Bill Swietlik has worked in EPA's Office of Water in Washington DC since 1988. In 2009, he  created the EPA Green Homes website.  This website provides pages of useful, practical information and advice for the homeowner or apartment dweller to live a greener, more energy efficient life at home.

While he was developing the website, he and his wife  decided to implement as many of the recommendations as possible to see if they could live greener, and after six months the results came in!

• They are using 35% less electricity,
• They are using a bit less water,
• They are recycling 75% of all our household waste,
• Most storm water runoff stays on our property during each rainfall,
• They are gradually eliminating our ½ acre of lawn (and all the work that goes with it) and turning it into a garden of native plants by re-naturalizing our yard.
• They purchased 100% Green Power (renewable electricity) from the local utility through their renewable energy program.
• And, they've done all this with minimal expense and are saving almost $550 a year on energy bills!

EPA's new Green Homes website is at  www.epa.gov/greenhomes

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!

We can design our hearts out, but the final results of a building's functionality is up to the people who use the building for their purposes.  And they never ever match the architect or designer's expectations!  The public is "fickle" -- meaning, of course, complex and unpredictable. But in a recent research project to identify the value and impact of a specific green building and people's experience of it, researchers delved in-depth into the likes and dislikes about the Philip Merrill Environmental Center in Annapolis, MD. 

The most liked features of the building included:

• Connection to nature and the bay
• The lunch room
• Views to the outdoors
• Openness of the space
• Daylight
• Sustainable resoruce use
• Overall aesthetics
• Parking
• Location

And the least liked features of the building included:

• Temperature conditions
• Things not working right
• Moving from downtown
• Insufficient storage
• Insufficient meeting rooms
• Glare from windows
• Central vs. local copiers

Intriguing.   People WANT nature, but then don't like natural conditions.  They like overall space and aesthetics, but dislike taking time to walk a bit to use the space.  We like space but want lots of stuff around us.  Yes, Virginia, we are complex beings! 

Maybe the challenge is one of attitude.  Even an attitude of gratitude! How do we design gratitude into building functionality? 

SOURCE:
The Human Factors of Sustainable Building Design: Post Occupancy Evaluation of the Philip Merrill Environmental Center, Annapolis, MD. by Judith Heerwagen, Ph.D.; Leah Zagreus; and prepared for Drury Crawley, US Department of Energy Building Technology Program