Have You Tried Turning It Off and on Again Merch White House

David White, an architectural energy technical consultant at Transsolar who I met while reporting environmental pattern stories, is a passionate advocate for the passive business firm movement. "German Passivhaus," which originated decades ago in Frankfurt, is the unsexy sibling of the eco-starchitecture motion. Instead of flaunting platinum-LEED certified plaques with all kinds of Jetsons-fashion enviro bells and whistles, "passive homes" are beloved past engineers: insulated in airtight shells that temperature-regulate themselves. Across the earth only some xv,000 passive homes exist. Most are in Germany and Scandinavia, while in the US a tiny movement is percolating in Urbana, IL. And last week The New York Times devoted a characteristic story to the bare bones design practice, in which homes run on roughly one-twentieth of the energy of a conventional house and only toll some 5% more to build.

On January 2nd, White submitted a proposal to the incoming Obama Administration for a new Passive House Certification that would stand up as an culling to LEED, which many critics view solely every bit a marketing standard (see his proposal below). To push White's call to action even further, we challenge president-elect Obama to convert The White House into a passive domicile to prepare the ultimate case for a state that is now reeling from the ecology and economic backlash of decades-worth of unsustainable McMansion fetish. We realize this is ambitious, and that it wouldn't exist the first time a President has attempted to greenish The White Firm. In 1979, Jimmy Carter installed a $28,000 solar water heater on the roof of the Due west Fly (which lasted seven years). And so in 1993 Bill Clinton assembled a team of 100 greenish architects, engineers, and scientists–including William McDonough and Bob Berkebile–and commissioned a comprehensive "Greening the White Business firm" report by The Rocky Mountain Institute.

Obama's already on the right rail: simply last week he told Barbara Walters that he plans on auditing the ecology efficiency of his new digs. Just as a model for the balance of the country, we need larger scale modify. Energy consultant White told me that "deep energy retrofits are estimated at roughly $fifty a square foot." This would be a hefty investment for the new assistants, costing over $iii one thousand thousand to overhaul the 55,000 square human foot white house. Simply, as Environmental Building News editor Alex Wilson recently said: "For what we are spending on the war in Iraq, nosotros could be investing in a politically stable, environmentally safe, and economically stiff hereafter built upon such energy sources as current of air, solar, biomass, geothermal, and efficiency." Let's commencement renovating.

To submit your own proposal to the Obama Assistants, click hither.

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Dear Mr. President and Obama Administration,

Thanks for request my vision. I very much appreciate that a key point of your energy agenda is efficiency. I'd like to describe your attention to one approach to energy efficient edifice, which is called Passive Business firm (or High german Passivhaus). The main advantages of Passive House are:

-It is the most stringent residential free energy efficiency standard in the world

-It is proven in virtually fifteen,000 units in Europe (and a few in the US), with all-encompassing post-occupancy validation

-It achieves minimum life-cycle cost, besides equally minimum price to achieve internet-zero free energy A Passive Firm in most if not all US climates volition maintain survivable or better interior conditions through an extended free energy outage.

The approach was developed in Germany, although it is based on research conducted on low-energy housing congenital in the United States and Canada.

The cadre strategy of Passive House is to more or less eliminate heating free energy needs, which business relationship for the bulk of residential energy consumption. Its toll-effectiveness is achieved by reducing meridian heating load to the extent that a conventional heating system can be eliminated, partly offsetting extra costs for insulation, air tightness, and special components. The consistent peak heating load is equivalent to the power of a hair dryer. In combination with the Passive House approach to lighting, appliances, and so on, information technology becomes practical and affordable to come across all energy needs with renewable sources.

This approach may not exist advisable, at to the lowest degree without some adaptation, for all areas of the United States, depending on climate and other factors. Further, it is non in principle anything new: similar excellent piece of work based on the same concepts has been underway here for decades. Still, it is plainly obvious that Passive House claim our conscientious study, if non wholesale adoption: it has lead to far more than units of energy efficient housing, all of them at much lower energy consumption, and with a higher rate of measured success, than whatsoever other endeavour undertaken anywhere, ever. One reason may be that it is so well packaged as to enable any competent professional person to pattern an ultra-depression energy building. Another is ease of verification (see below).

Passive House has established a presence in the U.s. (world wide web.passivehouse.us <http://www.passivehouse.united states> <http://www.passivehouse.us/> ), and has engaged many of the country's best experts on energy-efficient building. The New York Times recently published an article on Passive House (http://world wide web.nytimes.com/2008/12/27/earth/europe/27house.html?_r=one&ei=5070&emc=eta1).

In January 2008, the European Parliament called on the Commission to "propose a binding requirement that all new buildings needing to be heated and/or cooled be synthetic to passive firm or equivalent non-residential standards from 2011…" (http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?pubRef=-//EP//TEXT+REPORT+A6-2008-0003+0+Medico+XML+V0//EN )

In considering how federal policy might assist, I think that both subsidy and mandate can and do take negative, unintended consequences in the field of free energy efficient buildings. One problem is lack of balls that the subsidies bring about real and price-constructive savings. Passive Firm certification offers a style through this: it ensures free energy efficiency, unlike any green edifice organization in the US (including the LEED organisation). A certifier checks the pattern and calculations for insulation level, glazing type, etc; and the air tightness of the building is physically tested on site. Incremental cost for Passive House is currently about 5-seven% in Germany, probably higher in the US. A subsidy of Passive Firm, or a US standard with the same level of quality assurance, would help defray added costs for early adoption and get a new industry on its feet.

Mr. President and Administration, Give thanks You for your piece of work. You inspire me. Delight keep reminding yourself of your deepest intentions, and stay safe and well.

Warmly,
David White

mangelshimes1981.blogspot.com

Source: https://www.fastcompany.com/1126481/lets-turn-white-house-passive-house