Wozniak's New Goal is Efficient Housing

Op-Ed: Apple Inc. co-founder and legendary hacker Steve Wozniak [book review] recently found a new passion in energy-efficient housing. Last month he told PC World magazine, "I have a long dream to build my own house in a very energy-efficient approach. That's going to be very soon. It uses the right kind of wood that serves as a heater and as an air conditioner, combined with some other techniques in how the wood is assembled to operate energy life pressure. You don't have to add energy into a house after you build it. I love that concept. It's like the way I used to make computers. I want to build it myself. That's a project that could be finished this summer, next summer, but not too far from now." Here at ECN we thought you'd like to know more, so we interviewed Woz by email. Here is a transcript of our questions and his answers. His preface: "I'm too busy to do this [interview] now, but I'll do it anyway. I have to say that I'm not a green expert but did encounter some technologies that were very right for a home."

ECN: Steve, thanks very much for your time. Here are nine questions for you, based on the PC World blurb. How and when did you become interested in energy-efficient construction? Do you have any plans to use your house as model for encouraging other people and companies to design their buildings more cleanly?

Woz: I am looking for sites but haven't had enough time to narrow one down yet. I'm mostly interested in areas of the California coast, like Half Moon Bay or San Luis Obispo. ... I have always had an interest in my own self-sacrifice to help the environment. I gave much money to groups working for forests and rivers. But I was probably misguided. I have no idea how effectively my money was spent or if it helped save one more tree or patch of river for future generations. Still, most of our charitable giving is in the sense of feeling that we are in some category we want to be in.

The term "energy efficient" is rather vague. At some level it implies some form of conservation. I have great reservations with that concept as well. One aspect of conservation is to use less so that there is more to go around, either to more people or for a longer time. I disagree with this concept pretty strongly. Personally I want to conserve but I wouldn't push that concept on others as a "right" way to live. I only want to serve as an example. I don't want to tell others that they are bad people or doing "wrong" things. That's not a good way to keep open communication. I also have trouble with the concept that we can have more of a "worse" life. It's a conflict between quality and quantity and life should be judged by quality.

The form of energy efficiency that appeals greatly to me is the idea of efficiency of construction. I have always admired getting the same results with fewer parts or procedures. That's a win for everyone. I used that concept in my design approach in life. I was determined to give my highest regard to engineers and in engineering we always strive for more efficiency, defined mathematically as more out for less in. If you can build a car at the same price, with the same features (size and performance) yet it uses less gasoline or pollutes less, that's a win for everyone, including the car manufacturer. Engineering leads to such advances, even when they seem like tiny steps.

Now, let's get to your point of energy efficient homes (or other facilities). I see two main parts to this issue. The first is using techniques to build homes with the least energy usage (and the least pollution). For example, ram-dirt is a material made of the dirt dug under where your home will be. It uses less energy than any other building material form to create, with a machine right at the construction site. Saving energy is good also in the sense that the energy to make this material usually comes from burning coal and emitting pollutants into our air. When properly applied, this form of construction is very low cost but applicable to luxury homes. I have spoken to builders who build luxury homes out of this material and have friends who are starting a company to manufacture blocks of this material for delivery to the site when the ram-dirt method cannot be used due to soil properties. This material is manufactured with grooved shapes and nails are not used in the construction. A home made of this should last 500 years, not just 75 years.

The other form of energy efficiency in homes is in how much energy your home uses to operate. We emit more pollutants such as carbon dioxide in our homes than in our cars. That includes the coal burned to provide our electricity, but there are other reasons that homes are responsible for such emissions. If you can build a home, with the same effort and cost, that uses less electricity, it's a win for everyone and any engineer can gloat.

Recently I was a judge at a History Channel Modern Marvels Invent Now Challenge in association with the Inventors Hall of Fame. A few of us judges were really taken by the winning entry and I suspect that more than myself are moving toward building the sort of home that won.

