Before paying big bucks for a geothermal heat pump, try a little insulation first. (Photo by Jennifer Dickert)
Architecture firms, engineering firms and other energy
auditors are getting a lot more business these days.
Lester Graham reports… it’s part of a plan to save
energy and cut greenhouse gas emissions:
Transcript
Architecture firms, engineering firms and other energy auditors are getting a lot more business these days. Lester Graham reports… it’s part of a plan to save energy and cut greenhouse gas emissions.
One of the goals of all that federal stimulus money is to make a lot of buildings more energy efficient. First step… get an energy audit. Finding out how much energy a building is wasting has meant a lot of business for people trained to do that kind of work.
Dan Jacobs is with the architecture firm A-THREE-C in Ann Arbor Michigan.
“It’s easily doubled for us in the last year and we’re looking for it to double again as we go into 2010.”
Dan Jacobs says there’s a lot of excitement about renewable energy such as solar panels and rooftop wind turbines … but most buildings waste a lot of energy… so he recommends:
“First thing they want to do is conservation.”
Insulating, replacing windows, and efficient lighting cut energy use. Energy that would still be wasted no matter what fancy renewable energy gadget is put on the rooftop.
For the Environment Report, I’m Lester Graham.