Are smaller homes better for the environment? How big is yours?

Yes, but the larger size gives them extra security in case they collide with a smaller plane, plus there is room for a big dog. <rolling eyes>

Tom

 

My personal experiences are about 35% higher energy costs in two-story homes compared to one-story homes of similar sq ft.

 

I'm not sure I understand,,,are you saying that the 2 story takes 1/3 more btu's? That is both counter intuitive and contrary to my experiance. It would seem that since heat rises, the btu's lost between floors is captured by the floor area above and in essence, re used.

As a builder I tended to insulate BETWEEN floors to cut down of the heat loss between the floors.

I lived in an up and down duplex, and I used about 1/2 as much heat as the folks below.

Icarus

 

Excellent question, and one I've asked with no replies. How would my energy usage compare between traveling with my Prius with two people, as opposed to flying?

A test for Google skills...

Harry

 

If both one story and two story have insulated attics...could it be because second story has windows which is where a lot of your heat loss occurs?

 

In a normal case, Single story, 2000 ft sq, 20% glass (Average number)
2 story house, 1000 ft sq on each floor, same 20% glass. Your more likely to have few sq ft of glass upstairs (baths, bedrooms etc) than down, Living, dining family etc.

Icarus

PS 2 stories are cheaper to build, all else being equal. Less foundation (net) less roof (net) etc. If you include the total environmental foot print, multiple is way cheaper.

 

Well-designed smaller should be more cost effective and energy efficient. I retrofitted our 2300 sq ft tract home in the early 1990s to be energy efficient and have an Energy Efficiency Index (EEI) of 1.0. Average monthly utility cost, year round: ≤$30 (complete records back to 1989) - without photovoltaic or other "tricks."

We have a large organic, french-intensive garden that helps feed us year round and that we share with others.

Our next home will be about the same size, made of ICF (Insulated Concrete Form) walls and produce more energy than it consumes (photovoltaics, SIPs - Structural Insulated Panel roof, triple-pane windows, proper orientation, clerestory, large thermal mass). We currently, and will continue, to model what we teach while striving to minimize our carbon footprint.

It is the sumulative quality of life, not the size of the house.

 

I'll answer my own question, with my mad Google skillz:

The Oil Drum | Flying vs. driving

So my roundtrip travel from NYC to Raleigh (if we were flying a 747, which is not usually true)** would require 19 gallons of fuel per passenger (38 gallons for the two of us), as compared to 28 gallons for the two of us to go from NYC to Raleigh in the car (1000 miles / 35mpg = ~28 gallons). So once you have 2 people in the car, it's worth it to drive from New York to Raleigh on the basis of fuel consumption and C02 emissions.

Googling that article led me to this one, a scary treatment of Peak Oil:

The Oil Drum | World Oil Forecasts Including Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and the UAE - Update Feb 2008

Harry

 

Too bad they don't have a more realistic choice of aircraft. Those numbers suggest to me that flying in smaller jet (which is going to be the case) may actually use less fuel. On the other hand, the jet is blasting its pollutants out into the atmosphere at a much different altitude and that needs to be factored into the assessment as well.

 

A boxy two story house will have less surface area for the volume, meaning less heat loss through the walls and ceiling for the same volume. A dome will give you the best ratio of volume to surface, but it's hard to use that volume effectively. Leaky windows and bad insulation will trump surface area, so the variables can make it hard to compare buildings.

Tom

 

Buildings are the largest energy users in our country. Fix them and we will save a large amount of energy and coresponding pollution/degradation. Next time I purchase a home it won't by anything less than LEED platinum.

 

3/2 1428 sq ft tract ranch with two car garage.

 

Dr. F, I own a comfy (meaning small 3/2/2) ocean view home in Palm Beach, a charming small town about a 20 mile drive or ferry ride North of downtown Sydney. I rent it out for most of the year if you're interested and it's vacant (and I haven't taken up permanent occupancy!) in 2010.

 

So it's just a "batch" right now? Sounds nice.

