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The Florida Solar Energy Center energy triangle shows that the design is the most important part of making a home energy efficient. The next step is efficient equipment, followed by changing the homeowner's lifestyle (conservation) and renewable energy is the last thing to be considered. This blog from "Scientific American" reinforces the suggestions from FSEC.


"Most of us know we should rein in our energy use. But to be successful, it’d help if we knew the best way to do it. So scientists asked more than 500 people, “What’s the most effective thing you can do to conserve energy?� The results were illuminating.

More than half the participants focused on conservation by curtailment: switching off the lights, changing thermostat settings and driving less. Only 12 percent went for efficiency: using compact fluorescent bulbs, insulating the house or driving a hybrid car. But scientists say that it’s actually these moves that yield the bigger energy savings. The results appear in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. [Shahzeen Attari et al., http://bit.ly/bEtA6W]

The study authors think that a big factor is that curtailment is easier to imagine doing—while efforts to improve efficiency would involve, for example, doing research about new appliances or cars, and spending money up front to buy them.

But if people knew more about the actual energy requirements of their activities versus the savings available through efficiency, they might be spurred to act. To quote physicist and energy expert Arthur Rosenfeld: “Energy efficiency is like a Saudi Arabia under our cities.� "

—Karen Hopkin

[The above text is an exact transcript of this podcast.]

http://www.scientificamerican.com/podcast/episode.cfm?id=public-underestimates-savings-of-en-10-08-17#comments

After months of trying to figure out what the public wants in the way of truthful information about "Green Building", we have come up with this website. Although it might not answer all of your questions, we hope that the links we have provided will put you on the right track.

During the past few years, we have been over exposed to the "green" designation. I, personally, am tired of hearing this term. However, I can't seem to come up with another short term for the emphasis on building or remodeling homes in a sustainable, ecologically friendly, affordable, environmentally responsible manner. Kind of like the "organic" term. It means a lot of different things to different people.

Being green is not just in the way we build our homes and workplaces. It starts with the design, which is probably the most important facet. Then we work on the equipment and materials we incorpoate into our buildings. Next is supplying the occupants of these buildings with the knowledge of how to use them appropriately. The last phase is using renewable energy to supply the diminished demand we require by using the first three phases. The overall result is a comfortable, sustainable, healthy structure that will require less maintenance and less energy consumption from outside sources.

We hope that the information in this website will help you in your search for reliable information. If you have any questions, please reply to greenhome@citruscad.com.