In a typical home, 43% of the utility bill goes toward heating and cooling.
Homeowners want ready access to a variety of building methods that can make their homes more weather resistant and energy efficient.
Energy, Weatherization and Technology can incorporate energy efficiency into rebuilding technology options by educating contractors and homeowners on how best to repair or rebuild damaged homes in a more flood and wind-resistant manner.
These aren't usually cosmetic solutions.
The U.S. Department of Energy's Technical Assistance Project includes information and technical specifications that include renewable and energy-efficient technology suggestions for reconstruction.
The Oak Ridge National Laboratory has tested many high-performance building materials and provides municipalities and states with training materials and information on incorporating energy efficiency and renewable energy technologies into the rebuilding or repairing of flood- and wind-damaged homes.
Many local governments incorporates the energy efficiency and renewable energy
technology materials into workshops and training materials for
contractors and homeowners.
Some of the high performance technologies that are being tested and developed are found on the Department of Energy's division websites such as:
ORNL - Oak Ridge National Laboratory
DOE EERE Energy Efficiency & Renewable Energy
Seasonal Energy Savings for Consumers
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
Physical and Life Sciences
Much of Livermore's research is at the molecular level and reaches into the depths of space, but some research is also directed to the natural spaces around us. For instance,
Through research funded by the California Energy Commission, scientists from the Laboratory, the University of California at Merced, and the National Center for Atmospheric Research found that temperatures in California from 1915 to 2000 have increased by 1.16°C (2.1°F) statewide.
The research, which appeared in the March 2008, Supplement 1 edition of Climatic Change--dedicated to California's climate--also suggests that the warming may be related to human activities.
The team used data from nine sets of observational records and from a suite of climate model simulations of natural internal climate variability to analyze trends in California-average temperatures during the periods 1950-1999 and 1915-2000.
The researchers found large increases in mean and maximum daily temperatures in late winter and early spring, as well as increases in minimum daily temperatures from January to September. These trends are inconsistent with model-based estimates of natural internal climate variability, and thus require one or more external forcing agents to be explained. The researchers suggest that the warming of Californian winters over the twentieth century is associated with human-induced changes in large-scale atmospheric circulation.
Recent climate models have not been effective in explaining California's summertime trend, where warming mainly occurs at night.
Based on their previous research, the team suggests that lack of a detectable increase in summertime maximum temperature arises from a cooling associated with large-scale irrigation, which may have counteracted warming from mounting greenhouse gases and urbanization.
If this hypothesis is verified, the acceleration of carbon dioxide emissions combined with a leveling of irrigation may result in a rapid summertime warming in the Central Valley in the future.
SO... more energy-efficient and weather-resistant homes could be a good strategy in California's Central Valley!