Passive Houses Reduce Heating Costs 90 Percent
Posted: Saturday, January 03, 2009
by Walter Rhett
Charleston Perlo
Saturday's blog is always about old school music and science, the shared wonders of art and technology. This is 2009's first Saturday, so "Happy New Year!"
Jazz fans probably recall Herbie Hancock's classic album and tune, "Maiden Voyage." The same album had "Eye of the Hurricane," and one of my favorites, "Dolphin's Dance." The quintet that performed on that Blue Note album was essentially the Miles Davis quintet-without Miles. A young trumpeter fresh from Art Blakeley's Jazz Messengers took the trumpet book, and played solos with incredible energy, marked by bursts of melodic phrases that were a counterpoint to Miles' relaxed lyricism. Later that young trumpeter, Freddie Hubbard, recorded for producer Creed Taylor on the CTI label, and produced his own memorable albums, "Red Clay" and "First Light."
In the 70's, we often had "record dates." No, we didn't go to a studio to record. Instead a guy invited a girl who he sought to impress over to hear his private collections of jazz and rhythm and blues albums. The Dells album, (an R & B group out of Chicago) "Freedom Means," was a favorite, as were Stevie Wonder's albums. Freddie Hubbard's "First Light" was usually on the turntable when the arm reached out to the shoulder to draw the listening experience closer into an intimate space in which the music was heard with a shared ear. In the cold of winter, we'd draw the music over us as we looked into each others faces, listening together to the music, tucking the edges of sound tight around our common feeling as we sung the emotional language of the notes and chords that were revealed in the music and written in the language of the inner heart . . .
Freddie Hubbard died last week, and jazz radio stations have been playing his music all week.
"First Light" was winter music that filled cold nights and star-lit twilights with introspective, shared inspiration. Today's hip-hop often leaves a void in the place where the subtle intensity of the heart found musical expression. And besides, the heating bills are high. Hoodies are worn in the house.
The music has changed, but the technology is also changing: Germany is pioneering a new way to lower the heating bills. Over 15,000 German homes now use an incredibly simple technology to heat a family's living space, The technology is passive and has no moving parts and requires no electric or external power of energy, and reduces greenhouse gases. The technology is green, renewable, and does no damage to the environment. The technology doesn't require a huge investment in solar panels, nor does the house have to be buried in the earth. And even more, these wonder houses have no drafts, cold floors, or waits for the house to "warm up" when you come home.
When the New York Times article describing these houses appeared December 26th, it was quickly reprinted in papers around the world, including the Hindu, a major newspaper in India. And more, these energy-efficient homes have superior indoor air quality, are durable, have windows that can be opened, and heat for less ten percent of current costs.
The First Certified US Passive House!
(reprinted under fair use agreement)
http://www.oneearthdesign.com/passive_house_standard.html
This 18 year-old housing technology holds enormous economic and green benefits for the southeast and southwest, (the whole country and world really, but I am a southerner). The South's in-migrating populations from both north and south are creating a furious pace for new housing construction and placing equal demands on job creation, energy conservation, reducing greenhouse gases, and lowering utility and housing costs. Forward thinking, coordinated planning, and capital investment by business and government could easily lead to national and international leadership in marketing and the creative design use of this incredible technology. Come on Clemson, Georgia Tech, Mississippi State, Texas Tech, North Carolina State, and Florida State!
What is the technology? It integrates three phases. First, it builds a house which is sealed airtight. The house is a shell which is encased in ultrathick insulation, allowing no heat or cooling to escape. The windows, which open, are heavily insulated. Secondly, the house adds a central ventilation system (which requires different duct work than normal heating or air). The ventilation system brings in outside air filtered through a HEPA filter (similar to those now available as standing or table top units for rooms). The air is fresh and cleaned of pollen, microbes, micro-particles, smoke, and other impurities.
Thirdly, the incoming air by-passes the out-going air. They travel in separate ducts. As they pass by each other, a heat exchanger, basically a big rectangular insulated box, transfers the heat of the outgoing, stale air to the incoming fresh air at 90 percent efficiency! Body heat and appliances add the other ten percent! The interior temperature of the house remains consistent.
Houses built this way are called passive houses. Passive houses can actually be regulated to increase air flow or temperature. They can be designed in many styles, but work best when the site is carefully selected (the warmer the solar heated outside air, the lower the costs). The barrier to US construction is the lack of manufactured systems, components, and standards for the US housing industry, and the resistance by manufacturers with a deep stake in present, less efficient technology. Here's a link for a further look: http://www.passivehouse.us/passiveHouse/PHIUSHome.html .
This technology is a perfect fit for the tradtional Southern life style that took immense pride in living off the land, and in knowing how to use a broad variety of skills to provide shelter and food.
I hope my friends, the Republican Governors Mark Stanford (SC), Haley Barbour (MS), Bobby Jindal (LA), Robert Riley (AL), Sonny Perdue (GA), Charlie Crist (FL), and Rick Perry (TX) seize this idea and see this technology to a concrete means to promote the best of their party's platform of job growth and community innovation through partnerships that enchance the private sector. Come on, governors! Put your best feet forward! Bring together diverse comunities of trades people, finance experts, construction companies, state supported technical colleges ( two and four year), and built the new communities of the future which will become a model for the world-and create jobs building 21st century houses for families.
I hope my friends, the Democratic governors of Virginia, Tennesse, West Virginia, North Carolina, Maryland, and Arkansas also take a look at the tremendous benefits of the technological associated with building passive homes.
The opportunity recommended by passive houses reminds me of how Sweden ended its recession and its economy flourished through the export of iron to England to manufacture the long-handled hoes--the staple, most widely-used tool on plantations--that Africans in the Americas used to handwork the fields of tobacco, rice, and cotton that stretched from Texas to Virginia and the Carolinas. If the hoe revived Sweden's economy in the 18th century, than a German technology adapted to the American landscape can help a new generation obtain a high standard of living!
Field Hands with long-handled hoes
(used under fair use, for educational purposes)
Woman field hand, born "two years before the surrender,"
using a long-handled hoe to work Mississippi cotton in 1937.
(Dorothea Lange photograph from the Smithsonian collection,
reprinted under fair use, for educational purposes)
Great article at the right time if we could only open our eyes to it.
Walter, Great material on the passive homes and the benefits. I completely agree; however, I question your overly long information on the music. I still don't understand why it is in there because I failed to catch the connection.Obviously you have a passion for music. Perhaps you should have written 2 articles.
