Houses and apartments that heat and cool themselves

Hello and welcome to The Associated Press Climate Watch newsletter. I’m Ingrid Lobet, climate editor. Have you ever lived or worked in a building that was very cold on cold days or hot on hot days, sometimes even hotter than the outdoor temperature? This post may be for you.

A lot of smart people are working to reduce the nearly 40% of climate-damaging gases that come from the way we make buildings: the construction materials that go into them in the first place plus the day-to-day running.?

Here at The Associated Press , we have reported a fair amount on heating systems that use less energy, and on making cement and steel in ways that don’t contribute as much to climate change. But there are also a lot of traditional building ideas that architects and builders are? modernizing that help buildings use less energy. Think of them as ideas that help a building stay cool when it is hot outside and warm when it is cold out.??

This kind of architecture is now known as passive building, because the angle of the building itself and other intrinsic features passively help the building keep humans comfortable inside, minimizing the need for mechanical systems like air conditioning that use energy.?

Windows are central to this approach. In passive buildings they are placed where you want to let in heat and light. They’re avoided or minimized in places where they are likely to overheat the building. Prominent roof overhangs that extend for several feet out from the building allow the winter sun – which strikes at a lower angle – to come in, but block some of the highest-angle hot sun in the summers. This is something traditional American Southwest architecture well understood, with its deep-set windows blocking high-angle sun rays.?

There are several certifications for passive houses now. Some certifications show that the building has clean, healthy indoor air, uncontaminated by sooty, outdoor pollution, by carpets, by paints that emit gases, or by the gases and particles released by gas stoves.

Many architects and builders are advancing this field. To name a few, TBD Architects in Chicago, RODE Architects Inc. in Boston and Passive House Construction LLC in Roxbury, Massachusetts.

The Passive House Institute U.S. is one of several organizations that certifies passive buildings. It has created a standard for each of nine U.S. climate zones, taking into account the cost of each recommended element and what its payoff will be in energy savings.?

The number of buildings built to this standard is increasing, said Lisa White, co-director and technical lead at PHIUS, in an interview with the AP, and more and more of the buildings are multifamily.?

When she started in the field 12 years ago, "most of the projects that we saw were smaller, niche, kind of either what you call tree hugger type of situations and people that really cared about the environment or people with a lot of money," she said. But "affordable multifamily building is actually where this is most prevalent now."

A cider-making business in upstate New York was built to the standard and owners estimate it reduced their energy use for heating and cooling by 40-60% compared to a standard build to the code. Several small communities in the same region have been built using passive design. What may be the largest certified project yet is in the Bronx in New York City.?

Massachusetts recently put in a building code that aligns more closely with the Passive House standard.

Some passive buildings are also built to survive extreme weather better, to keep occupants at a survivable temperature for several days without power, either warm enough or cool enough.?

The importance of this is apparent every year. A recent example was Winter Storm Uri in Texas in 2021 when several dozen people died. The AP has also reported on homes that are being designed to survive storms and use less energy so that they contribute little if at all to climate change.

To help builders make wise choices on a budget, there is now software that allows them to run different scenarios in a given climate zone.?

"Understanding and managing the amount of energy that buildings use is a really, really critical piece," White said.

• Check out all our climate coverage here?

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?Climate Solutions?

Darkened street lights and the glow of phone flashlights moving through houses are becoming more common as outages from extreme weather become more extensive and last longer. A typical solution, for those who can afford it, is to go out and buy a generator that burns gasoline, propane or diesel fuel. But those generate fumes and soot and they contribute to the climate change that is amping up the extreme weather. So many people are asking if there is a clean way to provide emergency backup power. A look at the state of the market for different products that combine backup batteries with solar. Read the full story here.

Thank you for reading this newsletter. We’ll be back next week. For questions, suggestions or ideas please email [email protected]?

This newsletter was written by Ingrid Lobet , an editor for climate and environment, and produced by climate engagement manager Natalia Gutiérrez .?

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