密封房屋降低能源消耗

Airtight Houses Lower Energy Costs 密封房屋降低能源消耗

We may not be aware of it, but ordinary family homes in the U.S. and, indeed, the rest of the world are not energy-efficient.

Most of their energy goes to heating and cooling, and a lot of it is wasted, as warm and cool air escape through fireplace chimneys and thin or poorly fitting windows and doors, and because of inadequate¹ insulation².

A passive house loses almost none.

“Imagine a thermos³," said real estate developer Brendan O'Neill. "You have insulation everywhere, and it’s basically completely sealed. And so the idea is to build a house not unlike a thermos. So the windows are sealed and triple-glazed. There’s insulation completely surrounding the building. We make it as airtight as possible.”

A 147-square-meter (1,580-square-foot) passive house, recently presented by O'Neill Development Corp. as a demonstration⁴ unit just outside Washington, was prefabricated and brought to the site in two boxes.

“Once it’s set and put together, it takes roughly three or four weeks to go ahead and finish the areas of drywall that weren’t done, to put down carpeting if it’s not in the room, to put in final touches," O'Neill said. "If everything is set in place, you put a house like this together in about three to four months.”

The total cost of building it was $325,000, or about 17 percent more than constructing an ordinary house. But its estimated utility bill is only around $20 monthly, or one-tenth the amount for the average house of the same size.

While passive houses have been around for a long time, the idea has never taken root in the U.S.

“There was no driving force to push it," said David Peabody, an architect who designs passive houses. "I think climate change is now becoming a larger issue. And I think building codes [are] catching⁵ on to that. So people are becoming more conscious of energy.”

Peabody said the cost of building passive houses could come down.

“What really makes sense for truly affordable⁶ housing," he said, "is to do duplexes and fourplexes. Because then you’ve got that bigger volume, you got less exterior⁷ walls, and those exterior costs come way down."

1 inadequate   

adj.(for,to)不充足的，不适当的

参考例句：

• The supply is inadequate to meet the demand.供不应求。
• She was inadequate to the demands that were made on her.她还无力满足对她提出的各项要求。

2 insulation   

n.隔离；绝缘；隔热

参考例句：

• Please examine the insulation of the electric wires in my house.请检查一下我屋子里电线的绝缘情况。
• It is always difficult to assure good insulation between the electric leads.要保证两个电触头之间有良好的绝缘总是很困难的。

3 thermos   

n.保湿瓶，热水瓶

参考例句：

• Can I borrow your thermos?我可以借用你的暖水瓶吗？
• It's handy to have the thermos here.暖瓶放在这儿好拿。

4 demonstration   

n.表明，示范，论证，示威

参考例句：

• His new book is a demonstration of his patriotism.他写的新书是他的爱国精神的证明。
• He gave a demonstration of the new technique then and there.他当场表演了这种新的操作方法。

5 catching   

adj.易传染的，有魅力的，迷人的，接住

参考例句：

• There are those who think eczema is catching.有人就是认为湿疹会传染。
• Enthusiasm is very catching.热情非常富有感染力。

6 affordable   

adj.支付得起的，不太昂贵的

参考例句：

• The rent for the four-roomed house is affordable.四居室房屋的房租付得起。
• There are few affordable apartments in big cities.在大城市中没有几所公寓是便宜的。

7 exterior   

adj.外部的，外在的；表面的

参考例句：

• The seed has a hard exterior covering.这种子外壳很硬。
• We are painting the exterior wall of the house.我们正在给房子的外墙涂漆。