All About Solar | Green Energy News

March 5, 2006 – Vol.10 No.50

All ABOUT SOLAR.

This week’s news...

Certainly new homes built in the U.S. are more energy efficient than those built decades ago. Tight windows and doors, better insulation and more efficient heating and cooling systems are now standard equipment.

But, for the most part, builders are still building homes that are fairly conventional.

While a few forward-thinking homebuilders may now be offering photovoltaic systems as optional equipment on new homes, fewer are building large numbers of homes that make the best use of the natural environment to keep them warm, cool, dry and comfortable with low energy consumption: passive houses aren’t in the playbook of the nation’s major builders.

Yet according to Germany’s Passive House Institute, to date more than 6000 passive homes have been built. Those houses properly designed to make the best use of solar thermal energy to retain heat or stay cool, can save up to 90 percent of energy costs of like-sized conventional homes.

While the costs of passive homes certainly vary, often attributes to save energy that are designed in usually are more cost effective at saving energy than adding technologies like solar electric systems.

The 10th International Conference on Passive Houses will be held in Hannover, Germany May 19 - 20, 2006. The Passive House Institute, which is sponsoring the event, includes extensive information on passive house design at its website at http://www.passiv.de/

The U.S. Department of Energy efforts in greener homes are through the Building America program at http://www.eere.energy.gov/buildings/building_america/