Solving the real estate carbon crisis with Passive Houses
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- Опубликовано: 21 янв 2020
- Geos was born of the desire to create a new generation of green neighborhoods, where energy from the earth and sun power a healthy community. Norbert Klebl, Geos’ master developer started with the premise that a well-designed and livable neighborhood should also be able to provide for all of its’ energy demands. This fusion of “geo” and solar became Geos.
Learn more about Geos here: discovergeos.com
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Isn't it interesting that when Norbert approached the big home builders, they said they could not do this. Reminds me of the big automakers when it comes to electric vehicles. Companies get so big and bureaucratic , if they can't innovate and change, and at some point they go out of business, or become a former shell of what they once were.
Just in my recent memory was Blockbuster, then Netflix came along, and at the start they mailed you DVDs and you returned them by mail, they would mail you another set of DVDs. Then streaming came along, and still Blockbuster didn't innovate and change and they are now just a memory.
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Housing is getting very expensive, when folks start to realize that don't have to be locked into high electric bills, they will gravitate towards those builders like Norbert and away from builders like D R Horton and Lennar. Thanks for doing this interview Sean!
It happens throughout industry, even in niche areas like mine. I was told repeatedly by professionals that I would never find music for the street organ in my avatar, while it was being built. I had to really push, and pay a premium to buy a handful of tunes, not because the task was impossible, but because of suppliers' laziness and apathy. So I make my own music. It's a learning experience, but certainly very possible to achieve, even by a rank amateur.
Norbert Keebler has had to do build his houses personally, simply to try to show people how easily it can be done. But even then, the so-called 'professionals' are still fumbling for excuses not to be intelligent about energy saving.
Very interesting.
My dad was a civil engineer. He built the home we lived in. He also did the south oriented house. In addition he made the overhang on the south side longer than the north side. That is so in the winter, when the sun is lower in the horizon, the sun goes into the window to give more heat. In the summer, when the sun is higher on the horizon, the sun is blocked from the window by the overhang reducing the solar heat..
Fantastic video. Do you plan to shoot a video showing the homes and possibly interview some of the homeowners. This should be done across the country! Great fit for electric car owners.
Amazing, it’s like watching This Old House on PBS. You should do a part 2 of an open house walk through tour.
Passive houses are amazing. Thanks for raising awareness about them in the US, Sean
Need to do a follow up video and go thru one of the buildings being constructed or a finished one and talk with the home owner.
Yes!
Fascinating! It sounds like new home construction in the US is ripe for a disruption.
Oh hey!
Depends on the tax man and his ego and lonely, well, you know. I am thinking of Andrew Yang plan for starters. The Venus Project for youth free the old. Money has to go. We base many things on money rather than the planet, our real home.
If only there was someone who specializes in disruption...Elon, party of one, your table is ready.
I'm working on that right now in MD. I'm retrofitting a 3 unit property. It's the second property I do. I'm aiming to get to passive level. Or close. The next property will be new construction.
BTU’s? Wow, I'd almost forgotten what they are! Haven't used them for over 45 years, and I'd assumed that nobody used them any more. So I was frantically trying to figure out how many Kilowatts or Kilowatt hours he was talking about. I'm glad that he did give a conversion at one point. Thanks for the fascinating and instructive interview.
Amen to this. Every time I visit central Europe I feel ashamed when I compare the laughably flimsy building standards we have and the general dilapidation of our infrastructure compared to them.
"flimsy" does not equal poor quality. drives me crazy when youtube commenters from Europe say "Your houses are made of cardboard". It's like "yeah, and we can afford to own them!". here in US you get bang for your buck. maintain a US home and it will last longer than anyone will want it, just like in Germany.
do I wish we built like Germans do. YES. Don't get me wrong. it's just the US way has its perks.
In the early 1980's there was interest to design and build energy efficient houses. The New Shelter Magazine was my favorite, By the 90's it seamed like the builders got Fat, Dumb and Happy.
John Walters definitely Fat and Dumb!
City planners, greedy so their house is free. Housing developments with crazy rules and 5 yr free taxes...selling 100g above cost and they do it again, raising values of old houses nearby.....BUT making rebuilding on a old lot a efficient small house illegal. Incentive to live healthy to watch them get laughed at as they die. And that is giving there nasty places too much attention.
