Basically, invest 14% more in construction up-front, and save 86% on space-heating costs over the long term. THAT'S FUCKING HUGE! These things are a major hit in new construction in Central and Northern Europe.
More, these things are pretty much exactly what you would want as a new, high-tech business for the bottom 60%, or at worst the bottom 80% or bottom 90%. I mean, everyone wants to save 86% on heating, and America has a whole lot of people who live in cold, temperate climates.
So here's a Big Idea for the Unexotic "Underclass", and the middle class, too: how do we bring down the up-front cost to the point where people start being able to afford investing in energy-efficiency, particularly in cold areas that can really use this kind of thing?
(Because this kind of stuff doesn't even really matter to the capitalist/upper class: their utility bills are negligible versus everything else they do.)
A bunch of years ago I read about "Passivhaus" insulation in the New York Times. The wiki page is here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Passive_house
Basically, invest 14% more in construction up-front, and save 86% on space-heating costs over the long term. THAT'S FUCKING HUGE! These things are a major hit in new construction in Central and Northern Europe.
More, these things are pretty much exactly what you would want as a new, high-tech business for the bottom 60%, or at worst the bottom 80% or bottom 90%. I mean, everyone wants to save 86% on heating, and America has a whole lot of people who live in cold, temperate climates.
So here's a Big Idea for the Unexotic "Underclass", and the middle class, too: how do we bring down the up-front cost to the point where people start being able to afford investing in energy-efficiency, particularly in cold areas that can really use this kind of thing?
(Because this kind of stuff doesn't even really matter to the capitalist/upper class: their utility bills are negligible versus everything else they do.)