從 World Changing 的網站看到 Newsweek 的零能源家居報導, Zero enegry household 的社區位於加州, 那裡的家居設計, 不但減少能源的消耗, 還能透過太陽能為家居發電.
在夏天, 當外面氣溫高達三十多度, 房子的石牆隔去熱浪, 天花隔的太陽能收集器把白天的能源儲起, 晚上照明和製冷. 已往夏天, 一個家居的電費為美金200, 在零能源家居裡, 電費是零!
"Spectrally selective" windows cut power
bills by blocking solar heat in the summer and retaining indoor warmth
in cold weather. Fluorescent bulbs throughout use two thirds the juice
of incandescents. A suitcase-size tankless hot-water heater in the
garage, powered by gas, saves energy by warming water only when the tap
is turned on.
The rest of the energy
savings comes from the solar units. Set flush with the roof tiles, the
two-kilowatt photovoltaic panels unobtrusively turn the sun's rays into
AC power with the help of an inverter in the garage. An LED readout
shows the system's electrical output. Just looking at it can give
owners a warm feeling. "When I pull into the garage, sometimes I just
like to look at the Sunny Boy [inverter] to see how much power we've
generated," says homeowner Kurt Gonzales, whose family bought a
2,200-square-foot house.
In ZEHs, the solar
production doesn't just feed the home it serves. If the panels are
generating more power than the home is using—when the house is empty
during a sunny day—the excess flows into the utility's power grid.
Gonzales and other residents are billed by "net metering": they pay for
the amount of power they tap off the grid, less the kilowatts they feed
into it. If a home generates more power in one month than it uses, the
bill is zero.
但由於缺乏投資, 興建這些屋的成本非常高, 近年的石油危機卻使主流發展商朝向這方向發展...