Zero Energy DesignTM by Larry Hartweg
Affordable, Low-Energy, Low-Income Housing
Who are we hurting the most?
Perhaps the most significant sin of the easily avoidable American energy crisis is the simple fact that the heavy burden of the escalating cost of non-renewable energy has a much larger impact on the low-income people who can afford it the least. Drivers who must pay for their own fuel, minimum wage workers, those living below the poverty level, fixed income people, retired people, and especially people with disabilities may not be able to pay their ever-increasing utility bills, gasoline, food and rent.
The current energy crisis is caused by uncaring Americans with a gluttonous addiction to excessive energy-wasting vehicles that get less than 30 mpg, when 40 mpg conventional cars are readily available at discounted bargain prices today. The average American car gets about 17 mpg. The average European car gets 25 mpg. If the American average rose to only 25 mpg, we would not need to import one drop of expensive Persian Gulf oil, and the price of gasoline would be much lower for everyone. 40 mpg cars are readily available today. Every time someone purchases a family vehicle that gets less than 25 mpg in the city, we move even farther away from energy independence for the life of the car.
Our American energy crisis is also caused by uncaring people who live in houses that are poorly designed, poorly constructed, and have an AVERAGE of nearly $2,000 a year in energy bills, when Zero Energy Homes with essentially NO energy bills were demonstrated long ago. These thoughtless people demand business-as-usual inefficient energy wasting houses, which force polluting power generation stations to be built at high prices across the country. If Americans would do simple things to reduce their home energy usage by 50% (or more), then the price of energy would be much lower for everyone.
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s utility bills for its roughly 5 million units of low-income, affordable housing total over $4 billion a year. Many of these units are small, uncomfortable, leaky, energy-inefficient project apartments. The energy used in most of these units could easily be reduced by at least 30 percent with only a few inexpensive repairs and enhancements.
Future Near-Zero Energy HUD Homes COULD cut utility bills by much more than retrofitting the 5 million existing energy inefficient HUD homes. These new ZED homes would be much more affordable for low income families and people with disabilities, when total monthly expenditures are considered. It should be legally mandated that all future subsidized housing projects exploit Near-Zero Energy DesignTM features.
Subsidized planned communities projects should take advantage of significant economies of scale for heating, air conditioning, fresh water, hot water, sewage, laundry facilities, lighting, appliances, modern communications, natural landscaping, security monitoring, etc.
There should be high standards that only make such assistance available to law abiding legal residents, and quickly remove criminals from subsidized housing programs (which was a major failure of many previous projects from the Great Society to the hurricane disaster victims of 2004 / 2005).
Crime must no longer be tolerated in subsidized housing projects. Anyone who abuses our nation’s generosity does NOT deserve it. All types of criminals, drug dealers, and gangsters must no longer become role models for the children of low-income families in subsidized affordable housing projects.
We must assist low income children with healthy supervised recreational activities that get them exercising and interacting constructively, instead of leaving them in front of television sets to become obese introverted couch potatoes. The ZED lifestyle should be abundant, healthy, and in harmony with nature. In every climate, ZED can provide delightful entertaining, energy efficient recreation opportunities like indoor sports, well-lighted and monitored sports courts, swimming, etc. Pleasant study areas, daycare, and remedial tutor programs should be facilitated and coordinated by community volunteers who appreciate the housing subsidy they are receiving. This can help otherwise unemployable people live happier, somewhat productive lives. They need constructive role models to set things in motion and help it along the way from time to time.
The American energy crisis impacts poor people the most. We owe them our support until our energy crisis is resolved, BUT we must NEVER subsidize crime in any community at any time under any circumstance.
ZED projects should be mandated for relief of natural and man-made disaster victims (hurricanes, tornados, floods, terrorist attacks, etc.). Our government MUST stop subsidizing the manufacture of all forms of energy inefficient subsidized housing, with NO exceptions allowed ever again.
Our Congress passed basic legislation to encourage energy efficiency, but the Non-Learning HUD executives continue to ignore the cost effectiveness of ZED (for over 25 years), for the low income people who immediately need assistance the most during the escalating American energy crisis. How very sad this situation has become, with little hope of near-term improvement - Simply outrageous misuse of billions of tax dollars! We need a grass roots campaign to correct the energy ignore-ance of HUD and local state and county low-income housing authorities. Minimizing initial cost and ignoring the near-term future consequences is among the dumbest this our Non-Learning Nation is continuing to do with our tax revenues today.
Get More Information in Larry Hartweg's 800 page book on
Passive Solar Heating and Cooling Techniques
"Zero Energy DesignTM"
The End Of Poverty ?
