Sustainability problem: Energy

Excessive energy consumption is an issue that needs to be sorted within the next decades. In our technology-driven society we use increasingly more electronic apparatuses in our daily life, and in addition our climate is getting more unstable. These things are making our demand for power grow. However, we do not have an unlimited energy source, and most people do not live in homes that makes this energy consumption efficient. Most buildings are not sufficiently isolated against the heat and cold, making electricity demand shoot through the roof on the hottest and coldest days. Power demanding AC-s or heaters are being turned on.

• The article attached, explains the technology of one solution to this: the “passive houses”. These are isolated houses that are claimed to reduce energy consumption with 90%.
• Among other things, the houses take advantage of the sunshine that comes in through your window and heats up the house, making heaters superfluous. It also has a ventilation system that makes sure the house has sufficient circulation of fresh air, which will be beneficial for the health of the residents. In colder climates, this fresh air can also be heated up first utilizing ground heat. It can then be dispersed through the house heating it up with fresh air.
• It has both energy- and cost-saving long-term benefits, and will not be a very costly technology to implement in new homes.

Stakeholders

• Material manufacturers
• Utility companies
• Home owners
• Architect companies
• Carpenters and contractors

Deployment

1. Educate contractors about the passive house standard.
2. Get governmental policy makers to work to make this housing technology the new standard.
3. Educate architects and building designers to know how to design the house to best take advantage of the passive house principle.

 

Main article about the technology:

https://passipedia.org/basics/what_is_a_passive_house , “What is a Passive House?”, Passipedia.org, Last modified: July 6^th, 2017

Supporting articles:

http://www.greenhomeguide.com/know-how/article/the-passive-house-what-it-is-and-why-you-should-care, “The Passive House, What Is It and Why Should You Care?”, Greenhomeguide.com, August 10^th, 2016

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/15/garden/the-passive-house-sealed-for-freshness.html?mcubz=3, “The Passive Houses: Sealed for Freshness”, NYTimes.com, August 14^th, 2013

Image source: https://passipedia.org/basics/what_is_a_passive_house , “What is a Passive House?”, Passipedia.org, Last modified: July 6^th, 2017

UNI: ms5584

 

My comment on this blogpost: https://makeasmartcity.com/2017/09/28/smog-eating-skyscrapers/

“I think this is a great idea, and it is so easy to implement. Hopefully more skyscrapers will use this technology in the future. This will have the ability to somewhat limit the effect the fossil fueled cars and other machines have on the environment as a percentage of the CO2 will be absorbed by the skyscrapers.”