You build a home out of a type of wood that keeps the temperature constant without air conditioning or heaters. The miracle wood in this category is Southern Yellow Pine. As for renewable resources, more Southern Yellow Pine trees are planted each year than are used. I'm told this is the only tree with this benefit. The Southern Yellow Pine has a resin inside that melts and freezes at 71 degrees F., a very comfortable temperature for humans. The chemical actions of melting and freezing work to balance the temperature. If it's a hot day, some small amount of the resin melts (it takes a huge amount of energy to melt a tiny amount) and the melting process pulls heat from the surroundings, from the home. When it gets colder at night, the resin-wood emits heat as it freezes.

In high school chemistry we had the latent heat of fusion concept. You let ice settle in water. You can measure the temperatures. The ice and water are both 32 degrees F. It seems like the tiniest amount of energy would cause the ice to melt. After all, you only have to change it maybe a hundredth or less of a degree. But it takes a huge amount of energy to accomplish melting. This represents the difference in energy between the solid and liquid states. In this way, large amounts of energy can be stored. In the case of Southern Yellow Pine, energy from the summer can even be stored in the wood until a later season in some cases.

This company Enertia prepares blocks of this Southern Yellow Pine with grooves and sells the pieces as kit homes that you build yourself. The only tool you need is a power drill. No nails are used in the construction. I suspect that's because the metal of nails helps outside temperature conduct to the inside. The homes are also designed in an envelope fashion with 2 layers of wood and a space between them for natural air circulation around the home. The Southern side is all glass to collect sunlight. The homes are designed for more sunlight getting in during the Winter, when the sun is lower in the sky, than during summer, when the sun is higher in the sky.

All of these simple principles wind up with a very attractive house that is as normal and livable as any other, but without insulation or air conditioning or heating. The typical energy bill might be as low as $30 a month, depending on where you live. The outside temperature can be 50 degrees hotter or colder than the inside temperature of 71 degrees.

Recently I bumped into the builder of my first home. We reminisced and I told him of my plans to build one of these Enertia homes. He had built many homes with the efficient ram-dirt process and for one of them he used the resin-wood (presumably Southern Yellow Pine) for the roof. With only the roof being of this resin-wood the temperature inside never varied more than 5 degrees he told me. So the combination of approaches is one thing I'm considering too.

I like things simple with fewer parts and fewer added technologies. Just think out the right ways to build a home and do it. So few people know how easily all our homes could have been energy efficient rather than energy wasters. I suppose it's an outcome of the fact that energy is so cheap and abundant now. I think of it this way. The timeline of history and of man will be many millions of years long. Over that timeline, at some point man was going to find oil and ways to use it. Whenever in time that had happened, the generations it happened for would have used it up. We are those generations using it up, but if we saved it and didn't even touch it at all, some future generation would quickly use it up. The time that mankind has oil may be a short blip on the long timeline of humans. Whenever the discoveries were made, that blip would have appeared. We needn't think of ourselves as bad just because we were the lucky ones to have the oil blip.

ECN: Many experts say the clean-tech industry is today where the home computer industry was 30 years ago, where it's just a couple of companies and many amateurs. If true, what can the clean-tech industry learn from it?

Woz: No, it's not comparable to personal computers. Personal computers didn't have to tear down an infrastructure. Even if a few people like myself are building energy efficient homes (and a ton more are building things that are barely energy efficient or they are using one thing that's energy efficient in a very inefficient home that swamps the gains) we are moving out of our inefficient homes, selling them to someone else. So only new homes can be built this way. It will take many decades or centuries to replace the existing inefficient homes with efficient ones. The best you could do is to tear down an inefficient home and replace it with an efficient one. But few of us can afford to do that. It's normally done out of vanity instead - to build a home the way you want.

Eventually the word will get around and good examples will be noticed.

I do fear that big companies will build inefficient homes in other countries for the sake of making money. Those people will be stuck with homes that would cost a lot to air condition. If the right technologies were exported then they would have nice cool homes from the start. I don't know how to spread the word. Education in the world does a poor job in these areas and even when you have the education you are at the mercy of the sellers you encounter. The mass media does a poor job of educating in these areas also.

ECN: In PC World, you said, "It's like the way I used to make computers" -- how so? Also, are you hearing about any user groups for people who are building efficiency homes, a la the Homebrew Computer Club?

Woz: Simple design. Think about the right way to build something and take a lot of time to get it the best that can be done with the fewest resources used. No waste. Build it right and with few parts it does a lot. Don't cover things with more and more and more technology for features. Design them in from the start. It starts with the architect, of a home or a computer, working from a knowledge of the building materials and a desire to choose wisely.

