Tag Archives: housing industry

Lessons From The UK Heat Pump Study: Insulate First And Know What You Are Getting

Posted on September 14, 2010 by Benny Hollywood| Leave a comment

number of heat pumps vs coefficient of performance from Energy Saving Trust Sami recently wrote 80% of UK Heat Pumps Performing Badly and suggested that “Lloyd will no doubt be feeling more than a little validated by this study.” Indeed; I will never understand why people will shell out tens of thousands of dollars on heat pumps, new windows and solar panels before they will insulate or caulk. But the study makes some good recommendations about how to get the most bang for your buck when you buy a heat pump and how to ensure that it is done right…. Read the full story on TreeHugger

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Quote of the Day: Scott Adams on Green Building

Posted on August 25, 2010 by Benny Hollywood| Leave a comment

Not exactly Scott Adams’ new green home, but the one he designed for Dilbert. Dilbert creator Scott Adams writes about his new house in the Wall Street Journal: The greenest home is the one you don’t build. If you really want to save the Earth, move in with another family and share a house that’s already built. Better yet, live in the forest and eat whatever the squirrels don’t want. Don’t brag to me about riding your bicycle to work; a lot of energy went into building that bicycle. Stop being a hypocrite like me.

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Clayton’s i-house 2.0: Reading Between The Lines To Find The Future Of Prefab

Posted on August 25, 2010 by Benny Hollywood| Leave a comment

Preston at Jetson Green shows us Clayton Homes’ i-house 2.0, a larger version of their green modern prefab introduced two years ago (and seen in TreeHugger here ). It is a handsome design, beautifully presented. But while Preston says that “I-house has been insanely popular”, another source noted in the spring that “Apparently, Clayton’s hotcakes are sti… Read the full story on TreeHugger

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Another Reason Modern Green Prefab Is Tough: Construction Financing

Posted on August 19, 2010 by Benny Hollywood| Leave a comment

Installing prefab in Sweden. Photo credit: Haninge I was intrigued by a recent post from prefabber Blu Homes about construction financing. They wrote: “The homeowner must procure construction financing – a short term, interest only loan that will give the homeowner the funds to pay Blu and the site contractor the costs of construction. ” Really? I didn’t know you could get construction financing for prefab. In fact, this was one of the biggest problems… Read the full story on TreeHugger

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Another Reason Modern Green Prefab Is Tough: Construction Financing

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Mix’n Match Prefab: A New Approach from Michelle Kaufmann

Posted on August 18, 2010 by Benny Hollywood| Leave a comment

One of the problems of modern prefab is to find a balance between the efficiency of standard plans and the flexibility of customization. Michelle Kaufmann gives us an exclusive preview of a new concept, where you mix and match different, but standard, boxes. To use a clothing analogy, most modern prefab designs were never really “off the rack” but were more like “made to measure”, where a pattern would be modified and customized for the customer. Some prefabs, like the Acorn from Empyrian, were closer to “bespoke”. But the problem with customization is that it takes time to price, adds time to construc… Read the full story on TreeHugger

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Michelle Kaufmann’s New Prefab Series Explores the Power of Zero

Posted on August 4, 2010 by Benny Hollywood| Leave a comment

Ridge0™ Image by Michelle Kaufmann Studio Michelle Kaufmann Studio has launched a new line of homes called the Zero series. As the name implies, the Zero series homes are all about nothing…nothing wasted, that is. The designs abide by the same basic tenets as Kaufmann’s iconic Glidehouse: smart de… Read the full story on TreeHugger

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Life Cycle Analysis Shows The True Environmental Cost of Swimming Pools

Posted on July 1, 2010 by Benny Hollywood| Leave a comment

Palm Springs, California Not surprisingly, hot places like Phoenix or Palm Springs have a lot of backyard pools. Warren wrote recently about their environmental cost in terms of energy and water, but a new life cycle analysis of all of the inputs and outputs, from electricity to water to pool chemicals, shows the true scale of the impact. And of course, the impact is worse in cities like Phoenix that have little water and coal-fired electricity. … Read the full story on TreeHugger

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Garden Shed Home Offices Sprouting Up in UK

Posted on June 2, 2010 by Benny Hollywood| Leave a comment

The backyard-shed-as-home-office idea is catching on in North America, but it is nothing compared to what is going on in the UK. There, they are being promoted as turnkey solutions that reduce commuting, save money for companies, and are being offered as fully outfitted workspaces, the cubicle of the 21st century. A new entry is from podSPACE ; Alex at Shedworking writes that “the pod comes with data/phone points… Read the full story on TreeHugger

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Vancouver’s EcoDensity Program Produces an Explosion of Small Green Modern Design

Posted on June 1, 2010 by Benny Hollywood| Leave a comment

It takes guts to make change happen, and some cities have them, others don’t. In Vancouver, they changed the regulations to permit housing in back lanes, calling it EcoDensity; it is a carefully crafted bit of legislation that protects views and privacy but gets rid of the NIMBY factor that has paralyzed this kind of thing elsewhere. (See http://www.treehugger.com/files/2009/08/vancouver-approves-back-lane-housing.php) Now it is coming to fruition, with the first laneway houses designed under the bylaw getting built. First up in Bryn Davidson’s Lanefab house, 710 square feet of green modern design in at the back of a house on Vancouver’s east s… Read the full story on TreeHugger

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One Family Homes To Solve New York’s Congestion (Not)

Posted on May 28, 2010 by Benny Hollywood| Leave a comment

The website Sunday Magazine has an interesting idea: it looks at the New York Times Sunday Magazine of exactly 100 years ago for the most interesting article. A century ago this Sunday they covered the hottest planning idea: Single family houses in suburbs. … Read the full story on TreeHugger

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