We do many posts about the new emerging alternative energy technologies that are coming onto the market. However there are some other very important considerations when thinking about our future energy security. That includes building our homes and offices to be more energy efficient so that we save and use less energy. This article addresses that aspect. Check it out.
Did you know that U.S. energy security is as easy as weatherstripping your house?
It’s time to update how we think about national energy issues. And better architecture is the key.
I learned so this week at the BEST3 conference, a tidy affair that draws a few hundred architects interested in better building walls and roofs. Held in Atlanta, the conference also brought attendees — including yours truly — to the fabulous High Museum for roast pork, beers and a peek at Picasso.
Sitting in Richard Meier’s serene lecture hall, we heard remarkable insights from keynoter R. Christopher Mathis, an Asheville, North Carolina-based consultant on building performance.
Architects make power plants disappear
With the zeal and conviction of a revival camp preacher, Mathis proves a few audacious claims, including this one: “A 30% improvement in U.S. building efficiency would reduce energy bills by $75 billion in 15 years and eliminate the need for 80 new nuclear power plants over the next 20 years.”
Eighty power plants? Yes. “And 30% is easy,” he adds.
Our appetite for electricity is huge, and it’s not getting any smaller. About 68% of the generating capacity is coal and natural gas, and Mathis describes the 7,000-feet-long trains, filled with nothing but Wyoming coal, that take three days to arrive at a power plant in the Southeast. The mile-and-a-half of coal cars are all tipped and unloaded in about an hour, and all the coal is burned — in just eight hours.
Nationally, about half of all our electricity is gobbled up by buildings and houses. That’s twice as much as industry, and almost twice as much as the transportation sector.