Lyndon Johnson’s 1960’s “Great Society” social reforms tried unsuccessfully to end poverty with an ineffective welfare state. Since then, America has recognized the need to provide subsidized housing projects to assist those in long-term or temporary need. The Great Society housing projects wound up creating a dependency on the state, and for many they eliminated the motivation needed to find a job and contribute to the community. Lower socioeconomic poorly-educated non-learning people in poverty were forced to live in crowded projects. With unplanned free time on their hands, some turned to a life of crime, just to get ahead. Thieves, gangsters, thugs, pimps, prostitutes, alcoholics, drug abusers and drug pushers became role models for the impressionable youth, who are now idolized in popular gangster rap music, etc. The more shocking and outrageous their behavior, the more popular they become. This is NOT a sustainable trend toward a life of antisocial crime.
The many mistakes of the Great Society effort did not end in the 1960’s. Consider the 2004 / 2005 hurricanes in Florida and the Gulf Coast. Three powerful hurricanes crossed paths in central Florida near Walt Disney World during the Summer of 2004. They were made worse than historical hurricanes by the Inconvenient Truth of general Global Warming, brought on in part by the way America burns excessive amounts of fossil fuels, and spew tons of greenhouse gasses into the atmosphere, which accelerate Global Warming toward the Tipping Point (where the polar ice caps melt and the largest coastal cities go underwater).
Following the 2004 hurricanes, the Federal government eventually created fields of poorly-built, energy-inefficient mobile homes for low-income homeless people. There was essentially NO background check for if these people were law-abiding citizens, worthy of assistance. The crime rate was extremely high in these free housing sites. Similar things happened after hurricane Katrina in 2005. It is a flawed pattern of subsidizing lower socioeconomic crime that has been repeated many times since the Great Society failed welfare state in our Non-Learning Nation. FEMA gave away credit cards that were then fraudulently used for ridiculous things, etc. No one seems concerned or accountable this ongoing total lack of wisdom. Will we continue to repeat these many mistakes after the next serious disaster?
I think it is almost criminal that our nation passes an energy bill to encourage people to conserve energy, and then when we provide subsidized housing we waste many billions of scarce tax dollars on encouraging the construction of the worst type of flimsy, inefficient housing ever built in America. Manufactures have to gear up to deliver these cheap trailers and mobile homes, and then they use that capacity in the future to deliver more cheap junk to consumers for a long time in the future. It should be against the law for any federal, state or local agency to build or provide any type of building that ignores today’s ZED cost-effective best practices.
We do NOT want to encourage or perpetuate this type of Great
Society stupid behavior in future subsidized housing projects, but we DO need
to assist those LAW ABIDING WORTHY CITIZENS who have served their
country productively, and who now require our honest compassion, just to
survive in dignity.
People With Disabilities
I believe this public assistance should include people with disabilities, who have difficulty paying for food, rent and especially escalating energy bills. Some of them may be disabled veterans who fought courageously in foreign wars for the goals that our politicians defined for them. Some may be public servants who were injured in the line of duty protecting citizens from crime, natural disasters or terrorism. Others may have medical disabilities that our limited healthcare system has not been able to cure. And there is a growing number of aging Americans who will soon need assisted living facilities, but want to maintain as much independence and dignity as is reasonable in their challenging financial situation (having lost good jobs that were outsourced overseas by shortsighted failing American corporations).
Great Gifts, Great Responsibilities
When you look at the first picture of my 1979 house on the Zero Energy DesignTM home page, you see that I have been blessed with gifts, talents, and opportunities to contribute to my employers and to society as a whole. My inventions have literally generated billions of dollars in revenue for others, and I have spent a lot of time training people in the many lessons I’ve learned over my productive lifetime. My father taught me “Lifelong learning in an ever expanding universe of endless possibilities.” The value of the knowledge I have accumulated of these many years has great value to our failing American society. We have the ability to reverse our decline, and begin to prosper with a new Abundant Energy Lifestyle in harmony with nature.
I am a second-generation successful scientist who grew up with two wonderful parents that taught me I am special, and I need to give back to society in the measure that I have received. “For unto whoever much is given, of him shall be much required:” Great gifts and talents bring great responsibility of the one who receives them.
I believe that solving the American energy crisis is the greatest calling of my life – not so much for the benefit of the wealthy, but more for those who can least afford escalating energy costs.
It is one thing to work with intelligent people in the upper one percent, who have the cash to pay for a million dollar home – to help them eliminate utility bills and live an abundant energy life in harmony with nature. BUT, it is something quite different to design low-energy-consumption, low-income housing that people with disabilities can afford, appreciate, and use as a base from which to proudly make their own productive contribution to society. It is perhaps the greatest challenge I have ever faced, and I am motivated to do what I can.
