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Buildings Generate More CO2 Than Industry or Transportation

PLN-Charts-04-home-1Plan Curtail provides the rationale and methodology for reducing home CO2 emissions from heating and cooling by as much as 80%. This is especially important, since the International Panel on Climate Change and most nations agree that an 80% cut in all emissions is needed by 2050. Our residences (homes and apartments) generate 21% of U.S. CO2 emissions, about 10.2 metric tons annually per residence. On average there are 2.6 people in a household. Thus each of us is responsible for 4.1 metric tons of CO2 yearly, just from our homes. This is about the same as the CO2 we create by driving.

Many people hope that green buildings, (such as LEED for Homes) and energy-efficient buildings (such as Energy Star) will result in deep CO2 emission cuts. Unfortunately, such programs only provide a 15-30% reduction in CO2 emission compared to current building codes. In addition, they are only applied to 10% of new buildings, while the other 90% are built to conventional building codes that do not emphasize low energy use. Since buildings last for decades, most buildings will require expensive retrofitting in order to meet this 80% reduction.

The nation will need to retrofit existing homes to approach the much more efficient Passive House standard. New Passive Houses (not to be confused with passive solar houses) reduce the energy used for heating and cooling by 80%. Even a deep-energy retrofit, which can be staged to help manage the expense, can reduce CO2 emissions by 50-75%. There are 115 million residences in the US, most of which must be retrofitted to a higher efficiency standard. More than 40,000 new or retrofitted Passive House buildings in Europe show this is possible.

Energy-Efficient Building History

16-Years of U.S. Green and Energy-Efficient Home Building | February 2016

Revisiting the Green Tragedy | February 2016

Historical Building Books

The Super-Insulated House Book by William Shurcliff

Super-Insulated Houses and Air-to-Air Exchangers by William Shurcliff

Super-Insulated Houses and Double Envelope Houses by William Shurcliff

Major Energy Conservation Retrofits by U.S. Dept. of Energy

Thermal Shutters and Shades by William Shurcliff

New Innovations in Low Cost Solar Heating by William Shurcliff

Air-To-Air Heat Exchangers For Houses by William Shurcliff

Primary Sidebar

The Best 600 Articles from the Journal of Light Construction and Fine Homebuilding I Have Read and How to Get Them

Passive House Revolution (2013)
Click Here to Purchase DVD
Director - Faith Morgan
The Green Tradegy (2009)

The Green Strategy by Pat Murphy

by Pat Murphy
Click on Image to Purchase

Related Housing Sites

  • 1000 Home Challenge
  • Building America Program
  • Building Performance Institute (BPI)
  • Green Building Advisor
  • Home Performance with ENERGY STAR (EPA)
  • Musings of an Energy Nerd – Martin Holladay
  • North American Passive House Network
  • Passive House Institute (Europe)
  • Passive House Institute US
  • Residential Energy Services Network (RESNET)
  • Weatherization Assistance Program (DOE)

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Pat Murphy and Faith Morgan
Post Office Box 207
Yellow Springs, Ohio 45387
937-767-2103

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