Houses without Furnaces

This is pretty amazing.  In Germany, they are building houses that don’t need heaters except as emergency backup.

The concept of the passive house, pioneered in this city of 140,000 outside Frankfurt, approaches the challenge from a different angle. Using ultrathick insulation and complex doors and windows, the architect engineers a home encased in an airtight shell, so that barely any heat escapes and barely any cold seeps in. That means a passive house can be warmed not only by the sun, but also by the heat from appliances and even from occupants’ bodies.

And in Germany, passive houses cost only about 5 to 7 percent more to build than conventional houses.

Decades ago, attempts at creating sealed solar-heated homes failed, because of stagnant air and mold. But new passive houses use an ingenious central ventilation system. The warm air going out passes side by side with clean, cold air coming in, exchanging heat with 90 percent efficiency.

“The myth before was that to be warm you had to have heating. Our goal is to create a warm house without energy demand,” said Wolfgang Hasper, an engineer at the Passivhaus Institut in Darmstadt. “This is not about wearing thick pullovers, turning the thermostat down and putting up with drafts. It’s about being comfortable with less energy input, and we do this by recycling heating.”

What is perhaps most amazing is that despite the internet, despite all the talk about global warming, we hardly ever hear about these new technologies.  This technology is over 15 years old!  15 years!  It was available during the first Bush administration but never caught on because of language differences and distribution issues.

There’s clearly a lot of potential to do more for global warming.  There are logistical issues, such as our housing crisis that has left many homes unsold.  There are cultural issues, such as the question over whether Americans will buy houses that only have 500 square feet per person.  But the technology for cleaner living is here.  We just have to educate ourselves.

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