The American Home

One of the sessions I was able to attend at the GB conference was Kevin O'Conner (host of This Old House) along with Ted Benson (modular homes) and Steve Kieran (architect). The whole theme was the transformation of the American home through the 20th century, and the idea that the pendulum of consumption has swung to its extreme and has no direction to go but back towards normalcy. For example, in 1900, the number of homes in the US was 16mil, compared to 105mil in 2000, which is close to twice the percent increase of population during that time (75mil to 280mil). In addition, the median home size in 1900 was for 7 people (seven!) whereas in 2000 is was 2 people (currently, close to one quarter of all homes in the US are single person homes). We all know the average family size is currently 2.6 people, well, in the middle of the century it was 4.6 people. It's not that hard to grasp the drastic drop in family size, unless you compare it to the fact that average home size has more than doubled since the middle of the century (currently 2300sf). That suggests the average person has over 3 times as much space in their home than they did mid century (from 300sf to 1000sf). Bigger homes for less people.

It is this trend, the trend of excess consumption that has allowed the US to be the world leader in resource consumption and the world leader in emissions. Please do not get me wrong in my accusations, I am not scolding large dwellings in this setting (I'll save that for a different setting), but I am scolding the efficiency of our built environment. Ted Benson had a great quote which was:
"Economic bubbles and cheap energy deepen the ruts and make us stupid. That's what happened to many of us in the 80's and 90's. Energy was cheap, homes got big, people got silly. We built some beautiful homes in that era but they weren't the smartest. But recessions, like this one, and high energy costs jerk us on to new paths and create opportunities, because we get very creative."
The trick, which was mentioned in several forums, is to make the connection from the capital cost of building to the O&M cost that the building developer passes on to the future building owner. Developers need to be more conscience and responsible of the way their building will operate, and purchasers need to be more knowledgeable of what they are buying, and if it is built efficiently with properly sized HVAC systems and adequate insulation so that the price they are paying isn't skewed by the ongoing energy costs.
None of this is new and innovative, but merely an organized onservation from the past 110 years, and what we have become. Learning from history can sometimes give us good perspectives on what what causes our trends and what we have to focus on to fix them.

To view the presentation (unfortunately sans slides) go to: http://www.greenbuild365.org/GreenExpoVideoDetail.aspx?GreenExpoID=34