Zero Net Energy Homes

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Report and Insights From The Passive House Conference – Part 1

April 20, 2009 in energy efficiency, green building by nils | 6 comments

This entry is part 1 of 1 in the series Passive House Conference 2009
A school in Reidberg, Germany, built using the passive house approach

A school in Reidberg, Germany, built using the passive house approach

I got back yesterday from the 13th Annual Passive House Conference in Frankfurt, Germany. My biggest takeaways from the conference are:

  • While the growth of passive houses in Europe is impressive, even in Europe there are still marketing challenges
  • The opportunity to use energy efficient buildings as a hedge against climate change is immense
  • We are way behind on energy efficient building here in the U.S. – in fact, essentially no one in the U.S. is doing this kind of building.
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Introducing New Silicon Valley Passive Homes Website

March 9, 2009 in accelerating change, green building, policy by nils | Add your comment

Silicon Valley From Space

Silicon Valley From Space

Over the weekend I put up what I hope will be an important resource in the goal of achieving 100% zero-net energy homes in California by 2018 – a new website for the Silicon Valley Passive House Coalition.

From the site:

SVPH is helping local municipalities to set challenging but practical goals for maximizing energy efficiency and carbon emission reduction in the local communities of the San Francisco Bay Area and Northern California.

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Menlo Park Climate Action Plan Research

March 2, 2009 in carbon mitigation, energy efficiency, green building, policy by nils | Add your comment

Menlo Park Train Station

Menlo Park Train Station

Just about two weeks ago, my friend Matt Harris, an architect with a green building practice, sent me an email:

The City of Menlo Park has this Climate Action plan and they are looking for community input. Would you be interested in formulating some kind of response that would of course include our plug for passive house initiatives. Maybe we can get them to include some passive home or even passive building information or plans or guidelines in the Climate action plan. They have already cited “commercial buildings” as a target energy hog in the city for action in the action plan.

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Old Favorites

February 12, 2009 in accelerating change, green building, growth by nils | Add your comment

Chocolate-covered Oreo Cake

Cake for our six month anniversary (image by ginnerobot, CC 2.0 license)

In honor of this blog’s six month anniversary, I’m going to relink to some of my favorite posts from the past:

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Fuel Cell Innovation Update

February 9, 2009 in energy storage, technology by nils | 3 comments

The week I started this blog in August 2008, there were three major fuel-cell related discoveries making the rounds in the science magazines. Since then, there have been new announcements every week of an improved catalyst or membrane or electrolyte. As these discoveries mature into real products and enter the market, the option of using fuel cells for energy storage, both for homes as well as vehicles, will become more and more cost-effective.

Energy storage is potentially a big part of the zero-net energy house picture, and is certainly critical for the hydrogen automobile transition. I thought I’d highlight a few recent discoveries and advances in the world of fuel cells, the “energy storage of the future.”

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About Me

February 5, 2009 in green building by nils | 4 comments

My name is Nils Davis. In my day job, I’m a product manager at a software company – my product is for other product managers, so my job is very “meta.” I have a technical and marketing background and love the world of technology.

But I’m also a budding green building maven. My particular focus is zero-net energy homes and the associated technologies, practices, policies, and legislation. My BHA goal is to that by 2018, 100% of California’s new homes will be zero net energy. This will require big changes in building practices to make homes much more energy efficient (such as using the passive house approach), significant reduction in the cost of energy generation capabilities like solar photovoltaics, and market-readiness for electricity storage capabilities like home-scale hydrogen fuel cells.

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High Tech Innovations Vs. Low Tech

February 5, 2009 in green building, materials by nils | Add your comment

Bamboo thicket

Bamboo - Fast Growing CO2 Sequestration (Image by Joi, CC 2.0 licensed)

I read Technology Review for the latest innovations and breakthroughs in fuel cell technology, transparent solar cells, exotic new batteries and things like that. But there are tons of much lower tech innovations happening all the time. I happened to meet a guy the other night who’s working on a new startup related to building construction.

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Zero Net Energy Homes Part 5 – Passive Houses

January 28, 2009 in energy efficiency, green building by nils | 5 comments

This entry is part 5 of 5 in the series Zero Net Energy Homes
The Smith House - A passive house in Urbana, IL

The Smith House - A passive house in Urbana, IL

What if you didn’t have to heat your house at all, no matter the climate? Or at least, never turn on the furnace? Well, that’s practically what life is like in one of the “passive houses” designed with the principles of the PassivHaus Institut in Darmstadt, Germany. Recently featured in an article in The New York Times, No Furnaces but Heat Aplenty in ‘Passive Houses’

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Zero Net Energy Homes Part 4 – Honda Accord Versus Solar Panels

January 13, 2009 in energy generation, solar electricity, transportation by nils | 1 comment

This entry is part 4 of 5 in the series Zero Net Energy Homes
El �ºltimo de los mohicanos

Money ('El Altimo de los Mohicanos' - photo by wakalani, CC 2.0 licensed)

One of the biggest problems for residential solar electricity generation is that it just costs too darn much to install those panels on your roof. Over the next five and ten years this will change significantly as new developments from the labs make it into large-scale production. Eventually houses will be generating all their own electricity using photovoltaics as a matter of course.

But is there a way to think about the cost today that makes the cost even seem reasonable?

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Zero Net Energy Homes Part 3 – The Federal R&D Agenda

January 9, 2009 in energy efficiency, energy generation, green building, integrative design, policy by nils | 1 comment

This entry is part 3 of 5 in the series Zero Net Energy Homes
A House

House, ready to become zero net energy (Image by Panoramas, CC 2.0 licensed)

In October 2008, a number of federal government departments and research organizations collaborated to produce the Federal R&D Agenda for Net Zero Energy High Performance Green Buildings (PDF). It’s a fascinating document, its origins driven primarily in response to two energy policy laws passed in 2005 and 2007 (during the Bush administration). In particular, the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 (EISA 2007) created an Office of Commercial High Performance Green Buildings and a consortium on a Zero Net Energy Commercial Buildings Initiative. This consortium produced the R&D agenda.

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