Inhabitat's Week in Green: a US team wins the Solar Decathlon!
Each week our friends at Inhabitat recap the week's most interesting green developments and clean tech news for us.
We also watched sustainable transportation soar to new heights this week as the world's first solar-powered blimp prepares to fly across the English Channel. Not to be outdone, the US Army unveiled plans for an ultra-long range hybrid airship that is capable of flying for three weeks at a time.
In other news, renewable energy is heating up around the globe as the EU recently announced that it will import solar energy from the Sahara Desert within 5 years. We also saw a beautiful solar powered flower sprout in Southern California and looked at the worlds first solar-powered soccer ball, which could help the blind play soccer. Finally, we caught wind of an innovative breathing mask that filters CO2 from the air, converts it into energy, and stores it to power a cellphone or portable music player.
This is great. In perhaps a few more years time, perhaps 5-10 yrs, I'm thinking solar is going to be a very big part of people's lives. There's just too much benefit to be had and too much money to make for the fabricators of these products, it's got win-win written all over it.
So were is a person supposed to put their stuff in this place?, I didn't see any storage space other than the kitchen or a mention of the closets. Also no mention of a laundry space or if "grey water" is used or even if rain water is collected. No, but the sure as hell made sure to mention the iPhone app.
As if magically a home automation app on our smart phone is gonna save the planet.
Also the older guy in the video is talking about how "6 months out of the year , the home is open to the outside so you can take advantage of the outdoor space" or something. Well pretty much all summer in most of the USA it is stupid hot so you are not gonna want all that hot air inside, and then having to cool it back off.
This design only works in locales that have perfect weather for half the year and ok weather for the rest. In places were weather is that nice , the energy used on climate control is greatly reduced anyway as compaired to places that are very hot or very cold.
Then it is setup to save power but not running "when you leave for the day" , ok um I guess you cannot have kids in this house, or anybody in the house while you are off at school or work using up energy there instead.
Modular is good, solar is good, radiant heat is good too, but unless these ideas are applied to the lifestyle of people buying houses and not 20-30 something hipsters that have no need for storage or room for kids, ( and who don't buy houses if they need neither of those things) then it is pointless.
I have seen "shipping container" and the "penguin house" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0qHlH2yhZpE that are better thought out and could actually be practical to implement.
So good job for the design students on making a house that no one in the market for a house could really use. Make a single family energy efficient modular house that is better than what other houses offer not a mediocre "tech" space and say "there's a app for that" , then make sure it will not eliminate jobs and current construction jobs can put their skills to work making and assembling them so the nations can start making these instead of talking about how "in the future well have smart homes".
That's great !!!
And there's be a strong push to put some of these brilliant cutting edge ideas out into the marketplace.... never maybe... or maybe in another 50 years or something... or whenever it happens.
I'm all for spending money on universities doing this kind of stuff.
I just do not understand why we do nothing to capitalize on what they find out.