ECN: Will you be using any other alternative energy sources, such as biofuels, solar cells, or wind power? Do you plan to sell any energy back to the local utility company?

Woz: I plan on a very low electricity bill that could justify solar cells. I worry that if it takes more energy to make and install a solar cell than it returns in its lifetime, then it's a loser. But you can't lose if it's a small addition to the home. I also may install AC/heating but hopefully never use it. I am deathly afraid of cold or hot homes but I'm willing to jump in the water and take my risks for something I believe in.

I may wind up buying some commercial solar cells with all the stuff to sell electricity back. But my electricity needs should be so small (clothes washer, lights, computers, TVs) that it may not amount to a significant amount.

ECN: Of the energy-saving techniques you will use, which are the most cost-effective or appeal to you the most? Are there any specific green technologies that you'd like to have today, but which aren't yet feasible?

Woz: I haven't analyzed if these Enertia Southern Yellow Pine woods are cost-effective. The total cost of the materials for a home seems reasonable to me but I'm not a builder. Once the home exists however, the energy savings and cost savings will come principally from the resin in the wood, but also from other carefully thought out aspects of the design. The designer is a civil engineering professor at BYU and cares a lot about saving the environment in every step of these homes, including how he makes the wood blocks for you.

ECN: Regarding the electronics that you anticipate using, do your concepts require any special advancements or new techniques? Or do you just plan to use existing systems in new ways?

Woz: I don't expect many changes. I want a large LCD TV and I use a laptop too. I buy energy efficent clothes washers and dryers at Sears too. As for house lights, I hope that LEDs make it further toward lighting normal homes by the time I build mine.

ECN: What are your plans for sharing the knowledge gained during the design, construction, and long-term living phases of this house? Maybe you could make a web page so others can learn from it.

Woz: Maybe. Not my first priority but it should be high. I expect accidental articles in papers and magazines featuring me because such happens a lot when reporters hear that I'm doing anything. [Editor's note: this article is a case in point!]

ECN: Do you envision the house as being just a cool hack that also helps the environment, or are you looking to invest in or even get personally involved with any startups for such technology?

Woz: Both. But I don't have a lot of investment money. I'm already on the advisory board for the ram-dirt startup I mentioned. It's called Integrity Block but is not off the ground yet.

ECN: What are you thoughts on balancing energy efficiency vs. overall environmental impact? Urethane-foam, for example, works well as an insulator but it takes oil and energy to produce and transport.

Woz: The total formula for saving energy can be quite deceptive. It's not correct to say that you are energy efficient when it's only in one way but your net is negative. For example, an electric car may use only half as much, or a third as much, energy as the same sized car using gasoline. But if it costs $100,000 then you realize that you wouldn't spend that much on gasoline over the life of any car. And even using the car uses some gasoline or coal used to create the electricity, to charge your batteries. If the car is inefficient in some ways it may even use more coal per mile but you'll be telling all your friends that it uses none. The cost of something is a reasonable estimate as to how many resources (of the Earth) you used to build the device. Don't take your instant opinion on energy efficient technologies to be correct. Ask a lot of deep questions and hold off until you are very sure.

ECN: This is great stuff, well worth the wait! Thanks, Woz. Readers, please comment using the form below.

