This article argues for a comprehensive and holistic approach to prepare Australia’s housing for future heatwaves.  It argues that  housing, health and energy issues are all strongly linked. In extreme weather these are also linked to disaster management and emergency services.

“We are using air conditioning as a band-aid instead of identifying the cause and seriousness of the condition. Australia’s continued lack of planning to solve the problem is a risky strategy.”

It argues for better ratings and building requirements to drive smarter design and construction.

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Australia’s recent heat waves have drawn attention to keeping houses cool.  New Zealand might not have reached the same heat extremes but there have been extended hot periods on the east of both islands – it’s an issue we’ll have to face sooner or later.

This article looks at keeping cool through design, construction materials, location and occupant behaviour (should you shut the house up or open it up?)

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Check out Elon Musk’s new solar roof tiles.  This article assesses what they do, their pros and their cons.

Read more http://www.sustainablecitiescollective.com/brookenally/1298678/guide-solar-roof-tiles-next-big-thing

The head of the Resilient Design Institute has built his own house for passive survivability.

“Passive survivability is defined by the Resilient Design Institute as “ensuring that livable conditions will be maintained in a building in the event of an extended power outage or interruption of heating fuel.” It’s achieved via superb energy design”

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The 2015 International Energy Conservation Code (which is American, not even recognized nationally, let alone international) requires that the house gets tested for the building equivalent of blood pressure, which is air tightness.

As of October 3, New York State has made blower tests mandatory to check houses reach the standard adopted in New York – 3 air changes per hour at 50 pascals of air pressure difference.

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The UK Energy Saving Trust has recently held a Big Energy Saving Week.  Interestingly, one of their main points was that consumers should be looking for the best supplier deal.

They found fear of the unknown was often behind consumers not making changes to save money – Read more

Check out their campaign on the Energy Saving Trust Facebook page

A continent-wide initiative, The European Energy Efficiency Mortgage, has launched, aligning some big players in lending, building and energy. It is looking at energy efficiency’s links to a reduced probability of default on payments – something that ultimately lead to more attractive lending rates offered. There will also be an exploration into the effect of energy efficiency measures on property value.

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How much energy do building codes save over time? That’s the question that a new report released last week from the Department of Energy (DOE) aims to answer — and the answers show the results can be mammoth, both in terms of consumers’ utility bill savings and avoided carbon emissions.

The DOE found that energy codes with modest updates over the years could save consumers $126 billion on their utility bills from 2010 to 2040. This equates to a carbon pollution reduction of 841 million metric tons, equivalent to the greenhouse gases emitted by 177 million passenger vehicles driven for one year or the carbon dioxide emissions from 245 coal power plants for one year.

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Wood floors are beautiful, but what if they could generate renewable energy too? Engineers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison have designed revolutionary wood floors that harvest energy from footsteps. Not only can they create power, but the floors are also sustainable because they utilize wood pulp that would most likely be wasted otherwise.

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Paving over large driveways can prevent rainwater from soaking into the ground where it can benefit plants and enter the groundwater system. It can also result in future stresses on landfills as driveways are torn up and replaced.

This article gives a few green driveway options that you can prevent these issues and create a greener driveway.

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