Whatever the future holds by way of a carbon tax, or increased electricity costs caused by ‘catch-up’ investment in old infrastructure, or plain ordinary privitisation, you can be sure of one thing: energy costs will not go down – they will surely rise.

It is therefore as smart business as ever to design buildings (whether new or renovated) to be as energy efficient as possible. Smart design is passive design. We take that to mean using as little energy as possible to provide a naturally comfortable lifestyle – and this does not mean living in a bark hut or a dark dreary cave. It is possible to make buildings that use virtually NO energy for heating and cooling. We do it on a regular basis – any exceptions are usually caused by people, not the laws of building physics. Even sites with poor solar access, or west-facing with massive afternoon heat loads can be designed as zero-energy (or zero-carbon if you prefer) buildings. In reality, every building will use some energy, but if the big ones – space heating and cooling, and water heating – can be looked after naturally with minimal extra input, then a little bit of renewable energy can cover the remainder. But compromise is the enemy of perfection.

So we encourage you to exercise discipline in your design choices, as well as your lifestyle choices. It makes everything work better!

Tags: carbon tax, energy efficiency, passive design, rising energy costs, zero-carbon

This entry was posted on Monday, April 4th, 2011 at 3:12 pm