17:00 Standard production homes have R1 doors and windows. Geos windows R28 Alpen triple-pane argon-filled fiberglass frame, entry doors R9 Therma-Tru. 30:05 5kW townhome solar, 6kW stand-alone homes.
Great video. As a residential energy advisor, I was able to follow along and understand everything. More and more of these net-zero/carbon-neutral neighborhoods are popping up... there’s one near me in Ontario Canada (West 5 community). Good to see!
As a Denver resident this gives me hope, as it really seemed that the only option for sustainable housing would be custom built, which of course would be completely unaffordable. I also have to say that aesthetically these homes are far more appealing than what are available from the big property developers (KB, etc)
Excellent show, Sean! I've known for a long time that traditional builders were dinosaurs. In fact, they remind a lot of the legacy auto makers- very slow to change or accept innovation. Well, now the auto makers are being disrupted by Tesla. I have hoped for a long time for a similar disrupter in the Home Building market. My had hoped it would be Monolithic Domes, but their residential market penetration remains small. The do build quite a few large schools, auditoriums and storage warehouses. They build a very energy efficient structure, due both to its shape, and it wall of foam and concrete, with a claimed R value even higher than the Geos homes. They have so much mass, that they retain their internal temperature very easily. But not everyone likes a home shaped like a sphere, though some are designed much better than others. If you are back visiting Texas, you should pop by Italy, Texas to see where they are made and where they have a few dozen built for show.
I see this as the trend for this century. Thanks for sharing a project so close to home. :-) "Ephemeralization, a term coined by R. Buckminster Fuller, is the ability of technological advancement to do "more and more with less and less until eventually you can do everything with nothing," that is, an accelerating increase in the efficiency of achieving the same or more output (products, services, information, etc.) while requiring less input (effort, time, resources, etc.)." Wikipedia
I hope it is the trend of the century! Thanks for watching.
Air sealing is under appreciated by most builders. A blower door test and air sealing should be a standard part of home building. Think of it like closing an open window in the winter. Adding extra insulation, triple pane windows, energy efficient doors, high efficiency heating and air conditioning systems, set back thermostats, LED lighting systems, energy efficient appliances, solar panels with battery storage and a 240 volt outlet in the garage for an EV charger should all be considered. Why pay high utility bills every month when you can have low utility bills and a more comfortable home by incorporating energy efficiency techniques into your building. It also reduces your fossil fuels use and is better for the environment. American building standards are too low and allow for the wasting of energy.
Kenz300 x Blower door tests are actually required by the current energy codes but there is not enforcement like the building codes so most of the time it’s not done. I reached out to my city inspector about some energy questions and he didn’t even know what climate zone we were in, so there really needs to be some improvement on both the builder’s and city’s side!
Great video, it shows that Norbert takes pride in his work, very wholesome
Thanks for sharing Sean! Congratulations Norbert, what a fantastic story and now reality of a sustainable neighbourhood! We need more builders/communities like these! Another example is in London, Ontario called, West5.ca
Thanks for sharing!
Fantastic! I've done about as much energy efficiency work as possible with our 1893 house, but my plan and dream is to build a net-zero custom home in a few years, up here in northern NH. I think this is a great intro to educate the layperson about what they should demand in a new home. We need to be more responsible, what we're doing is destroying the planet.
Excellent video describing what hopefully can be the first neighborhood of thousands across the country to reach a net-zero energy use.
In 2012, I wanted to build a passive house (in Belgium - not a sunny country). I looked for architects and entrepreneurs but when I was saying "passif" the prices of the architects were doubling and the prices of the entrepreneur were getting a >30% premium. I ended up taking a normal architect and doing all the calculation and design and the house itself by myself.
It took me 3 years of work on the week-ends (250m² house) but I now live in it since 4 years.
I consume ~5500kWh per year in the house but my pv installation produce ~10000kWh. The extra is for my model 3 I got in april 2019. I still have a net production of electricity.
What is important to me also is the maximum usage of rain water. Also, I built a heat exchanger for the shower and I believe that is it a nice saving.
According to my calculation, with a "small" wind turbine of 5kW and 3 tesla powerwall, I can be disconnected from the network. Unfortunatelly, installing wind turbine in my garden is not possible (Regulation are complicated for that in Belgium).
Here is the idea:
Home bathrooms are typically equipped with a ventilation fan in the ceiling. It serves two purposes 1) exhaustion of steam or high humidity created during taking a shower. 2) eliminating odours that occur during using the toilet.
