1. paint the flat roof of a commercial building WHITE to avoid heat buildup during the summer.

2. In many places in the USA, simply using a solar hot water heater (or a Trombe wall with/without a fan) to pump heat into the house during the winter would greatly reduce heating costs.

Many of the safety problems faced in the past are the result of a pernicious regulatory environment rather than regulatory lapses.

The US Navy has built and operated _hundreds of nuclear vessels. The design and operation of their power plants is far less prone to error than what exists commercially.
In the commercial environment, the biggest hurdle was regulatory rather than technical. The challenge was/is getting the design approved. With billions of dollars at risk, the “safe” way to go was to merely replicate an older, poor design that was already approved.
There are many (old) innovations available to make nuclear even safer.
The history of this type of reactor is worth reading about. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pebble_bed_reactor

Re smart houses, ground loop heat sinks, etc. Right, it’s quite odd we don’t have such systems. But consider that most people can’t program a VCR. Major companies – NSP, Philips, Honeywell, even Microsoft have had prototypes for years (acutally decades). You can find some products at smarthome.com. Yes, latent heat issues mean that it is usually almost as or more efficient to keep a fairly steady temperature in conventional structures. There are sizable savings available in heat sinking into something more efficient than outdoor air (again often constrained by an inexplicable array of regulations). In Hong Kong, all the major office buildings heatsink their AC to the harbor. Not going to happen in the US.

Regarding notions such as “renewable” building materials, I revel in amazement at the intellectual dishonesty scientists are able to get away with.
Practically speaking, there is no usefulness in this term as applied to building materials except to propagandize. Why do we care that we cannot “renew” clay for bricks as fast as we use it up? Can anyone seriously argue that we are running out of Fe, Si02, Gypsum, Al, limestone, or clay?

Buckminster Fuller designed buildings out of light-weight aluminum shells arguing that we would soon run out of stuff to build houses out of. To him, wood was what we were sure to run out of. Of course, the main “renewable” building material is wood. But if we take one set of environmentalists at their word and start to build extensively from wood, we quickly run into another group that decries timber farming. Philosophically speaking, a true-blue Green won’t be happy until the human population is reduced to a few thousand of us wearing grass skirts and eating nuts and berries.

Want to cut U.S. carbon emissions nearly in half? Convert all electrical generation to nuclear. Build reactors to reprocess spent fuel rods. Quit fighting over a permanent storage facility for truly spent rods and just build it.

Yes, nuclear waste is dangerous. Yes, it must be managed. Yes, there’s always the chance of an accident. But if you really believe the ice caps will melt and our cities will flood, well then it’s a pretty easy choice. Energy efficient light bulbs and geothermal AC aren’t going to cut emissions in half, I guarantee that. They won’t “cut” it at all, just barely slow growth. When I hear ‘experts’ talk about such silly band aids, I’m forced to conclude they don’t really believe global warming is going to do any serious harm.

And the other half? We either need cheap fuel cells or really good batteries for our cars. But note that neither of those technologies will do squat in terms of actually cutting CO2 output unless they are backed by an energy source that doesn’t produce CO2. Wind won’t cut it. Solar is too expensive to get the masses on board. That leaves…

Nuclear.

Doesn’t Bill Gates’ house in Seattle area have a lot of energy-saving features, in addition to the sensors which play the type of music the family member/guest who’s just walked into a room likes to hear?

we installed a geothermal system in ‘99. I think it was about $12,000 complete (with ductwork). I’m pretty sure I could have gotten a propane furnace and AC unit installed for about half that.

Cooling is very economical. Heating is more than expected, some of our electric bills are $300/month (avg is probably about $125 over 12 months)

Our system is the “pump and dump” style, using well water. That can only be done if you have acreage. Another style uses underground tubing for heat exchange, that also requires quit a bit of space.

The house is owner built (1984 – now…), double-wall superinsulated. We heated with wood for the first 15 years – my poor, suffering wife.
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I don’t think current construction practices allow a house to be unheated during the winter. Even if you drain the pipes, moisture gets in the drywall and destroys it – must maintain at least 45 degrees or so. So I’ve been told.

FYI – British Petroleum makes the best solar attic fan (that’s just the functional classicist in me speaking up for a well crafted product I’ve used and installed).

Best Wishes in Terms of Efficiency and Novelty,
imightbethatguy@yahoo.com

I agree about residential AC’s having trouble if house warmed up too much while nobody was home. If I leave thermostat at 85-90 F during the day it almost impossible to cool back down until very late at night (DC area)

We could even account for forecasts:
Indoor temperature 76 degrees F
Outdoor temperature 65 degrees F (it’s 2:00 AM)
Forecast high tomorrow: 82 degrees F

Conclusion: turn on the attic fan.

Likewise, in the morning as the temperature is rising, the system would be smart enough to button things up at the appropriate time in the morning.

The state seems to have a pretty novel approach to achieve a large near term savings. While the Ice Caps melt, maybe its time to look for better technology oriented solutions.

energylover@gmail.com