 

When Buildings Talk, People Listen

[FONT=Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif]No one would consider buying a car without a dashboard, but we live in the dark with respect to resource consumption in buildings. The only information we are privy to in our homes and offices is the monthly bill or the energy meter itself -- definitely not designed with the end user in mind.

If home and business owners have real-time information about their gas, electricity and water consumption, and could witness the economic effects of their activities, they will connect their actions with resource use and modify their behavior accordingly. It is safe to say that most Prius owners hold a genuine concern for the environment, but they are also motivated by saving money at the pump, especially when the savings results from their own modified driving habits.

Research during the past several decades has proven the effects of direct and indirect feedback on behavioral change. Sarah Darby, at the Environmental Change Institute at the University of Oxford, published the results of 25 studies that took place between 1979 and 2005, investigating the effects of a variety of energy consumption feedback technologies. She concluded that various types of feedback all garner the same result: a definitive correlation between feedback and reduction of energy consumption. The results in Darby's study showed a typical 10 percent-15 percent reduction in energy use, illustrating that when end users connect cause with effect, they will modify their behavior.

Greener Buildings | News & Columns | When Buildings Talk, People Listen


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It is REALLY sad that there are people who limit the MINIMUM size houses in an area. What do they care if you screen the front with trees so no one can see that you didn't McMansion your lot to show off how much money you have (or in some cases don't but want people to think that you do)? Besides the initial construction cost, they are also forcing a higher property tax burden and higher operating costs on someone that would be happy in 1,500 sq ft but have to build 3,500.

One thing is a given: Assuming the same energy efficiency 'build' (windows, insulation), a house that is twice as large as the one next door will have a bigger environmental footprint

 

Re: When Buildings Talk, People Listen

That's for sure. Turn off every switch in your house, unplug the refrigerator then go see that your meter is still turning. So many appliances and electronic gadgets have clocks and 'instant on' power use. I bet if there were a panel in the kitchen that showed usage at each potential source, people would be very surprised at how much is being used that they don't even think (and maybe don't know) about.

That brings up a question. When we got the cable modem, the cable guy said that we should NOT turn it off when we weren't using it because it might not connect properly. Is that a true fact, a bunch of hearsay or just bunk? After all, any time we have to call in with a problem, the first thing they tell us to do is unplug the modem for 1 minute then plug it back in.

 

44' x 100' lot ~1500 sq ft 3 bedroom plus ~80 sq ft unheated enclosed front porch that faces west and has 2 skylights in the roof. Attached ~260 sq ft 1 car garage (unheated and too full of stuff to put a car in). 700 sq ft unfinished and unheated (except for furnace chimney pipe radiation) basement. 640 is under the house, the rest is under the garage (suspended slab ceiling).

Solar and wind powered clothes dryer in the back yard used except in winter. It takes a long time for frozen clothes to get dry Also have 30' of clothes line in the enclosed porch (I'm sure Evan's neighbors would be banging on my door with a cease and desist order) that is used year round.

The house was originally built in the early 1900's as a ~960 sq ft 2 story summer camp. That was back when a 2x4 measured 2" x 4" Big drafty double hung widows with lead weight balances. ~160 sq ft kitchen area created about the same time as the crash of '29 (we found newspapers that were used to level the floor) on what apparently had been a rear porch. ~60 sq foot bathroom and pantry area added in a side porch. Minimal insulation, old coal fired gravity feed furnace that had been converted to oil created quite a draft down the stairs.

Gutted in 1990, rebuilt on the same footprint with the original exterior walls increased to a true 5.75" depth. New construction is 2x6. All exterior walls filled with fiberglass bats and 2" foam board on the outside. With the exception of the bedroom over the garage and the upper floor in the back extended over the old kitchen area, it looks almost the same from the outside. New double pane windows, new furnace, lots more insulation now

The wife and 2 teen age daughters think it is too small, I think they have too much junk they never use

 

Re: When Buildings Talk, People Listen

Our router and cable modem are on the same powerstrip and we have been shutting it off at night for the last week (the base load on the strip is about 9W). We have had no problems thus far.