VOA常速英语--密闭房屋节约能源成本

密闭房屋节约能源成本

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.

我们或许没有意识到，但是美国和世界其他地方的普通家庭不是那么能源高效。

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.

大部分能源用于取暖和制冷，其中许多被浪费掉，因为冷暖空气都通过壁炉烟囱以及过薄或安装不合适的门窗，或者由于绝缘效果不好而流失掉了。

A passive house loses almost none.

而被动房几乎不会有热量流失。

“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.”

房产开发商Brendan O'Neill说，“想象一个热水瓶。到处都是绝缘的，几乎完全是密封的。所以，我们的想法就是建造跟热水瓶别无二致的房屋。窗户密封，三层上釉。整栋建筑周围都是绝缘的。我们尽可能做到密闭。”

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.

房屋开发商O'Neill最近推出的一座147平方米（1580平方英尺）的被动房在伦敦城外作为示范单位展出，是经过预先构造的，用两个大箱子带到展出地点。

“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.”

“拼装到一起之后，大约只需三到四周的时间来准备和构造未完成的石墙，铺设地毯，进行最后的润色。如果一切妥当，只需三到四个月的时间你就能拥有这样的一套房子。”

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.

建造这种房屋的总成本是32.5万美元，比建造普通房屋的成本高大约17%。但是物业账单可能每月只需20美元左右，仅为同等面积普通房屋的十分之一。

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

尽管被动房屋的概念已经出现了很长时间，然而却未在美国生根。

“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.”

“推广这种房屋没有推动力。”设计被动房屋的建筑师David Peabody表示。“我认为气候变化现在已经是越来越严重的问题。建筑准则应该紧跟这一点。人们就会越来越有节能意识。”

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

Peabody说，建造被动房屋的成本能够降低。

 

“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."

“能够让经济适用性房屋真正行得通的是建造两层甚至四层公寓住宅。这样就有更大的空间，更少的外墙，外部成本就会降低。”

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。