Passive houses
There’s an interesting piece in The New York Times about passive houses which are designed to use up to 90 percent less heating and cooling energy than a conventional house. That’s kind of a big deal.
America’s drafty building methods account for as much as 40 percent of its primary energy use, 70 percent of its electricity consumption and nearly 40 percent of its carbon-dioxide emissions.
As Alex Steffen points out on Worldchanging, America is woefully behind Europe and Asia in designing efficient homes (not to mention urban development, product design, clean energy and so on). Improving building efficiency standards would go a long way towards addressing our dangerous reliance on fossil fuels.
Infographic details below…
View full graphic here.
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