Installing the fan in the ceiling is effective for the first purpose but ineffective for the second.
My idea is creating negative pressure in the toilet bowel (doing so by creating negative pressure in the toilet tank which is already linked to the toilet bowl by the over flow tube. A circular hole needs to be made in the back of the tank above the water line. Connect that opening with a tube that extends from the tank to a ventilation fan in the ceiling. That tube passes out of sight through the wall. This way, no odour and no need to keep the fan running for a period of time.
Took me a month to run across this video. This is the best walk through of whole system thinking I have found for passive homes.
Definitely better then current/commonly used building methods. A step in the right direction but humanity can do even better and has. I applaud Norbert's efforts and the difference he is making to help make the world a better place. Thanks for sharing Sean.
video: Let's walk through the house.
me: Hells yeah!!!
video:
me:
Very interesting Sean! Thanks so much for sharing! 👏
Been designing and building super-insulated passive solar buildings since 1977... mostly in Asheville, NC.
South facing windows are gospel among Passive House advocates. Here in Michigan, clouds generated by the Great Lakes guarantee that south facing windows will lose more heat than they gain. Geos, like so many others, propose universal solutions that may only apply to their individual situations.
Awesome video Sean. Love the ideas, building smart is the next logical step. Everyone building a house should watch this.
Thanks for shining a light on this Sean. It would be great to be able to do a tour.
Smart guy! I was wondering about an airtight box, which is normally something you don’t want for moisture and mold issues, let alone clean air - particularly in Oregon. For instance most insurance companies will not insure a home with stucco due to the lack of breathability and the structural dry rot that it promotes. Also not sure about Colorado codes, but in Oregon, exterior walls have been 2x6 construction, since forever, and 2017 codes require R21 in the walls, and R30-36 in vaulted roofs, R40 for flat roofs. But again this very well thought out, particularly HVAC loading and sun orientation.
Fantastic video... definitely will check this out..
I´m living in passive house since 2011. 120 sq m (1300 sq ft), 4 persons, overall power consuption for HVAC, hot water, appliances is 6 MWh annually + 1 cubic meter of wood. Best thing is fresh air and comfortable temperature all year round in four season region (CZ).
Thank you for this intelligent conversation.
Great video- much respect to this guy. He's obviously extremely knowledgeable and generous with his ideas. Keep up the good work Sean.
Great video you can really see his passion. He’s not just out to make a buck like most builders.
THANK YOU BOTH for the work that you do!
🙂
Passive houses or passivhaus-voluntary standard for energy use and air quality
Btw ‘Enerphit’ is the voluntary standard for improving existing housing stock 👍
Excellent content. This video should have 10 million views. Gotta promote it better
As a designer/builder with many decades of experience and study in Passive solar I didn't expect to learn anything new - I was wrong. Norbet is assume!
The next step for efficency would be to completely remove the windows so the only penetrations are plumbing, electrical, fresh air exchange, and the door. With modern television having amazing resolutions and MASSIVE sizes, there's really no excuse to even have windows any longer. They're just another way to loose heat and need to be cleaned. A few hundred buck on a big television instead of a high efficiency window (which will never compare to a view without having a penetration in the first place when it comes to insulation) will also give you whatever views you could ever want at the click of a mouse.
Great video.
Great informative video 😊👍
Thanks for watching!
Great video!
Thanks Steve
Really cool
Great video Sean. All new development should be built with efficiency in mind and almost all of them are not, so everyday thousands of brand new houses enter service in terrible shape. Listening while typing..ORIENTATION thank you!!
Kudos to his efforts. Unfortunately, K&B, Lennar and the rest of the housing builders probably won't be interested/incorporated.
Couple of suggestions: Rather than just sending the power back to the power company during the day, and using it at night (e.g. Net Metering) which isn't necessarily carbon neutral (and some would argue actually increases CO2 due to peaker plants having to run in the evening), he might have considered installed a boiler/radiant heating system which heats the water during the day and can circulate it during the night through the radiant floors (in addition to using it for hot water needs). And while the houses facing south is great for heading during the winter, he should consider facing the solar WSW since during the late afternoons/early evenings is when the peak power loads hit, and you can help lower CO2 loads (and in addition, at least here in NorCal with time-tiered pricing, you get more bang for your solar buck from 4pm to 8pm during the summer, which is still sun time here). Also didn't seem any talk about battery packs (e.g. powerwalls).
