The California Energy Commission asked the Davis Energy Group in Sacramento to evaluate new home construction in California a few years ago. The following excerpt from Home Energy Magazine tells you what they found.”The increasing architectural complexity of new homes requires greater vigilance on the part of framers, insulators, and drywall contractors to create a single thermal/pressure boundary between conditioned and unconditioned spaces. The more complex the design of the home, the more coordination is needed among the various members of the design team. Yet, mechanical contractors are rarely consulted regarding the integration of ducts and HVAC (heating, ventilation, and air conditioning) equipment into the house design. Contractors often lack both the knowledge and the time to implement house-as-a-system construction concepts. In addition, there is not an adequate infrastructure in place to provide contractors and installers with necessary training and certification.”House-as-a-system, or whole-house design, requires an integrated approach to water management. When I visited Japan, I went inside elegant buildings that were centuries old and made almost entirely of wood. Japan has a prolonged wet season, much like the northern coast of California. Because of this, the roofs of the Japanese houses I saw were designed to move moisture away from the structure. Inside, the buildings were well ventilated with the wood framing members exposed. Wood absorbs water during the wet season and dries during the dry season, allowing these healthy buildings to breathe in and out like other organisms.In previous centuries, building homes was a craft learned primarily through apprenticeship with a master builder who knew how to create a whole house that worked in the wet, dry, humid, hot, cold, and/or windy climate in which it was built. Today, however, the home building industry is fractured, with designers and general contractors and several trades doing their parts and not always talking to each other. In order to build a house that works, all the players need to know how what they do individually in a house effects what everyone else is doing as well. Plumbers have to respect air and moisture barriers, designers have to understand moisture dynamics, and HVAC contractors have to understand the pressure dynamics of the whole house; otherwise furnaces will backdraft, mold will form in walls, homes will have poor indoor air quality, they will cost a fortune to operate, be very uncomfortable, and fall down after a few years. In order to combat global warming and provide affordable housing to everyone who needs it, houses must be designed, built, and retrofitted to be energy efficient, healthy to live in, affordable, and made to last forever (or at least for a hundred years).Interested in being a part of the solution to global warming? Get a green collar job. In particular, I would recommend a career in home design and construction to anyone with the time and energy to get the right kind of education, training, and experience. There is plenty of work out there and that’s not changing anytime soon. Home Energy publishes a training guide for people in North America interested in learning the concepts and tools of whole building design and construction. For the latest list, go to http://www.homeenergy.org/contrainingguide/index.php.

In the Midwest and Northeast United States, homeowners are anticipating increased fuel oil costs this coming winter. Here in California, we don’t face their kind of extreme weather (in my freshman year at Notre Dame, in South Bend, Indiana, I woke up one morning in January to -250F weather with the prospect of a one mile walk to a math class–it took me several months to thaw). But heating costs are still a significant part of our budgets, especially for low-income families. And electricity costs are still at an all-time high across the country and are expected to keep rising.

The American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy (www.aceee.org) recently came out with a list of energy saving measures to help us prepare for winter.

1. Seal air leaks in ceilings/attic floors, at baseboards and electric outlets in exterior walls, and around exterior windows and doors.
2. Seal leaky air ducts at joints, starting at the furnace air handler, and insulate ducts that run through unheated basements or attics.
3. Hire a professional to tune up existing heating equipment, including changing air filters.
4. Turn off lights, and home office and entertainment equipment when not in use.
5. Install an ENERGY STAR-rated thermostat and program it to set back temperatures when you are asleep or away.
6. Insulate hot water pipes leading from your water heater, and install low-flow showerheads and faucet aerators.
7. Replace incandescent light bulbs with compact fluorescent bulbs.
8. Consider replacing an old refrigerator, clothes washer, or water heater.
9. Check your attic insulation and consider improving the R-value to R-38.
10. Invest in energy-efficient, right-sized heating equipment with the help of a good contractor.

Another great resource is the Home Energy Saver Web site (http://hes.lbl.gov), provided by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Home Energy Magazine’s host organization. At the site, you can input your zip code, plus some information about your house, and get back practical suggestions for things you can do to save water, energy, and money. Your local hardware store or big box home store will have all the tools and materials you need to do it yourself.

And I can recommend some Bay Area home performance contractors who will be able to do an energy audit of your home, make recommendations for upgrades, and contract with you to do the work you choose. The list is not exhaustive, but these contractors have been featured or will be featured in Home Energy, and they all do high quality work.

1. Advanced Home Energy (www.advancedhomeenergy.com)
2. Applied Home Performance (www.appliedhomeperformance.com)
3. Building Solutions (www.buildingsolutions.com)
4. Sustainable Spaces (www.sustainablespaces.com)

Hope this helps!