The Rocky Mountain Institute has released a new report suggesting that there’s a less noticed change under way in how we use energy at home — and pay for it — that could have dramatic potential.

The institute calls it “demand flexibility” or the potentially catchier “flexiwatts.” Both terms refer to the growing ability, through the use of a variety of timers and controls, for homeowners to determine precisely when during the day (or night) their home’s energy hogs – like, say, the hot water heater or the electric car charger – draw their power.

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If you haven’t come across the Australian Sanctuary magazine, it’s worth a read.

This article reviews a Sanctuary article by Australian architect Ande Bunbury about designing houses to last.

She says it takes sustainable design (orientation, aspect, location), flexibility, simplicity, durability and attention to embodied energy.

“In the end, longevity is not just about whether the materials last, but rather a combination of appropriate design, durability, maintainability, embodied energy and reusability. To make wise decisions you need to consider all these factors.”

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This modest three bedroom house uses batteries to store the electricity which it generates from the solar panels that function as the roof, and has massive amounts of insulation to reduce energy use in winter months, it should be able to export electricity to the national grid for eight months of the year.

“One reason we built this house,” says Cardiff University design team leader Professor Phil Jones, “was to demonstrate to builders that you could meet the standards at an affordable price with off-the-shelf technology. The housebuilders could do it too if they wanted to.”  According to Jones, the building costs of the 100 square metre energy positive house could drop below £100,000 if several were built at the same time

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Check out this BBC video on How Buildings Learn by Stewart Brand

He introduced the concept of “shearing layers of change”- that different parts of buildings age at different rates, causing buildings to constantly change and evolve. There are six “S”s- site, which is eternal; Structure, which can last hundreds of years; skin, perhaps 20 (although brick is pretty eternal) Services, the electrical and mechanical, 7 to 15, space plan, the interior layout in commercial space can be as little as 3 years; and stuff, the crap we bring in, “things that twitch around monthly.”

Watch it here