Why Do American Homes Suck?

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I can confirm that at least all somewhat new buildings in Germany are insulated like crazy. Last winter we had the natural gas crisis because of Russia's invasion, so we were worried about 10fold prices. Fortunately, we did not need to use the heater once. Our flat was never cooler than 20°C. Other benefits of insulation is noise reduction, which is really nice if you live close to a busy street or near an airport

i have also found that a lot of people think insulation is only for cold climates but it works just as well in hot climates, keeping the house cold on the inside and keeping the heat out

I was born in Belgium and one of the things I find shocking in the US is that I see that some wooden homes which were constructed maybe 30 years ago are already in need of a complete repair down to the studs. Doesn't sound like the best ROI in my opinion. Yet they keep re-building the same way. And these wooden houses cost tuns of money. Some things I will never understand.

I came from Finland to Michigan in winter and was shocked when I felt the breeze indoors in the first house I visited. Leaky single pane windows in the northern states, what the hell? I couldn't help noticing other sources of waste: the bus driver left the engine running when he went on a coffee break and my friend didn't even think to stop the engine while fixing his flat tire. One time the stairwell in my dormitory was heated so well that the door handle was literally hot. Even flushing the toilet seemed to use neverending amounts of water. At the university diner I had to bring my own fork, because I got tired of eating with disposable plastic forks.

Architect Here - I love studying energy design and try to implement it into projects. It always comes down to cost. Many clients embrace the money saved over time with energy efficient designs if they know they will be living in the house for decades. Developers on the other hand can and will never be bothered. Code builds through and through and pass energy operation costs onto the buyers/ renters.

I built a home four years ago. I was unable to find a bulider in my area with passive home building experience. I chose a builder who advertised himself as a green builder. However, he seemed to focus on things like counter tops, roofing, and flooring. I was the one who initiated energy efficient features in my house. I was unable to afford solar panels, but I insulated the house well (2x6 on exterior walls), chose energy efficient appliances and a tankless water heater, and built the house on a slab so I didn't have to heat/cool a basement. For half the year my electric bills are in the $40 to $50 range for my 2364 sq ft home. My next door neighbor's are $200 to $300. My gas bill is $12.00 to $15.00 per month, $10.00 of which is for the privilege of having a gas acccount. Even if you don't build a net zero home, you can make affordable improvements.

As a home builder in Kentucky for over 25 years I can say we have done a bad job of even giving energy a thought. Our state is looking at adopting the 2021 IECC but it will exclude many things in certain. Recently as a company we’ve began to view this much differently. Our business is custom home building and as a rule our customers are more open to spending in the name of efficiency, but i do understand where spec home builders struggle with this. Great video.

Great to see someone making this thing to get some air! I have been watching videos from builders at states making houses and as an carpenter from Finland, have been questioning myself how your houses can be warm enough at the winter? I understood that in some areas at states must be same kinda climate as it is here, like normal winter day could be -20°C and nights can easily be -30°C , sometimes -40°C. Typically our houses have +/- 30cm insulation on walls, with all these insulations we the wall itself can be 40cm thick. A lot depends what's the structure, our doors are insulated as well, some "thermo" doors are up to 10cm thick, basic outside doors are 5-7cm. Windows are standard triple glazed, and nowadays there are also 4-glazed "thermo" windows. All windows and doors have minimum of 2 layer sealants, some have 3. Also there is up to 50cm insulation layer at the top of the house, at the addict, 30-40cm layer of insulation at below the floor, additional to this there may be some +20cm insulation below the house itself inside the gravel bed to keep all the pipes from freezing. Greetings from Finland 💪😎

Good video! I'm from Northern Europe and used to high quality houses (and design), and then I became a homeowner in Texas. A construction home from 2010. Since 80-90% of my electricity bill is keeping the house cool with AC, I was shocked to see things like the front door and other exterior doors had wide and visible gaps between the door and frame, and virtually no form of insulation. Not only letting the cool air escape, but also letting bugs walk in.

I've been working as a residential energy rater in the South Eastern US for about 7 years now. I would never buy a production house in the US. From inadequate local codes to builders trying to maximize profits, it's a nightmare out there for a prospective buyer. Someday when I have enough money I'll build my over engineered masterpiece of energy efficiency and climate resilience. Keep the great content coming!