I have solved complex problems for wealthy people, and for some of the world’s largest corporations. I no longer have to work for a living. Now, I want to provide solutions for law-abiding worthy people with disabilities and low incomes, who have been negatively impacted by the energy gluttony of our once-wealthy Non-Learning Nation.
It is time for the privileged few to give back to the society that helped them accomplish their personal goals in life. I wonder if Bill Clinton, George Bush, or John Kerry will put their hands to the task of building Zero Energy Homes for the homeless, or is this important task beneath them?
Low-Income Housing for People with Disabilities
I have volunteered a portion of my week to assist a Chamber of Commerce project to provide low-cost, low-energy housing for people with disabilities. I invite others (who have also been blessed with an abundant life as I have) to invest some of their time and energy to help others less fortunate than themselves. I do not suggest indiscriminately throwing money at charities, but rather get involved with specific individuals, and how your contribution will specifically help even one of them, or a deserving family. The smiles of those you have been helped are a great reward for anyone. You will sleep much better at night, and wake up feeling that your life has a greater purpose than just selfishness.
After 9/11/2001, I went into a period of deep introspection. I literally went to Google and searched for the “meaning of life”. (smile) It is not so much what I found there, but merely that I wanted to read what other people felt about what it means to be alive, and what we will leave behind when we no longer are.
As the American energy crisis worsened, and our nation continues to send billions of dollars to foolishly pay for Persian Gulf oil, I realized that I must do whatever I can to share my experience and teach people about 25-years of cost-effective ZED.
Habitat for Humanity
Habitat for Humanity is one popular program, endorsed and supported by The U.S. Department of Energy, Oakridge National Laboratory, Jimmy Carter, and other famous celebrity volunteers. I applaud those who have gotten involved in the past, and those who will provide land, materials and helping hands to build homes for the needy in the future.
Habitat for Humanity is a valuable organization that doesn't make a lot of noise, but it does a lot of good. Focusing on the construction of homes for the deserving poor, Habitat for Humanity uses volunteer labor and usually implements only simple utilitarian wood-frame structures, which barely meet, but rarely exceed, local building code structural and energy-efficiency requirements. The net effect is that these “free” homes can have high energy bills, and contribute to the overall American energy crisis.
Recently, a number of concerned Habitat for Humanity volunteers have begun to incorporate Zero Energy DesignTM features into a few demonstration projects. (Search the web for “Habitat for Humanity” AND “Zero Energy”)
The U.S. Department of Energy, Oakridge National Laboratory, Building America Program and National Renewable Energy Lab scientists have assisted the Habitat for Humanity Zero Energy Home effort, and federal-and-state subsidies have helped reduce total construction costs.
ZED certainly encourages this type of significant step forward in solving the American energy crisis from the bottom up. “Free” Zero Energy Homes for the needy are a spectacular display of the very best of human behavior. When middle class people see what can be done cost effectively on the low end of inexpensive homes, their enlightenment should further accelerate the progress toward a nation of Zero Energy Homes for everyone. ZED highly commends this effort, and we encourage EVERY community to do similar things in the immediate future. Perhaps YOU could become a volunteer who will help initiate a Zero Energy Home project to assist a law abiding needy family near you.
Chamber of Commerce Housing for People With Disabilities Project
Habitat for Humanity homes are often full-sized 3-bedroom family homes. My Chamber of Commerce Houses for People With Disabilities project is looking into small very-inexpensive modules for only one or two people, who may need occasional or regular living assistance just to get by. There are various government programs to assist these people, but affordable small housing is in serious short supply in recent years.
In many cases, affordable apartments for low-income people have been purchased by developers, renovated, and profitably turned into higher-priced condominiums. As interest rates have increased, the previous occupants cannot afford, or qualify to buy, the places they used to live in. This forces them to move further away from where they work, and increases the amount they must spend on transportation, as gasoline prices keep getting higher. It is a vicious cycle with no end in sight. Builders have no incentive to build low-income housing.
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) restriction of $60 per sq.ft. is unreasonable for most builders today. Several low-cost HUD developments have resulted in energy disasters with extremely high utility bills for poorly designed and constructed HUD low income homes, condos and apartment projects.
Get More Information in Larry Hartweg's 800 page book on
Passive Solar Heating and Cooling Techniques
"Zero Energy DesignTM"
Low Income Housing Architecture
I am working with the Chamber of Commerce, as a part time volunteer, trying to design and develop a cost effective solution with minimal energy expense to operate such homes. The modules that they seek would have only one bathroom, and 1 or 2 bedrooms – 660 sq.ft. for a 1-bedroom 1- bath, or a little bit more. These are NOT full sized 3-bedroom 2-bath homes like Habitat for Humanity often builds.
