Scott Adams: How I (Almost) Saved the Earth
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Scott Adams: How I (Almost) Saved the Earth
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Re: Scott Adams: How I (Almost) Saved the Earth
#2Just as a counter-point, I recently visited a friend in Prague who is both earth-loving like Mr. Adams and an architect. She and her husband recently rebuilt their home, and it looks fairly nice for the area despite being quirky for the energy savings. They have a grass roof which I was told was actually low maintenance once they had it in. That said, they weren't 'idiots' and didn't buy into photovoltaics.
Your mileage may vary depending on if your wife is an architect.
Re: Scott Adams: How I (Almost) Saved the Earth
#3There is a short and entertaining TED talk on this topic.
http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/catherine_mohr_builds_gree...
Re: Scott Adams: How I (Almost) Saved the Earth
#4"As a rule, the greener the home, the uglier it will be. I went into the process thinking that green homes were ugly because hippies have bad taste. That turns out to be nothing but a coincidence."
:)
Re: Scott Adams: How I (Almost) Saved the Earth
#5Houses in the developed world simply aren't designed to be "green". Painting your roof, reducing the number of windows, and adding insulation are all band-aid solutions to a much deeper issue. All the common "green" solutions might cut your energy consumption in half, but half of a large amount of energy is still a large amount of energy.
I've seen some extremely green homes, and they're far more bizarre looking than the example given in this article. Homes designed around sunlight, earth (for insulation and heat regulation), and airflow turn out looking VERY different from homes that have had energy-saving features tacked on.
Re: Scott Adams: How I (Almost) Saved the Earth
#6Houses in the developed world simply aren't designed to be "green". Painting your roof, reducing the number of windows, and adding insulation are all band-aid solutions to a much deeper issue. All the common "green" solutions might cut your energy consumption in half, but half of a large amount of energy is still a large amount of energy. I've seen some extremely green homes, and they're far more bizarre looking than…
Depending on the climate, they don't have to look too futuristic. Here are a bunch of "passive houses" in Sweden (houses without a dedicated source of heat, instead surplus heat from cooking, showering, people etc provide enough heat due to good insulation):
Re: Scott Adams: How I (Almost) Saved the Earth
#7Alternatively you can move to a location with a decent year round climate (Redwood City, CA) and move into an apartment.
My PG&E Bill for 29 Days ending 4/21/2010: $5.00 - 40 Kwh @$0.11877. Easily the most massive energy consumer was the refrigerator - I would have cut that energy use by 2/3 if I could have figured out how (conveniently) to do without a fridge. My Hot water came from the building, but, at 97 degrees, and northern california water pressure, I know I was probably in the lower 5% of consumers in that space as well.
Just hitting the breaker to all your wall warts / WiFi when you leave to work has a very significant impact on energy consumption.
Scott Adams touches on one very, very good point - Having Northern exposure (in an apartment not on the top floor) means (in Redwood City) that from about April through late September you will never be uncomfortable. Apartments have awesome insulation - though I guess it's possible I was leaching heat during the winter from five of my neighbors and the hallway. I never bothered turning on (or even figured out how to) the central heat.
It's amazing how much a difference your apartment orientation can make to your quality of life.
Re: Scott Adams: How I (Almost) Saved the Earth
#8One house item which shows no progress on the green side is the refrigerator. Obviously it should be a split system: fridge is inside and heat exchange outside the house. If it's hot outside, I don't want fridge to heat up air inside the house so then my AC has to cool it (an you know, my house has quite limited AC capacity). If it's cold outside, I don't want fridge to consume energy - just dump excessive heat outside. It puzzles me for years why with all this green movement I haven't seen a single split fridge yet.
Re: Scott Adams: How I (Almost) Saved the Earth
#9Houses in the developed world simply aren't designed to be "green". Painting your roof, reducing the number of windows, and adding insulation are all band-aid solutions to a much deeper issue. All the common "green" solutions might cut your energy consumption in half, but half of a large amount of energy is still a large amount of energy. I've seen some extremely green homes, and they're far more bizarre looking than…
Many of the more futuristic looking ones are not just designed to be "green" but also to demonstrate new construction techniques. My personally favorite is the FabLab House http://www.fablabhouse.com/en/ which is very "green" (passive cooling, good roof designed for efficient use of solar, etc) but also demonstrates building houses from wood shaped with CNC machines.
Re: Scott Adams: How I (Almost) Saved the Earth
#10One house item which shows no progress on the green side is the refrigerator. Obviously it should be a split system: fridge is inside and heat exchange outside the house. If it's hot outside, I don't want fridge to heat up air inside the house so then my AC has to cool it (an you know, my house has quite limited AC capacity). If it's cold outside, I don't want fridge to consume energy - just dump excessive heat outsi…
The problem with this is that it isn't as flexible as a normal frige, it basically has to be built into the house. Also, if you don't have it next to a exterior wall, you have to pipe the coolant through the walls or floors. It's a great idea, but it requires a major redesign of the refrigerator, and means you can't easily get a new one if it breaks or you want it bigger or smaller.