[Greenbuilding] [BULK] FW: Aerated Autoclaved Concrete

[Leslie Moyer]

Jeannie Babb Taylor wrote:
> Most people (especially spec builders) just want to
> purchase the cheapest home possible.  If they aren't the one paying the
> heating/cooling cost, what do they care about performance?  Nor do they care
> how well the structure will hold up over the next 30 years.

Jeannie, I think this is an important point that's relevant to all green 
building strategies, especially lifetime energy cost.  We lived in our 
last home for 12 years.  Despite the fact that it had "6-inch walls", it 
was a terrible energy hog.  I suspect there was little to no insulation 
in those walls (some were very inaccessible due to vaulted 
ceilings)--and I'm sure there was none under the always-cold slab.  At 
first, we couldn't afford to do much renovation....then, later, when we 
could afford it, we realized we didn't want to sink all our money into a 
house we wanted to get out of.  It was a poorly-built home when it was 
new and 25-30 years later it was still a poorly built home.  We did very 
little in terms of improving the energy use of that home.  It was then 
that we decided to build a new energy-efficient home (which is still 
in-process). 

The people who bought our old home were only planning to be there 2 or 3 
years--they wanted to move back north where their family lives.  So they 
don't have an incentive to renovate it either.  So there it sits--still 
sucking too much energy.

My point is that we are such a mobile society that it is rare that 
anyone live in a home for more than 5 or 10 or 15 years.  That isn't 
enough time for most energy improvements to "pay off" for THEM.  
Building NEW homes has to change, for sure, but we also have to figure 
out what kind of incentives would really make a difference for improving 
the energy use of older homes.

--Leslie