I think it's more than just the build cost. Generally, in Europe we live around old buildings and they are desirable so building are built with a long term view. We expect them to stand for 100's of years. my home is 130 years old, but fully updated to a high energy rating. It will stand for another 200 years I expect. In a lot of the US, homes are built quick and cheap and expected to last a couple of decades before being pulled down and replaced. Few Americans desire to live in period properties and see a 30 year old building as old and undesirable. It's the chicken and egg story. Build cheap and no one wants old buildings, no one wants old building so may as well build cheap.

As someone living in a van because of the cost of housing I think getting the cost of housing down is the biggest issue right now. Yes energy efficiency is important but not being able to afford a heatpump is also important.

What would be really cool is if you would create some sort of compiled list of things you did to achieve this net zero home. From the vendors you went through and the technologies they provide to the components you chose personally and why. I know making a video series is probably more lucrative than just handing that information out freely but after the project is complete, it would be nice to see something like that.

I remember my first time in the US, it was cold and snowy near the canadian border. The walls of the hotel were extremely thin and look like paper. To compensate for this the heating had to be running 24/7. It shocked me the energy waste and how cheap was the overall construction (ah, and it was the best hotel in town)

Our two kids just built their first homes here in Norway so now I know more about our building codes than I used to: Our standard requirement for air leakage (the ACH50 measurement) is 0.6 for all new houses, i.e. the same as your Passive House rule. Similarly, our U value requirement is 0.8 for the windows and all the walls require a combination of 20 cm mineral wool (or equivalent), a diffusion barrier and then 5 cm of dense (ultra-insulating) foam board. A balanced ventilation system that also works as a heat exchanger has also been part of the minimum requirements since 2012 (i.e. the Tek-12 standard revision, later updated and made even more stringent in 2017.)

I work as an electrician in Switzerland and here I am used to walls, floors of houses and buildings to be made with 30cm (12inches) thick concrete, then everything waterproofed with thick tar based sheets on the outside surfaces of the concrete, then all exterior walls (facades) are insulated with very thick (around 15 inches) either fiberglass, rockwool, xps or polystyrene foam. Then on top of all the tick concrete floors, we put one layer of polystyrene foam(not as thick), this is here we put the heated floor tubing, and then one more concrete layer of top of that, so all floors are thermally and acoustically insulated from each other. So you get exterior walls that are 20 to 30 inches thick (concrete + insulation). Oh and the non bearing interior walls are either bricks (yes for real) or double layer drywall with steel framing. In most cases the only wood you see in construction are the doors or the floor paneling at the very end. The electricity part, every wires are in special tubing we attach with steel rebar before the concrete is put in, so we have tubes and electrical "boxes" everywhere IN the concrete floor and walls , and we pull the wires when concrete is done. So we have to place every tubes and boxes precisely before the concrete is put it because we cant change it later. If there is a box for an outlet "here", well its embedded in the concrete so it better be the right place. this way if there is a fire from a wire, no big deal its in the concrete. And it's 1 wire = 1 tube in most cases. So there are miles and miles of tubes in the concrete joining a bunch of electrical boxes, lamp boxes, switches, etc. So yes with my experience, seeing house construction in the US is very... weird.

This summer my family moved from the DFW, TX area to just west of Helsinki, Finland. We were lucky enough to get into a one-year old apartment and, I have to say, it really is built so much better than our 2014 house in Texas was.

Canadian here. Good program sir, and I hope many folks find your podcast. I thought you’d find it interesting to know where PassiveHaus actually began as a tested concept. It was the Province of Saskatchewan’s research centre that first built and tested a net zero house in the early 1980’s. The man who led the charge was Harold Orr. After the provincial government shelved the research project, the German government obtained the research data and ran with more research and code development. I am an architect in my 70’s and practiced in Saskatchewan. Today I dabble in small energy efficient housing in eastern Ontario. Every one of my houses targets an ACH50 rate of 0.6. Walls are R32, roofs R70. Triple glazing. As much as possible I eliminate basements. I Keep up the good work.

Thanks for doing all that amazing research on this subject and sharing it with us! I had been intrigued by the idea of passive and energy efficient homes for many years. Particularly a design that used cement blocks under the floor so that air could circulate under the slab and act as a heat sink. One drawback I thought of was the possibility that mold might become a problem under there, especially after much air had bought dust, mites, etc to rest there. How would you clean such a thing? It would be interesting to see how many of those homes are still functioning as they should.