These smaller housing modules could be standalone, placed next to each other in a zero-lot-line fashion, or stacked on top of each other, where an elevator, or terraced design would yield easy wheelchair access.
The low-income housing modules would meet the HUD requirements, and the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) specifications for people with disabilities, possibly needing wheelchair access (36” doors, low counter tops, easy-access appliances, roll in showers, grab bars, visual and audible alarms, etc.). They would far exceed energy efficient building codes and be structurally superior in windstorms.
Modular housing is an interesting, cost-effective, low-cost, rapid construction concept that has been creatively designed, and incrementally refined far beyond the old-fashioned mobile homes and trailers (used ineffectively by FEMA for modern disaster victims). One characteristic about mobile homes, and modular homes, is that require transporting a lot of empty space for living rooms, bedrooms, etc. down the highway They require special trucks and permits (due to their width) to move on the highway under a variety of transportation restrictions.
One thing that I would like to do adds a new twist to the modular housing, rapid assembly-line idea. I am working on a novel approach for building a core component that would not require special permits, or the transportation of a lot of empty space down the highway.
A factory-built module would be constructed that is slightly less than 8-feet wide, so it would not need a special transportation permit. The module could be inexpensively carried on a 4-wheeled trailer, behind a common pickup truck. The module would NOT contain the empty living space of the home. It would only include the kitchen (finished cabinets, appliances, etc.), bathroom, laundry room, finished interior walls, tile, and the ZED electrical/plumbing/hot water/heating/cooling equipment room in a tight 8-foot-wide cluster with very-short plumbing lines, rapid hot water delivery, complete electrical panel, solar equipment components, etc. all ready to plug in and use.
A simple foundation would be prepared for the entire home (one module or many side-by-side, stacked, or terraced on a South facing hillside). The 8-foot wide factory-built cluster would be set in its place, and supply lines / sewer connected.
The rest of the empty living space around the module (living, bedrooms, solarium, etc.) would then be site-built quickly from a kit of factory-built structural insulated panels (SIPs), trusses, and radiant barrier roofing components with solar panels, etc. Maximum windstorm resistance features (tie downs, structural support, etc.) would be built in. Total assembly time (after the foundation is in place and cured) could be less than two days, plus time for carpet, furniture, clothes on hangars, food, etc.
The final housing units could be off-the-grid standalone Zero Energy Homes (built far from public utilities), or just very-energy-efficient grid-connected homes, with minimal utility bills (depending on available funding for zero energy capital expenditures with an Energy Efficient Mortgage (EEM) program, subsidized by government agency renewable energy home incentives).
The module assembly line could be set up quickly, and then moved to another location for the next large group of rapid construction units.
Imagine another disaster (natural or man made) in the near future. In about the time, and roughly the cost of mobile home construction, we could set up a clustered component module assembly line in the immediate area and use them to quickly turn out completed single bath houses at a very rapid rate. Workers displaced by the disaster could be trained in the modular ZED home component manufacturing and program administration (recipient worthiness evaluation, etc.).
By using automated tools, people who lost their jobs during the disaster could be quickly trained to (1) build the modules, and (2) assemble them into completed housing units onsite. The communities so constructed could become a showcase for the future of small, subsidized, affordable housing for persons with disabilities, and low-income small families. Some of the people who live in these units could optionally become tour guides, and participate in exemplary community planning for people with a similar need for assistance in the future. This would be an outgrowth of the way temporary local employees are hired and quickly trained by FEMA and SBA following a disaster today.
Background checks would be performed on people before occupying these subsidized homes, and only law-abiding citizens would be given the opportunity to live in them (unlike the many subsidized mistakes of the past). Community Watch programs could monitor antisocial criminal behavior, and reject non-learning people who violate community standards. Consistent enforcement of laws, and the potential loss of one’s subsidized home, should be effective partial deterrents against the type of crime that has dominated public housing projects since Johnson’s 1960’s Great Society.
These low-cost ZED modularized homes will probably not use all of the techniques described on our ZED Architecture web page. They will not: (1) be the complete solution to all of our energy problems, (2) eliminate worldwide poverty, or (3) correct all negative behavior in those people invited to live in them. BUT, they can compassionately meet a need that is largely being ignored right now. And, they can set an example about the cost-effectiveness of ZED in small low-priced homes, (in addition to previous multi-million-dollar high-end ZED homes).
If you have an interest, or you have similar goals, please let us hear from you soon.
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"Zero Energy DesignTM"
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