This is a Hot Topic
Written by Charles Durrett
I know for a fact that if you have to have air conditioning, you have to have it—it’s a cultural thing. It’s our habit or as cultural anthropologist Robert Bellah puts it, it’s a “Habit of the Heart”, and if your house is designed poorly, it’s physiological. So, I’m not going to try to talk anyone out of air conditioning, we’ll do air conditioning if the group wants it—but I’m happy to report that most groups that don’t really need it have chosen to not have it installed and challenge us to accomplish cool houses through passive cooling (inherent in the building) which we embrace.
Time magazine just reported that air conditioning has become the number one cause of global warming world-wide, greater than transportation, greater than house warming, greater than industry. Ironically, of the 2.8 billion people along the equator, those that need it the most, only 8% have air conditioning. The rest of us, in the U.S. and Japan, for example—about 90% have it. The good news is that cohousing groups get to create their own houses and therefore respond to their own priorities. That’s why those houses perform so well from a passive cooling point of view.
We, for example, make sure to use enough mass so that if the night temperature gets down to 70 degrees Fahrenheit the house gets to 71 degrees Fahrenheit or 72 degrees Fahrenheit by morning and that the high temperatures of the day, even when it’s 100 degrees Fahrenheit outside the interior of the house doesn’t get above 76 degrees Fahrenheit in the late afternoon.
There are hundreds of tricks to achieve passive cooling and we employ them all, because of all the clients that we work with, no one wants to walk their eco talk more than cohousers—to a point. In other words, it has to work. And if it doesn’t then there has to be a back-up like an entirely interior A.C. that you can put in your bedroom at night but keeps the white noise (a hum) internal to the house so that neighbors can simply keep their windows open (and uses less than 10% as much energy.)
Examples of passive cooling include sparse pavement/more lawn, shaded gathering nodes, shade trees, and porches with well-designed overhangs. All of these contribute to a more enjoyable experience in one's private home and the common space.
To give you some idea of how cultural it is, we rented a house while our current state-of-the-art, passively cooled cohousing was being built. We didn’t turn on the air conditioning until our daughters 15th birthday party on August 2nd. A dozen 14, 15, and 16-year old young ladies showed, so, we turned on the air conditioning. Jessie, our daughter, said “Hey, I didn’t know we had an air conditioner”, the air conditioner went on every day after that, although she never complained about the heat before. It’s so easy to flip a switch. Before that we’d sit on the front porch in the evening, and let the rocking motion create a breeze, or the porch ceiling fan cooled us, amongst other things like a glass of iced tea.
I’ve yet to read an essay or any rationalization as to why it’s ok to cool our house to warm the planet. Invariably someone will invoke the plight of the Bangladesh people and them standing in waist-high water in the downtown streets after a routine storm. And, of course, the more the planet warms, the more that happens and the more we need A.C. And it’s not just Bangladesh, it could be Quebec, where more than 70 heat related deaths have occurred this summer.
Our cohousing 34 houses were built with zero air conditioning (in a part of California where nothing is built without air conditioning). But it’s not just a conscious design decision it is a series of conscious life style issues. Passive cooling comes up at least once a week at common dinner in the summer. When do I close my windows? When do I close the shades? Which window shades? When do I turn on the whole house fan? For how long? When do I use the ceiling fan (whenever you’re in the room)? When do I turn it off (whenever you’re not in the room)? Yes, it’s a topic, an easy one, which gets you in touch with your neighbor and your climate. We do have air conditioning in the common house, and once (in 12 years) 21 folks spent the day there. This was the year that a heat wave killed 35 Californians (2/3 of whom had air conditioning but were too fried to turn it on). I know that it could possibly cramp your style to work and play in the common house for one day out of 12 years—but not if you can imagine what the rest of the world is giving up to make A.C. so convenient for us.
I find that you can’t be righteous about this stuff, but that you don’t have to be. When you watch cohousing groups work this stuff out, you believe that they are willing to imagine that it can be worked out and that’s the beginning of getting the job done.
Indirect lighting, efficient insulation, high ceilings, and an open floor plan contribute to passive cooling in the Common House.
In some cases, groups don’t want to take the risk and put in a mini-split or similar, but I’m happy to report that many folks, like some in Fresno, California, say that they still haven’t used their air conditioning in ten years. A.C. is an increasing problem, but I love working with people who want to be at least part of the solution.
Large efficient windows let light in without heating the space.
If we can’t get cohousers to scale back their air conditioning usage then we’re toast! But my experience is that we can.
Retirement Communities Lure Boomers With Eco-Friendly Message
Retirement Communities Lure Boomers With Eco-Friendly Message
More 55-plus developments are promoting their energy efficiency—and they say retirees are willing to pay the price
Published in the Wall Street Journal on April 22, 2018. By Julie Halpert.
Tennis, golf and an attractive clubhouse have long been staples in the universe of 55-plus communities selling an active lifestyle to retirees.
But a growing number of such communities are trying a different message directly geared toward baby boomers: highlighting the eco-friendly features of their developments.
