From the category archives:

Philosophy

Energy Performance Oversight and a Gas Guzzler Tax for Homes?

March 4, 2011

I know I owe everyone a redesign of our Performance Sticker and some talk of the various available home energy use metrics, but that is tall order, and I have been a bit short on time. So, instead I’m going to buy a little more time with a discussion of one of the lesser points that arose [...]

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Can We Upgrade Rental Grade?

February 10, 2011

Most of us have probably heard the term “rental grade” in reference to the finishes in an apartment or rental house. Finishes referred to in this way are usually chosen largely for low cost and/or high durability. Things like occupant health or design aesthetic tend to be secondary at best in a “rental grade” unit. This marginalization [...]

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Design – Build Cost – Energy Efficiency Infographic

January 12, 2011

I have a topic for discussion that has been brewing in my head for some time. It is illustrated below in an educatedguessographic about the New Construction Home Building in the US. Discuss. Hypothesis: If builders built homes in the “Market Gap” circle, they would sell them. If banks lended to builders that were catering [...]

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Where Are My Discounted Urban Mortgages?

December 16, 2010

I believe that mortgages should be biased toward homes in urban areas. This is not simply because such a bias would offer a positive response to global warming or the growing crises sparked by our energy gluttony (though its effect in those areas couldn’t hurt). Nor is it driven solely by my own love for [...]

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A Rational Response to Climate Change?

December 2, 2010

Those in a position to fully understand and appreciate the looming consequences of our planet abuse have reached the point where politically motivated equivocation is waning. The tempered suggestions of carbon caps and higher efficiency standards are giving way to more drastic and likely more honest suggestions. The fact that those suggestions can and will [...]

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Energy Consumption: Home vs. Transportation

October 29, 2010

There are many appeals to living in a Postgreen home. Some like them for the modern look, some for the increased comfort of a home that has no drafts or spots of significantly varying temperatures, some for the extremely clean air, and many for the very low utility and water bills. It is that last [...]

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It’s Not Easy Being Small: Marketing Fewer Square Feet in the Land of More

October 22, 2010

We have talked before about the unreasonable growth in American home sizes even as the average household size continues to decrease. We have also spoken about the need to understand houses based on performance rather than square footage. Often these conversations turn toward educating potential home buyers. Ideas like understandable metrics and car-style performance labeling [...]

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Urban Garages: Car Closets in the City

October 7, 2010

Everyone who has read this blog knows I have a certain anti-car bent. It’s not that I am adamantly against the automobile itself. In fact, I actually enjoy driving. One of my favorite jobs I ever had was delivering pizzas. However, I do believe that far too much of our infrastructure is designed for and [...]

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High Performance Houses for a High Performance World

September 21, 2010

An odd image dug it’s way out of my mind the other day. I pictured a person sitting in their suburban track home flipping the channels on the latest hi-def, flat screen TV. I imagined them telling me all the amazing television performance specs as hundreds of channels whisked by at the speed of an [...]

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Fifty For Five Brings Nic to New Orleans

August 25, 2010

That’s right, I’m headed down to New Orleans bright and (too) early tomorrow morning to cover Rebuilding Together’s big event in the Big Easy. Fifty for Five is an effort to rehab 50 homes in the Gentilly neighborhood in 5 days and is a sort of celebratory construction binge to mark the more extensive work [...]

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