Viewing 28 User Comments	Write a Comment
$100,000 Electric Car on 8/14/2007 7:34:00 PM writes: It's also useful to note that new technology requires initial investment. Making the production costs go down often requires that you first produce, and then use the economy of scale, along with what you learn in the production, to help learn to cut down on the energy and materials that go into making the product.
rammed earth on 8/14/2007 8:08:00 PM writes: hi rammed adobe is wonderful... as long as the roof never ever leaks. never is a long time. roofs pass away. especially foam roofs. the above from bitter experience..
wolfgang rupprecht on 8/14/2007 10:24:00 PM writes: How well does the pine oil age with time? I'm a computer nerd, not a chemist, but my general understanding is that light volatiles tend to evaporate easier than the heavy more oily sludges. The net effect is that over time the melting point of a random oily compound will go up. If this does happen to those special yellow pine planks, it would make the house less pleasant as each year goes by. The other potential problem is that ring solvents all tend to be carcinogenic to some degree. If one makes an airtight house with only a few turnovers of air each day, one tends to concentrate all that crap inside the house. Old drafty houses did manage to hide a world of bad toxic design. Once one makes a nice tight sealing house, the problem of out-gassing is pretty significant.
Brian on 8/14/2007 11:22:00 PM writes: Wolfgang, when a new house is to be built air tight, it makes sense to design in a heat / energy recovery ventilator system so its easy to run the duct pipes.
solvalou on 8/15/2007 3:21:00 AM writes: Best place to submit ideas is an agency able to patent things. Going to the patent office directly if you have more patient and can afford to risk. Once you have it patented you can publish it anywhere. I Hope that it is not a silly patent, which I hate :) PS respect to the Woz.
Passive solar architecture going mainstream? on 8/15/2007 8:22:00 AM writes: I like Woz's design philosophy, and it reminds me also of Buckminster Fuller's "Comprehensive Anticipatory Design Science". http://www.bfi.org/ There are 12500 hits for "Passive Solar Architecture" now on Google. We live in a partially passive solar home (it uses sand in the floor for an extra thermal mass instead of resin or water or any of numerous technologies that can act as a thermal flywheel). That was a retrofit done by the previous owner, so it is possible to change the existing infrastructure without tearing it down -- though it is more of a challenge. It's true that building from scratch is easier and may produce a somewhat better result, but people renovate and extend houses all the time. On computers -- there was an infrastructure of computing which the Apple II replaced -- it just was people doing spreadsheets by hand instead of on the Apple II. So the Apple II did tear down an infrastructure -- just a less obvious one. Woz is just too modest. :-) People saw the Apple II as so much better than doing spreadsheets on large pieces of paper, and they moved to it. So too eventually with green buildings, which have a history going back thousands of years (even back to solar-situated monasteries in Tibet); it's just taking more time and awareness of the total costs of energy inefficiency (including external costs like pollution and social disruptions) to get people to return to what Christopher Alexander calls a "timeless way of building". Even the computing world is returning now to many great ideas (like Smalltalk-inspired ones) which were developed in the 1960s or earlier and which we just did not have the understanding or inspiration to implement on a wide scale.
CMHC's 1992 Healthy Housing Design Competition on 8/15/2007 8:36:00 AM writes: Here is an example of a house built with technology from fifteen years ago which was mostly self-sufficient in several ways and yet also affordable in an northern urban area (Toronto), just to show what is possible: http://www.cmhc-schl.gc.ca/popup/hhtoronto/works.htm "The competition challenged the industry to develop innovative ways to design homes with the right balance of occupant health, energy efficiency, resource efficiency, environmental responsibility and affordability. ... What is truly amazing is that CMHC's Healthy House in Toronto provides all the comforts of home - without using municipal services. It has been designed to rely on sun and precipitation as the basis of its heating, electrical, water and waste water management systems. And right from the start, the way it is built and the materials used in construction mean more comfort, less maintenance and lower operating costs. That goes for the landscaping, too. CMHC's Healthy House in Toronto is located near public transportation, and is designed to provide maximum usable space on a minimum amount of land, to limit air and water pollution, and to use locally available materials and durable renewable resources wherever possible. It is an affordable solution to housing now that will keep on working for many years to come. " This suggests that "efficiency" sometimes is not as useful a concept as "balance" sometimes. Though clearly many of today's housing designs and building codes are very unbalanced towards wasting materials and energy for little benefit other than a slightly lower initial cost. Efficiency is part of balance, but it is not the whole issue; there remains an issue of priorities -- which can be thought of as efficiency across a broad spectrum of issues.