It sounds like he lives in a nice home that uses a lot of energy. I think I missed the part of the conversation where he said he, himself, was moving into one of his townhouses.
Also, when you build a super tight home like he's talking about mold growth quickly becomes an issue. Even here in dry Colorado. Curious what his solution is for humidity mitigation and how it uses as little energy as possible. Due to this, designs like this often don't work in many other parts of they country (and on a larger scale, the world) because even slightly higher humidity levels can't be dealt with in an efficient & safe manner.
Cool stuff for sure but it's not quite as simple as explained here for those interested in recreating.
Brilliant
Hey, I remember seeing Norbert pitching this at various Boulder area green events. Surprised I can't find a single video of any of such talks.
Point 1) Most of the homes were sold through owners referral. That sounds a lot like the Tesla story.
2) sadly, it seems that others in the industry are reluctant to do the same and continue to go the conventional route (sounds familiar again) As a result, if the legacy builders are not looking at the potential seriously, then maybe startups will do. One bonus, starting a small home building company requires a lot less capital than starting a car company.
As with Tesla, it took an army of RUclipsrs who know the benefits to educate the rest of us. Sean, I see that you are doing the equivalent with home building technologies 👍.
I have an idea to increase the efficiency I like to share it with a builder, I will post it in a second post.
Very impressive
Are you going to be doing a walkthrough video? I'd love to see the neighborhood!
Great video. Such a great area to focus on Sean. My personal aim is for my next build to actually sequestrate carbon. Make construction part of the solution.
You notice the sense of urgency coming from Europe. The rest of the developed world is going to have some intense conversations with the USA this year. It's going to be.... interesting!
Good work Sean, possibly one of your most important videos yet.
It's 30+yrs since I did what I could insulating my 160year old solid walled terraced house with internal wall insulation and also to the suspended floor - it was difficult and expensive and there was more left to do. I must have a half a yard of books from back in the 1970s on the passive house, 'autonomous house' etc.etc., it's facepalming that we're taking so long to follow up on those early ideas and with things like control systems being 100x easier and cheaper, PV now being economic there's just no excuse any more.
The UK government rowed back on new build energy performance standard for homes just a few years ago when progress should have been happening now. If, say, we have a target of 30yrs to upgrade our old stock of 30 million homes, that means we should be already working on 1 million p.a. Assume a cost of £10,000 per house [that's a low number] then that's £10 billion a year every year until 2050 that we need to put into the housing stock to perhaps cut energy consumption by the 50% you were discussing in the video.
That's the scale of the challenge and it's more important than transport in the UK's cool climate. Switching your car over to an EV is a cinch in comparison - I'm just looking at trading on to my second one. :)
Thanks for the comments Peter
since the house is air tight and requires a breathing system to circulate air flow.. it would be interesting to see if plants could provide enough carbon oxygen exchange to live symbiotically in given enclosure? also addressing bureaucratic building codes issue, rather than counting county clerks thinking American carpenters guild would adhere to passive practices proven..
Mapillary (crowdsourced) street-level images from the Arvada Geos 'hood (SE of Juniper Ct. & 69th Ct.) - construction and finished www.mapillary.com/map/im/t9p_6aSw9Rb5lmByNORsfg
First phase: www.mapillary.com/map/im/BtiMB2iuRplpgRytiKjF6Q
Tesla needs to get into the home / community building game. Homes are ripe for disruption. We need to create permaculture communities that are self sustaining. We waste so much energy and water on human waste treatment. Rain water capture should be standard. Composting should be standardized including human waste composting. So much opportunity in this space.
Sean, please make sure next time, that we see, what the guy is presenting ;)
Great video, but could have been an awesome video if 1) you cut to some of the images Geos was referring to and 2) use Lavalier mics for both of you. Thanks, keep improving!
The window solutions were interesting but I'd be curious to know how well the swapping out of the central glass pane for a film works long term. i.e. would the film degrade & if so, what's the longevity of it? From a developers point of view the film may make economic sense @ the construction phase but as a consumer I'd prefer pay a little extra to have all glass triple glazing knowing that there's not going to be any risk of discoloration or cracking from sun exposure. As a developer from a reputational perspective, i.e. the continued desirability due to long term reliable performance of construction; weighing the risks involved of upfront savings against possibility of long term insurance/legal claims would have to be carefully assessed.
Love the diversity of the content! Thank you brother!
Thanks for the video. Where is the link to the information?
