ONARCHITECTURE- Saved by zero: Sustainability offers sustenance


As the building industry as we know it seems to be collapsing, and as fuel prices soar, the latest research in energy efficient building technologies could be poised to revolutionize the way we live. No joke. Not only have researchers refined various energy saving technologies, but they've begun to integrate them along with various building technologies, which could make houses as energy efficient as they are affordable.


Since 2002, Christian has directed an effort to create "zero-energy" houses, a goal that is close to fruition. Recently, Christian competed five "zero energy" houses in partnership with Habitat for Humanity which were built for about $100,000 each and cost little to power. 

After "tweaking things" over the years, Christian says, the houses have grown increasingly energy efficient, without becoming expensive. Using such things as Structural Insulated Panels (SIPS),  triple pane glass, geo-thermal heating and cooling systems, even glass that changes from transparent to opaque, Christian says he's built an 1,100 square-foot house that costs about a dollar a day in electricity, and a 2,600 square foot house that cost about buck-and-a-half a day, compared to a similarly sized conventional house, which costs about $7 a day. 

As he describes the technologies employed, many of them seem to involve more common sense than they do fancy gadgets. For instance, the houses have geo-thermal heating and cooling systems, which take advantage of the fact that underground air temperature is warmer than outdoor air in the winter and cooler in the summer. Heat-pumps in the houses draw on this underground air through buried ductwork, a system that normally requires separate and extensive below-ground drilling that can be very expensive. But Christian discovered that a sufficient underground duct system could be installed along with the normal excavation required to build the foundations. And the practical innovation didn't stop there. To take advantage of the heat created by the heat pump units themselves, piping was circulated around the units to supply hot water.


Other features include air-tight SIPS that can be easily and inexpensively installed by contractors to create the framed envelope of the house, while proving superior insulation. The houses also include solar panels that heat water and generate electricity. And the standing seam metal roofs come with "cool colored coatings" that reflect infrared rays and reduce the need for air conditioning.




Here in Charlottesville, UVA's architecture department is making its own contributions to the affordable, energy efficient housing movement. The department's ecoMOD project, directed by John Quale, assistant professor of architecture, and P. Paxton Marshall, professor of engineering, is addressing what Architecture Dean Karen Van Lengen calls "some of the urgent matters of our time." 

Though Quale says Christian's work has not had a direct impact on the ecoMOD project, he calls the work being done at Oak Ridge National Laboratory "very interesting." In fact, Quale invited Christian to speak at UVA earlier this week (a Tuesday press deadline prevented the Hook from covering the talk). "The reports that appear on their website are helpful," says Quale, " but there's nothing like a face to face to really impact a design process."


In fact, the ecoMOD project was recently selected as one of 12 finalists for a Word Habitat Award, which go to projects "that provide practical and innovative solutions to current housing needs and problems."

"This recognition is meaningful... because the emphasis of the World Habitat Award program is on visionary yet realistic affordable housing strategies that have an emphasis on sustainability," said Quale.

Indeed, the idea of a 2,000 square foot home for $100,000 that cost a dollar a day to power sounds plenty "sustainable" to us. But why stop there? What if homes were affordable and produced energy, like little power plants?
