one will win out. what we need is good, cheap, flywheel or capacitor storage.

Most of the oil in Canada is in the form of tar sands. The product requires a lot of processing to extract and I'm guessing that releases a lot of emissions. So for every say, 6 barrels you export, you have to burn a barrel yourself.

This really impacts the ability to exploit fossil fuel resources without busting your emissions cap. Which to be fair, is probably by design.

If you roll the emissions from extraction into the emissions count for the nation that purchases the oil, it discourages purchase from low EROI fossil fuel sources ; which would continue to have the desired effect of reducing emissions. But Canada are still not going to like it, because it makes their product less desirable.

The EROI of tar sands is now marginally worse than that of photovoltaic cells ; barring significant improvements in the production process for tar sands, and zero progress in solar panel research, this comparison is only going to get worse.

Yes. Of course the "scandal that comes to mind" ignores the what, 99%+ of those funds that were NOT involved in a scandal there were put to work as intended. Heck, let's be generous to your point and say only 90% weren't scandal-laden. Also, solar power is now beating grid parity in parts of the US, largely thanks to solar incentives and investment over the last several years getting the market going. Not just in the US, but here, in europe, and in china as well. This is a huge moment, where those with enough capital in parts of the us (including the northeast) could choose to "prebuy" their electricity for the next 25 years with PV... WITHOUT incentive... and not lose money compared to grid electricity. In a few more years it's going to be a slam dunk.

Public policy works. Funding research works. Give up the tired, weak whining that it's not perfect. Waiting for teh "free market" to fix it all isn't perfect either, and it cares a lot less for the collateral damage of a sudden catastrophic shift than we do.

http://www.greenbuildingadvisor.com/blogs/dept/guest-blogs/pv-systems-have-gotten-dirt-cheap

The author spends quite a bit of time making good natured jokes of his personal experience and unfortunately (well meaning as he appears to be) drops in some rather misleading information. The German Passivhaus standard is a type of house he could have considered. The standard was implemented in 1996 (predicated on some work done on project houses in Saskatchewan Canada in 1977, as well as in Massachusetts, and also by the University of Illinois) is readilly achievable, even in very cold climates (like colder parts of Germany, Austria and Alberta Canada. Windows do not have to be some energy leaking sieves at all. Good windows require thermal breaks and should be triple glazed. South facing windows are large for heat gain in winter months and canopied for blocking high summer rays.

These houses basically - and readilly (with installed solar systems including Photovoltaic and Solar Hot Water, achieve a "Net Zero" energy requirement: In the span of one year on average, and all within their property envelope (urban settings too) they produce an amount of energy equal to, or more than ("Net Positive"), the energy they consume. That also requires choosing energy efficent appliances (fridges can be power hogs otherwise) that consume low Killowat hours of energy. LED lights are excellent. induction cookers as well. The key thing on Passivhaus design is that the house has a very high R-value all round (walls can be a foot thick of insulation and roofs are R 80) and the house must be air-sealed to a specific blower door pressure test stardard.

Passivhauses do not have to look like bunkers or lunar outposts by necessity. The Mill Creek Net Zero home in Alberta is one pleasing example, or this example in Salem, Oregon. Because the houses are so well sealed (in contrast to regular built houses that leak air badly), air exchangers are a necessity and key to having fresh air. One of the benefits of a passivhaus is that the air is extremely fresh. To save conserve space heating energy heat recovery ventillators are used. Some heat recovery ventillators can be anywhere from 95 to 99% efficient. In some cases - even in cold climates, the passivhaus standard built house actually doesn't need an auxilliary heating system, but the City officials can get a little freaked out and demand one anyway. Germany has many of these houses. Passivhauses can also work in hot climates as well.

The author spends quite a bit of time making good natured jokes of his personal experience and unfortunately (well meaning as he appears to be) drops in some rather misleading information. The German Passivhaus standard is a type of house he could have considered. The standard was implemented in 1996 (predicated on some work done on project houses in Saskatchewan Canada in 1977, as well as in Massachusetts, and also by the University of Illinois) is readilly achievable, even in very cold climates (like colder parts of Germany, Austria and Alberta Canada. Windows do not have to be some energy leaking sieves at all. Good windows require thermal breaks and should be triple glazed. South facing windows are large for heat gain in winter months and canopied for blocking high summer rays.