In video description
just realized: He didn't build a house. He built a submarine.
Geos states that production homes have R1 windows and doors. This is false. The cheapest doors have steel skins with foam cores. They have about the same R value as his fiberglass doors. The only significant way to improve door energy performance is to decrease air leakage with a multi point locking system that adds $1500 to the door. An uncoated single pain of glass has an R value of 1. The cheapest vinyl windows are double paned and low-e coatings. Their R value is north of 2.5.
I think I'm looking at my retirement home. Go GEOS! I hope this catches on like Tesla did. Elon, meet Norbert please partner and make a Tesla home
What is the cost of owning/buying this kind of house? (compared to ordinary homes)
I'm curious if he has heard of the new T studs. These are in effect stronger studs with built in insulation or that allow for spray in insulation and are certified at R19. This also solves the thermal bridge problem mentioned at 11:30 which could potentially allow them to not use the hard board that they currently are. The only downsides that i know of with it is 1) they currently are supply limited due to a sudden uptick in demand with the release of ruclips.net/video/mxDSulcLpAE/видео.html they are currently building out more manufacturing lines to accommodate this though and 2) they do add a couple thousand in cost to the total construction cost of the house however if this would permit the removal of the hard board on the exterior this cost could be reduced, eliminated, or a net gain depending.
At around 36:00 you mention these homes go for North of $400k...Umm that's kinda expensive. That would work out to over $2500 per month. No one making $30-40k per year would be able to afford that. Does he have options or plans on creating a more affordable home...may be one for the working class.
Wouldn’t it make more sense to just use plans and crews from Austria, rather than reinventing the wheel here?
Great video!
It takes a European to fix things here, except for Elon Musk he is from South Africa.
So for me everything this guy says is obvious. Accept this window material; we use PCV, aluminium, wood frames with double triple or quadruple glass.
The thing I am concerned about is so called sick house syndrom; lack of circulating air can cause bacteria and mold spores to accumulate and make people sick. Ventilation is necessary, only energy recouperation is needed. So I guess polish companies could rule your market ;)
Always great to live with a small footprint but it’s important to act proportionately. Since there is no carbon crisis outside the mind of a truant schoolgirl, a wayward Vice President and several manic congresswomen, can the cost of this neighbourhood merit the savings? What is the break even?
Jeff Harmed And over 11,000 scientists
Again debunked and very unsavoury statistical malpractice.
You are too smart of guy to not be an expert on R-values. This could really separate you from other real estate professionals. I am surprised your clients aren't constantly asking you questions about this. Do they just ask how much to heat and cool the place for a year?
Gotta flip lot burgers for $750,000 no? Must have government job no? Prob from rich family so college and medical was free. LLC baby =free lunch. How about a flat tax to go with $750,000 """average"" LOL homes.
there is no carbon crisis
You didn’t watch the video, did you? 😂
Yeah, 97% of scientists are insane.
@@AllThingsEV i did. btw that changes nothing about my initial statement that there is no carbon crisis.
I own a Tesla M3 and have solar. I enjoy your channel. However, It is not ‘carbon’ it’s CO2 as you know, a colorless, odorless gas necessary for all plant life on the planet, which in turn produces oxygen, necessary for all other life on the planet. Nor do we know it’s a ‘crisis’. Humans are not smart enough to know our impact on the 4 billion old planet, what happens if we inadvertently produce a CO2 drought and plant life starts to die? Humans belong to this ecosystem as much as the bald eagle. On the other hand, all forms of energy are necessary for a healthy economy, which is required for humans to thrive throughout the world. Sustainability is just common sense, but not at the cost of human prosperity.
Lol
you are sooo right
Won’t be much prosperity if we’re all dead.
LOL plants were thriving long before we started producing CO2 so I highly doubt a drought crisis will be our downfall! I suggest watching ‘Cosmos’ for more information.
Your facts go against your conclusion. If plants were using all the CO2 we were emitting then the CO2 levels in the atmosphere would be stable or declining. Plants seem to produce plenty of oxygen before the industrial revolution. The actual 150 year old experiment of putting millions of tons of CO2 into atmosphere is the crazy part because there is no evidence to say human and the plants we depend will survive at those levels while there is millions years of history to say they can survive at lower levels. The planet will definitely survive higher CO2 levels but there is not one animal or plant on the planet that was around the last time CO2 levels were this high. You are gambling with a lot of lives.