Adapting our Buildings to a Changing Climate
photo credit TERRAPIN Bright Green
I'm thinking of a series of green articles like this that show not so much what is wrong with our environment but rather what to do about it now in the new world of climate change. This is a start:
Designing for a Moving Target: Adapting Our Buildings to a Changing Climate
Many buildings are at the planning stage, permit stage, excavation stage and it's too late for the designers to factor in climate change for many of these but for the future we should see more adaptation to our changing world.
We need to rethink how we approach building design and operations to respond to the changing reality of the weather. Current codes and practices for building and infrastructure design work under the assumption that the climate will not change. However, in the next ten years or so, buildings will have to make the transition to a new climate, something similar to Washington DC. New codes and practices will have to require us to build for a warming climate and account for its unpredictability. The question no longer is how can we build energy-efficient, water-efficient, or economical buildings based on the climate of the previous 30 years, but how can we design these high-performance buildings for the projected climate across their anticipated 50+ year lifespan?
Please let me know of any other adaptations that you have heard about.
Comments
There's a regional map of the USA included
in the above post. See:
Summer's Here, And So Is The Heat
Click on each region to see how summers have warmed since 1970
To thine own self be true.
Problem with the link
try this
http://www.terrapinbrightgreen.com/blog/2015/06/adapting-buildings-clima...
To thine own self be true.
A primary challenge is energy storage
The utilities and their lobbyists are working hard to rig the market place. NC had an ALEC bill passed that 1) does not require the electric utility to buy from individual producers and 2) lowers the % of utility power that must be produced with renewables.
Solar and wind harvesting would cut into utility profits. I know of two potential remedies. Elon Musk recently announced availability of batteries that are about 8'X4'X2', that can be wall mounted. Used in tandem with solar panels, the battery can store excess production and return it upon demand. The inefficiencies of conversion from AC-DC-AC are all clean, solar, energy. Secondly, electric vehicles can be used for energy storage. Of course, the correct answer is to not have the market rigged.
I was happy to see a bunch of windmills populating a ridge in SW PA near Uniontown. That's coal country.
I have always been confused by so called conservatives who preach austerity and fiscal conservatism, but think energy conservation is bad. You don't suppose they are influenced by money?
The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe. If you try it, you will be lonely often, and sometimes frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself. - Friedrich Nietzsche -