Page 19 - Advanced Technology for Energy and Water Saving

THE 100 PERCENT HOUSE

The Percent

House

Research on how we actually use our homes can help us save energy and water.

Wasted space. This image shows how home space was actually used in a study of 32 dwellings by UCLA.

ESEARCH HAS SHOWN that the embodied Life at Home in the 21st Century looked at how 32 families
energy of a new home typically accounts for actually use their living spaces. The results were shocking:
about 11 percent of its lifetime environmental Most people use only about 5 percent of their homes.
impact. That’s a small figure compared to the There’s a silver lining to this bizarre behavior, however.
other 89 percent of energy consumed heating, It suggests that if we actually focus our energy and water
cooling and maintaining the structure. conservation efforts on the rooms we use, we can have
R How we live, in other words, has far more a “greater than the sum of its parts” impact on overall
environmental impact than the initial use of resources consumption.
building the house. In other words, if we focus our conservation efforts on the
kitchen, the family room and the bathroom, we’ll address
TIME TO ALIGN the vast majority of resource interactions in a typical home.
An equally relevant criticism of oversized living, however, So let’s take a closer look at these systems, and how new
is that it simply doesn’t make sense. Big vanity homes products and technology can help us improve e‘ciency
typically don’t reflect how people actually live. They without sacrificing comfort and livability.
reflect how they would like to be seen to live. This gap
between illusion and reality has been well documented. Editor’s note: To learn more about “right-sized” living, visit our microsite for
The Align Project, a demonstration project we’re undertaking this fall to show just
A famous study by UCLA published in book form as how small and efficiently we can live if we’re honest with ourselves.

ADVANCED TECHNOLOGY FOR ENERGY AND WATER CONSERVATION 19