[Greenbuilding] new houses vs. retrofitting existing houses.

[Reuben Deumling]

Thanks, Corwyn. That was a fun read.

Some other considerations.
Old houses can be small, even tiny. I've learned (probably here on this
list) that given current codes it is impossible/disallowed to build smaller
than X # of square feet. Since many of us recognize the repercussions of
house size to long term footprint minimization, this is I think a
consideration.

The thing about optimal siting on a lot is that it mostly applies to rural
and/or large lots. Certainly the lot on which my 120 yr old house sits
(33'x100') wouldn't permit much of any variation in siting.

I wonder about people's experiences using reused/reclaimed materials for
retrofit vs. new construction. I rehabilitated an entire house (built in
1870 and bought for $1) with used, reclaimed, self-milled materials. I
could do this mostly because I carefully avoided 'remodeling' which would
have triggered current code requirements. As a rehabilitation I was bound
by the code in existence when the house was built (=no code). The material
cost and the embodied (not yet amortized) energy was I am confident much
lower than if I'd been forced to buy/source all new, grade stamped
materials.

Old houses are often made of higher quality materials, less plywood, fewer
chemicals, etc. But there are other tradeoffs and it is obviously dependent
on the era in question. Lead paint and asbestos (early) vinyl, formaldehyde
(more recently), purportedly healthy, nasty-free (today).

Finally a note about terminology. Energy efficient, though common parlance,
may not be the best descriptor of the preferred, most environmentally
desirable, building. It is hard to find a term that captures minimal
lifetime energy consumption, but energy efficiency in practice too often
denotes maximum service/BTU, which translates to larger size and extra
features.

I look forward to other's comments.

On Wed, Apr 11, 2012 at 7:42 AM, Corwyn <corwyn at midcoast.com> wrote:
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.bioenergylists.org/pipermail/greenbuilding_lists.bioenergylists.org/attachments/20120411/8a4ffbcd/attachment.html>