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I totally agree with you. The posters have been extremely detailed and informative with technical answers, something that an engineer finds refreshing. My comment was on the statement
"Eco-friendly goes beyond writing the utility bill each month, it's about not taking up more than you need and can use."
That in my opinion goes well beyond a good discussion on efficiency standards and building codes. I tend to bristle when someone is preaching to me that I may be taking up more space than I need or could use.
I was agreeing with someone else's post, for starters. Secondly, while I realize that some members had taken the conversation into an engineering direction (which is fine), I wasn't commenting on the engineering perspective, but rather the original post/intention of the thread.
That being said, I'm really not sure what you're asking me. I made no mention of government intervention in our choice of home. The question is "are smaller homes more eco-friendly?", and I think they are. There's more to an eco-friendly home than how efficiently the AC/heat runs through the house, there's how much land is disturbed, stormwater runoff, etc., and smaller has less of an impact on these factors.
Sorry you took it personally, but I have no idea how much space you are taking up, need or using. If you mentioned it somewhere in this thread, I missed it.
I don't know, but smaller homes with low square footage sure would keep my electricity bills low. Especially during summers in Texas.
a small pot full of water. or a large pot full of water. Which takes longer to heat and cool?
small homes are going to need to run the AC or the furnace pretty constantly to keep at the temp. A larger home can go through longer periods of low use when brought to desired temp.
a small pot full of water. or a large pot full of water. Which takes longer to heat and cool?
small homes are going to need to run the AC or the furnace pretty constantly to keep at the temp. A larger home can go through longer periods of low use when brought to desired temp.
If that were true, and the analogy applies to homes hooked up to utilities, then why are people in bigger homes paying bigger electricity bills? And something tells me that they don't set their thermostat at 71 or 72 around here. Might be different up in Colorado, though.
Saying a big house is more efficient than a little house is a bit like saying that 10mpg 7000# SUVs are more efficient than 100 mpg 500# mopeds.
The SUV moves 500# 140 miles per gallon of fuel
The moped moves 500# 100 miles per gallon of fuel
Therefore, driving an SUV is 40% more efficient than riding a moped.
Feel free to go download the energy program and run the scenario for yourself. The results speak for themselves. I never said out of the box that they were more efficent, just equal, and the smaller homes respond more favorable to energy efficent upgrades than the larger homes.
a small pot full of water. or a large pot full of water. Which takes longer to heat and cool?
small homes are going to need to run the AC or the furnace pretty constantly to keep at the temp. A larger home can go through longer periods of low use when brought to desired temp.
And yet the utility bills on larger houses are still more expensive than on smaller houses when construction methods are the same, aren't they?
This is an interesting discussion IMO - and one that needs to happen.
I'm no engineer nor designer. I'm just a guy who had in mind what he wanted - and I found a great designer to help.
We were going to build in a very rural area. We were going to be totally off the electric grid. No natural gas. No "land line" telephone. No cable television. No city water (we were going to have a well).
Our home was constructed largely with adobe block/brick - including a number of interior walls. Because of the size of the home (a little over 4,000 sq ft) it took close to a year to get enough adobe brick made.
Our electrical system was designed to allow for complete solar power - with battery storage capacity and generator backups if needed. We had several different phases designed for this - the main home, the pool and recreation area and the out buildings - all are on different circuits. When taking into account the rebates that were provided by the local utilities, and the state of Arizona, the net cost of this system was almost $0.00 additional over a "standard" system.
We have had the system in operation for not quite a year now - and so far, it has operated flawlessly. This past week we put a tremendous demand on the system and while I saw the reserve capacity decline, it never caused any problem whatsoever.
Being here in Arizona, I am a solar power advocate - but not a "greenie" by any stretch. I wish more people would incorporate solar into their homes -
And yet the utility bills on larger houses are still more expensive than on smaller houses when construction methods are the same, aren't they?
I never said they were less expensive in terms of utility bills. Everyone keeps saying that the bigger houses are not as efficient as the smaller ones, which is completely and undeniably untrue. They are just as efficient, and if you get the client that has extra money, they can be MORE efficient.
I never said they were less expensive in terms of utility bills. Everyone keeps saying that the bigger houses are not as efficient as the smaller ones, which is completely and undeniably untrue. They are just as efficient, and if you get the client that has extra money, they can be MORE efficient.
So it's settled big and small houses can be equally efficient if the money is invested into doing so. But in the big picture of what's best for the environment, small efficient homes would be best, to use less resources and take up less land...since the issue isn't simply efficiency but the amount of resources used.
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