Energy Vanguard Blog

When you think of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), do you think of atomic clocks and hunks of metal that serve as standards of mass and length? Or do you think of cutting edge research in net zero energy (NZE) homes? It turns out, they do indeed still deal with standards, but they also do a lot of great research, including studying NZE homes.

I write mostly about buildings and the people who fight about them: the crazy things I find, the good things I find, the super-secret Building Science Fight Club, how I don't need no stinkin' Building Science Summer Camp. Just your standard energy geek fare. Occasionally I talk about peak oil and the Long Emergency. Aside from the few articles I've written about the green home I built, with its greywater system, reclaimed materials, and passive solar features, I haven't said much about sustainable living, though.

Ten years ago I was building a green home. It had passive solar features, was built out of structural insulated panels, sent all the greywater out to the back yard to water fruit trees, and was going to be super energy efficient. One feature above all others, though, captured people’s attention when I described the house to them — the composting toilet. The first reaction of many of them was:

Below is a repost of an article with advice for voters from my friend Chris Kaiser at Mapawatt.

Five years ago I read a book that freaked the hell out of me - The Long Emergency by Jim Kunstler. I was drinking a lot of peak oil kool-aid that year, but that book really got to me in a way that the others didn't. I had to re-evaluate everything I thought about how the future might unfold, and it scared the crap out of me. It took months before I started to feel 'normal' again.