: Originally Posted by Originally published in The Economist
California's 'Zero Energy House' is actually massive fossil hog
Alert Print Post comment 'Zenergy' eco-home gets award from local senator anyway
In startling enviro-technology news, it has been reported that an ordinary 1950s house in California has been given a "green renovation" which has apparently made it a "Zero Energy House" and won its builders an award from the state government.
In other words the Californian prototype house can supply all the energy it needs over time through its own renewable microgeneration equipment - if it uses external electricity supplies such as grid power at times, it compensates for this by providing surplus juice of its own back to the grid at others.
The Zenergy House is a 1950’s [sic] remodel that delivers high on sustainability and low on energy use — net zero to be exact — thanks to the use of super-efficient green building strategies and solar panels on the roof ... The home is tricked out from head to toe with sustainable features and products, including a lot of the furnishings and accessories.
We averaged 85 Therms a month from December '09 through march 2010 (our heating season in LA). We are not including the use of natural gas or water into our "Zero Energy" calculations. The "Zero Energy" refers to electrical use only.
Eighty-five therms is the same as 2491 kilowatt-hours per month. A normal household in the Western USA, according to the US government, uses 77 million British Thermal Units annually - which is the same as 1881 kilowatt-hours per month. The Zenergy house uses a third more energy than the regional household average, and one may note that by American standards it is by no means large (3 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms).
Not only is the house not zero-net-energy, it actually seems to be something of a power hog as American houses go.
REAS are being more than a bit cheeky with their use of words here, but they don't make any serious effort to obscure the real nature of the "Zenergy" project - which is no more than massively overhyped marketing for new heating installations, AC units, loft insulation and so on.
It is more than a little startling, though, that the energy-hog house was given an "Environmental Sustainability Award" by the California state senate - apparently presented in person by Senator Fran Pavley, who represents the 23rd district (parts of Los Angeles and Ventura counties) in Sacramento.
And how could the "green design" advertorial newshawks of Inhabitat get it so wrong, too?¹