Wired Science

In the future kindly refrain from such pollution of the airwaves.

Unless I heard wrong, the cost of this eco friendly home would be $4 million. Ignoring for the moment the energy consumption to create a $4 million house, consider what would be practical for a large impact on society and the environment: a similar house priced at $40,000 to go on a $40,000 lot in an inexpensive community. What the designer needs to do is eliminate 99% of the cost.

In deference to the recent jump in the price of building materials, perhaps the goal should be a home three times that with a cost of $120,000. In that case the designer need eliminate only 97% of the construction cost.

Until such a story can be found I suggest you find an editor who will banish such detritus of pseudo science to the trash heap where it belongs.

FYI, the links under related links are all broken.
See example below:
http://www.pbs.org/kcet/wiredscience/story/www.epa.gov/greenbuilding/

You can trim them to make them work but just wanted someone to know.
Thanks

While I agree with the previous poster that the cost is absurd, I'll note that in the show this is pointed out and livinghomes houses designed by a different architect to come in at much lower price points are mentioned. Further, equating price directly with energy consumption is an oversimplification and it would be nice to see some justification before such comments are casually tossed out.

On the other hand, it would have been nice if more technical detail were provided. How efficient is the house exactly? How good is the insulation? How is it heated/cooled? What are the exact differences in materials used vs. a conventional house? Some of this stuff was mentioned but not very specifically.

I find the previous poster's comments to be abrasive and useless. They are purely critical, and not at all constructive, especially when he attempts to use bombastic language as a replacement for sound logic ('banish such detritus of pseudo science (which is one word, by the way) to the trash heap where it belongs).

Though this *prototype* of the eco-friendly home was 4 million dollars, the interviewee specifically stated that the production of affordable environmentally conscious homes was in the company's near future.

I wholeheartedly support the program's inclusion of this interesting story, and hope that Steve can exercise his ill-informed criticism in a more productive way in the future.


-Joe

While the features of this house are impressive, what about including a list of energy usage stats that compare to a conventional house of similar size and location?

It appears someone missed the point of the interview, namely a "green" house constructed of re-cycled non-polluting materials utilizing renewable energy. So it costs 4 mil to construct it in Brentwood, LA. For the uninformed "Brentwood aint got no cheap, Jack!" In fact coat was never mentioned as a consideration in the project. What the project did show was that a very acceptable structure could be built in a very exclusive neighborhood successfully.

While I agree with both sides of the argument. I believe that $4 mil is out of reach of most. I believe $4 mil could do a lot more for research to save the planet, than it does for 1(one) home. I believe $4 mil would buy a heck of a lot of land somewhere and just build an earth home and see the real green changes... You could have property to save from landfills or whatever and have one of the most energy efficient houses built to boost. Check them out... http://www.motherearthnews.com/Alternative-Energy/2003-02-01/Down-to-Earth-Homes.aspx

"In the future kindly refrain from such pollution of the airwaves.

Unless I heard wrong, the cost of this eco friendly home would be $4 million. Ignoring for the moment the energy consumption to create a $4 million house, consider what would be practical for a large impact on society and the environment: a similar house priced at $40,000 to go on a $40,000 lot in an inexpensive community. What the designer needs to do is eliminate 99% of the cost.

In deference to the recent jump in the price of building materials, perhaps the goal should be a home three times that with a cost of $120,000. In that case the designer need eliminate only 97% of the construction cost.

Until such a story can be found I suggest you find an editor who will banish such detritus of pseudo science to the trash heap where it belongs."

Such comments are inflammatory and without foundation. Keep in mind that this is a house in LA where average home prices are in excess of $1 Million for a meager dwelling. Put it in perspective. Further more, if you were so interested in being 'eco-friendly' you could do some of your own research and build your own home for pennies on the dollar. "Green" building practices and materials are as close as your front door. All you need to do is look and don't be so quick to criticize.

Of course the proto-type's are going to have all the bells and whistles that anyone can dream up. It's like buying a Ferrari or Smart car, they both do the same thing, provide transportation.
I think that the principles and intent are sound ideas. As mentioned, in future both cost and size can be lowered to suit a more modest budget. Do you really need a retinal scanner?

I Would like to know where I can get more information on the Solar Panels used on you prefab house showned on 12-227-07. This looks very cool.

ChunkyDark, we fixed the links. Thanks for the heads up!

Joe and Kristin make good points and in retrospect I agree I wrote impulsively while tired and with overboard emotion. Sorry.

Yes, I am unfamiliar with that part of California. I grew up in a small town in one of the central farm states and recently revisited it, observing again some of the older homes that are about the size of many people's current garages. Though I consider myself now reasonably middle class, I sense a widening gap between the very wealthy and the large numbers of lower middle class folks whose budgets are becoming stretched. It was with that background that I was expecting something that would help society and I over reacted to the $4 million price tag.

The designer is quite free to use his money to build his dream house and I truly hope he enjoys his creation and that some of the ideas will have wider practical application.

I enjoyed this show very much. Yes the cost of the living home is out of reach for nearly all of us, but then what new inovation is not at first. Look back at the cost of the first computers and their size. We need to get this subject before the average Joe. We need to think about it digest it and then make its benifits accessible to everyone. I would also like to mention that I find it almost impossible to read the comments of the other veiwers on this sight because of font and type size.

I agree with Rebecca- I go to a lot of web sites and I'm unable to make the font size larger( because they use style sheets).

I enjoyed the show very much.
Did anyone think about building the house in New Orleans??

I am NOT from New Orleans, but I see a lot of news about
needing to build houses down there. I would think the land would be cheaper.

I do believe that Green is the wave of the future.Their are a lot of people trying to capitilize not only on the buy land cheap while the mkt. is down and sell high later and get rich.One thing is for sure,we are not making anymore land and thats part of the thing about saving the future.Im going to build me a new log home and Im doing all my homework on everything cost eff. as well as green.I know their are gov. grants and tax cuts out their for such projects,just wonder how much gov. grant money or private inv. he had on this project? I agree that a show should be done on green and this type of houses,but 4 mill? Get real and come back down to earth with one that most of the american,blue collar workers can afford to build.Think that would be better air time spent.

The first poster's comments are completely idiotic. This is a DEMO house...it's been made to show a concept of new technologies that are based on renewal sources.

Such stupid comments and mentalities would never have lead us to now be driving around in a HYBRID vehicles, as an example.

The demo house COULD HAVE been made for a lower cost homes AS AN EXAMPLE DEMO UNIT and would have probably created more interest and appreciation but the demo of technology is very impressive.

Where can I find more information about the solar panels used for this house? I'm considering expanding my existing PV array; these SEEM to have a much better output than my current panels, but only the specs would tell the complete story.

When are new segments of the program going to start up again?

Interesting that I grew up in the house featured in this episode. My parents, both deceased now, lived in the home for 40 years before we sold it in 2005. Interesting changes that were made.

I would like more information on maker of the solar panels that were used?