Geodesic domes and other resilient home designs are getting new attention from more climate-conscious home buyers and the architects and builders who cater to them, says The New York Times.
Homes made of steel and concrete can be more resilient to heat, wildfire and storms. And even traditional wood-framed houses can be built in ways that greatly reduce the odds of severe damage from hurricanes or flooding, says the Times.
Homes with added resiliency can cost about 10 percent more than conventional construction, though that often pays for itself through reduced repair costs after a disaster, the Times says.
But most house purchasers don’t know enough about construction to demand tougher standards, the Times says. Builders, in turn, are reluctant to add resilience, out of concern that consumers won’t be willing to pay extra for features they don’t understand.
One way to bridge that gap would be for states and localities to tighten building codes. But most places don’t use the latest code, if they have mandatory building standards at all, says the Times.
Electric vehicles as backup power
Energy and auto experts expect people to increasingly use the batteries in their electric vehicles as a source of backup power for their homes, as auto and energy companies make it easier for people and businesses to tap the energy in electric cars for more than driving, says a separate Times article.
The battery in a Ford F-150 Lightning or the electric Chevrolet Silverado pickup, which is expected to go on sale this year, can store much more energy than home batteries that are sometimes installed with rooftop solar panels, says the Times. Pair an electric truck with a home solar system, the thinking goes, and a family could keep the lights on for days or weeks.
The use of electric vehicles as a source of power has intrigued electric utility executives, including Pedro Pizarro, chairman of the board of the Edison Electric Institute, the industry’s main trade organization, and chief executive of Edison International, which provides power to millions of homes and businesses in Southern California.
Pizarro’s company and other utilities are testing whether it's practical and safe to send power from electric vehicles to the grid.
By soaking up power when it’s abundant and releasing it when it's scarce, electric vehicles could be “a bigger rubber band to absorb the shocks and manage them day to day and week to week.”
Greater use of electric vehicles in this way should also allow utilities and homeowners to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by relying more on renewable sources of energy like solar and wind that provide power intermittently, says the Times.