These houses basically - and readilly (with installed solar systems including Photovoltaic and Solar Hot Water, achieve a "Net Zero" energy requirement: In the span of one year on average, and all within their property envelope (urban settings too) they produce an amount of energy equal to, or more than ("Net Positive"), the energy they consume. That also requires choosing energy efficent appliances (fridges can be power hogs otherwise) that consume low Killowat hours of energy. LED lights are excellent. induction cookers as well. The key thing on Passivhaus design is that the house has a very high R-value all round (walls can be a foot thick of insulation and roofs are R 80) and the house must be air-sealed to a specific blower door pressure test stardard.

Passivhauses do not have to look like bunkers or lunar outposts by necessity. The Mill Creek Net Zero home in Alberta is one pleasing example, or this example in Salem, Oregon. Because the houses are so well sealed (in contrast to regular built houses that leak air badly), air exchangers are a necessity and key to having fresh air. One of the benefits of a passivhaus is that the air is extremely fresh. To save conserve space heating energy heat recovery ventillators are used. Some heat recovery ventillators can be anywhere from 95 to 99% efficient. In some cases - even in cold climates, the passivhaus standard built house actually doesn't need an auxilliary heating system, but the City officials can get a little freaked out and demand one anyway. Germany has many of these houses. Passivhauses can also work in hot climates as well.

The author spends quite a bit of time making good natured jokes of his personal experience and unfortunately (well meaning as he appears to be) drops in some rather misleading information. The German Passivhaus standard is a type of house he could have considered. The standard was implemented in 1996 (predicated on some work done on project houses in Saskatchewan Canada in 1977, as well as in Massachusetts, and also by the University of Illinois) is readilly achievable, even in very cold climates (like colder parts of Germany, Austria and Alberta Canada. Windows do not have to be some energy leaking sieves at all. Good windows require thermal breaks and should be triple glazed. South facing windows are large for heat gain in winter months and canopied for blocking high summer rays.

These houses basically - and readilly (with installed solar systems including Photovoltaic and Solar Hot Water, achieve a "Net Zero" energy requirement: In the span of one year on average, and all within their property envelope (urban settings too) they produce an amount of energy equal to, or more than ("Net Positive"), the energy they consume. That also requires choosing energy efficent appliances (fridges can be power hogs otherwise) that consume low Killowat hours of energy. LED lights are excellent. induction cookers as well. The key thing on Passivhaus design is that the house has a very high R-value all round (walls can be a foot thick of insulation and roofs are R 80) and the house must be air-sealed to a specific blower door pressure test stardard.

Passivhauses do not have to look like bunkers or lunar outposts by necessity. The Mill Creek Net Zero home in Alberta is one pleasing example, or this example in Salem, Oregon. Because the houses are so well sealed (in contrast to regular built houses that leak air badly), air exchangers are a necessity and key to having fresh air. One of the benefits of a passivhaus is that the air is extremely fresh. To save conserve space heating energy heat recovery ventillators are used. Some heat recovery ventillators can be anywhere from 95 to 99% efficient. In some cases - even in cold climates, the passivhaus standard built house actually doesn't need an auxilliary heating system, but the City officials can get a little freaked out and demand one anyway. Germany has many of these houses. Passivhauses can also work in hot climates as well.

Train tubes or aircraft fuselages were not intended to live in. They will be energy pigs: little insulation, drafty (caulk? Hah!) the metal will conduct heat, etc... Any environmental "savings" by using material like that will be eaten up by wasted energy.

Now going the path of the parent, you'll have a much better chance of being energy efficient, complying with building code, and reusing building materials.

One of the biggest wastes in building is demolition: folks just throw old homes into landfills. Tear it down. Put the crap in dumpsters. Haul it away and dump it into a landfill.

At least here in the states, there's a growing trend of recycling homes: disassembling homes and reusing wood, copper, wire when they can. You'll have to look around or disassemble some old houses yourself.

Try here for ideas on materials Green Building Advisor and FineHomeBuilding.com.