As boomers retire, downsize, or just look for new homes that better fit their current needs, more 55-plus communities are competing based on features like solar panels, water reclamation, energy-efficient appliances, and windows with low-reflective glass, says Samantha Reid, a spokeswoman for 55places.com, an online resource for information on active-adult communities.
Houses with eco-friendly designs may cost more than similar homes without them. But developers of 55-plus communities say many baby boomers are willing to pay the price.
Jeff McQueen, president of Scottsdale, Ariz.-based Shea Homes Active Lifestyle Communities, a division of privately held Shea Homes, says his company makes a considerable effort to design and build energy-efficient homes, based on an internal study of boomers that indicated 50% desired energy-efficient and sustainable features in their homes.
Consider Mary Anne Graf, age 70, and her husband, Paul, 71, who bought a home in a Shea Homes Trilogy-branded 55-plus community in Denver, N.C., last August for $515,000. The Grafs paid more than they would have in slightly less-expensive active-adult communities, in part because of a $29,000 solar-energy package. But they say they chose their home partly because of that solar option.
“We’ve been very satisfied and love the solar,” says Ms. Graf. The Grafs’ average electric bill is $36 a month for their 1,850-square-foot home. “We’re saving ourselves money and benefiting the environment.”
Similarly, at Robson Resort Communities , a company focused on 55-plus buyers in Arizona and Texas, Chief Financial Officer Steve Soriano says his company’s research shows more than a third of its prospective buyers seek an energy-efficient and environmentally friendly home. All new homes in Robson’s Sun Lakes, Ariz., development are Energy Star-certified, a federal measure of high energy efficiency that takes into account such features as insulation, building materials and window types.
Robson communities also design their landscaping and golf courses to reduce water runoff and evaporation, and have their own wastewater-treatment plants that reclaim and reuse water. According to the company, the use of reclaimed water reduces the cost of irrigating the golf course and community landscaping for each community by 50%.
Environmentally friendly designs have become necessary to compete, says Marshall Gobuty, developer and majority owner of Mirabella, a 55-plus community under construction in Bradenton, Fla. To that end, Mr. Gobuty and other developers are increasingly pursuing so called LEED certification, an official stamp of approval from the U.S. Green Building Council that says a building or development meets the council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design standards. LEED certification requires meeting a long list of conditions, including proximity to transportation, water efficiency, energy usage and sustainable materials. Mirabella has received LEED certification for all of the 90 villas it has built so far (out of a total 160 to be built.) Energy-efficient features in the villas include LED lighting, double-pane vinyl windows and extensive insulation. For the last 25 homes to be built, there also will be a community charging station for electric vehicles and solar panels.
Mahesh Ramanujam, president and chief executive of the U.S. Green Building Council, says his organization has seen a steady uptick in 55-plus communities seeking LEED certification in recent years. Last year, 24 developments received LEED certification, and 16 are already in the process so far this year, he says. Mr. Ramanujam says his group expects that the number of projects being certified will double each year over the next five years.
LEED-certified projects see an average 25% reduction in energy costs, says Mr. Ramanujam. At Mirabella, Mr. Gobuty says LEED certification has added 12% to 14% to each certified home’s cost. But, again, in the company’s view, that extra cost pays for itself. All but 22 of the project’s planned 160 villas have been sold.
Mr. Gobuty says he is also developing a 55-plus community in Ellenton, Fla., that will feature 600 net-zero-energy homes, a type of home that is largely energy-self-sufficient. In net-zero-energy homes, the total amount of energy used in a year roughly equals the amount of energy created on site—mostly through use of solar panels. Thus, in theory, depending on the utility, residents of net-zero-energy homes may not have to pay an electric bill.
Meanwhile, it isn’t just 55-plus communities that are focusing on green living. There is also a growing movement in senior housing known as cohousing, in which homeowners have their own units but share a common living space and other resources. Currently, there are about a dozen senior cohousing communities in the U.S., according to the Cohousing Association of the U.S.
Charles Durrett, a Nevada City, Calif., architect who specializes in cohousing units, says “living lighter on the planet” is a big goal for every senior cohousing community he encounters. At Village Hearth Cohousing , under construction in Durham, N.C., homes will be clustered on 15 acres, preserving 10 acres of green space.
Pat McAulay, a member of that community, says that although boomers have always valued environmental sustainability, “a lot of us ended up walking the normal corporate path. ”Cohousing,” Ms. McAulay says, “gives us the chance to go back to those things that were really important to us when we were younger. It gives us a chance to redeem ourselves.”
Ms. Halpert is a writer in Michigan. Email her at reports@wsj.com.
MDA featured on the Greenpreneur Show Feb 2017
Michael Thomas, host of the Greenpreneur Show, sat down with Katie and Chuck in early February to talk cohousing. The Greenpreneur Show is a progressive radio show, based in Chicago, with a focus on environment and sustainability in the modern day.
East Lake Commons, Architecture by McCamant & Durrett Architects