[Greenbuilding] Fwd: energy savings myths

[Reuben Deumling]

On Thu, Nov 17, 2011 at 1:19 PM, Gennaro Brooks-Church - Eco Brooklyn <
info at ecobrooklyn.com> wrote:

> I'm not sure i understand. I guess I was referring to the energy
> efficiency of the house.
>

What is that?
What are the units in which we measure the energy efficiency of a house?

I know it has become increasingly common to say 'energy efficiency' when we
used to say energy consumption, energy usage, but often this, I think, does
little to illuminate or clarify what we are trying to say, and at times can
go some distance toward obfuscating what we are trying to say, which, I
think, is still this house uses (very) little energy, or less energy than
it used to, or less than if I had built it in thus-and-such a fashion.

Energy efficiency is not a proxy for uses less/the least energy in any
absolute sense. In fact it doesn't even guarantee or necessarily indicate
relatively less energy usage, though this is often asserted and even
metered. As such I think its usage is usually unhelpful.
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