Tuesday, January 1, 2008

How about CAFE for houses?

At $3 a gallon (and up) my personal energy costs are too damn high. Of my three big energy bills, two of them are in the news, becoming subject to federal law, but the third and biggest nobody talks about. We have a law requiring better gas mileage on cars. We fortunately failed to pass a law requiring electrical companies to shower cash upon the makers of solar cells and windmills. Neither of these efforts addresses my biggest energy bill, heating oil. And, there is a straight forward technological fix for heating oil use. Better house insulation will reduce heating oil use. Enough insulation and the house will stay warm without a furnace, even in New Hampshire. Enough in that case is two feet, but it can be done. I know people with houses built just that way with no furnaces, up here in northern NH where it gets really cold.
Stiffen up the building codes to require super insulation on new residential construction and the new homes won't require heating oil.
Why is the public and media attention all focused on cars and electrical generation and not home insulation? Surely even the most ignorant newsies have paid an oil bill?

1 comment:

Manori Sumanasinghe said...

What will be the solution for cooling the house during summer? Surely the heat will contain inside the house during summer and running Air Conditioners to keep the house cool would also run up energy bills. Having the windows open may work for houses up in the mountains but it wouldn't in city areas like NY, Boston, etc.