Southern Yellow Pine as Insulation on 8/15/2007 10:15:00 AM writes: I've own a home in Vermont for 20 years with a roof that is 3.5" tongue and groove southern yellow pine. The building is 40 years old. Until conventional framing and insulation was installed the heat retention was abysmal. It's first 20 years may have been better. Nails were used as fasteners - horizontally. Wood of this type and age is extremely hard and tough and pretty nice in appearance. Additionally is is what pressure treated lumber is made from. Oh and it's also sold as kindling or fatwood as it burns so easily and hot! Fire supression system anyone? As it grows exclusively in southern states transporation to northern building sites is an issue. IMHO I would not rate it as a green building material whatsoever.
Use Awnings on 8/15/2007 10:39:00 AM writes: Back in the 50's and 60's nearly everyone had awnings on their homes. In the 70's and 80's, people took them down because they didn't look good. My parents recently install an awning above a large patio door on a west facing wall. During the heat of the summer, it can cool the room by 5 degrees celcius. All it took was a little time to install, and since it is retractable, it can be put away to avoid damage in high winds. If you really don't like awnings, try this - get heavy curtains and leave them closed during the in the summer. It works almost as well as an awning.
Woz, you missed the boat on this one on 8/15/2007 12:19:00 PM writes: Woz, I admire you for you early work with Apple but I have to be blunt and tell you that much of what is said in the article is complete non sense. I have been designing and building solar, green and energy efficient homes for 30 years and much of what was said in the article is simply wrong. I assume that most people glow over you and your somewhat celebrity status which may not be a good thing as you try to figure out what is viable and based in solid building principles. Your new home in Half Moon Bay or anyplace near to it is simply one of the most benign climates in the world and of course everyone would love to live there if they could afford it. In that location one healthy fart a day in a reasonably well insulated building should take care of the heating needs and opening the windows at night and that well know ocean breeze will cool the house. I have designed and built over 200 homes all around the country over a 30 year span and our focus has been on solar, green, super insulated homes based on the principals of A Pattern Language. Woz, you need to do more research to really understand the issues before you go out half cocked on a project that is flawed from the get go. Edward Deming would cringe at how you are going about you project. Take a look at our website, there is much you can learn from it. We currently have 10 projects in some stage of design or building from Oregon to New York state and places in between. We also have a project in your back yard, Palo Alto, that is in the very beginning of design. Jon Davis, Sunlight Homes
earthships (much much nicer than it sounds) on 8/15/2007 12:54:00 PM writes: I live in an earthship in the mountains of Taos, NM (7300 ft). From Freezing to heatwave, I live comfortably with no A/C. The house is absolutely beautiful inside (I'll send pics if requested) and supplies a garden full of veggies off a grey water system. google earthship or contact me.
He Doesn't Quite Get It on 8/15/2007 1:27:00 PM writes: The amount of sap in yellow pine wouldn't be a sufficient form of insulation in most climates (other than coastal California). In addition, his idea that "the best you could do is to tear down an inefficient home and replace it with an efficient one" is total nonsense. The embodied energy in the home that is being torn down, combined with the energy need to tear it down and cart it away (possibly to a landfill) would negate the energy savings in the new house. This type of thinking is not cost effective and is somewhat dangerous. In addition, if he is really concerned with green building he should build an urban house near public transportation on a previously developed site. The approach to green building discussed here is incredibly short-sighted.
Energy efficient housing for refugees and the global slums on 8/15/2007 2:01:00 PM writes: The Hexayurt project - google for it, I don't think this will take links. It's all Free/Open, and liked by the American Red Cross etc. Please check it out.
check this house out - totally OFF THE GRID on 8/15/2007 2:39:00 PM writes: EAST AMWELL, N.J. - Mike Strizki lives in the nation's first solar-hydrogen house. The technology this civil engineer has been able to string together – solar panels, a hydrogen fuel cell, storage tanks, and a piece of equipment called an electrolyzer – provides electricity to his home year-round, even on the cloudiest of winter days.
Thank you, Woz on 8/15/2007 5:12:00 PM writes: Thank you, Woz, for starting up a band wagon I hope everyone will follow. No more wars for oil, the dirty energy! Louise
Woz's green building influence/new Apple campus? on 8/15/2007 5:25:00 PM writes: Building a home for a family has some amount of impact, but building a workplace for thousands has many times the impact. We can hope Woz's interest in green building might also influence Apple's direction in greening its new Cupertino campus, e.g. LEED certification. Can Apple be challenged to really "Think Different" about the new campus? Let's try.
what materails on 8/16/2007 7:14:00 AM writes: what materials are used to build a energy efficient house
Reply from Woz on 8/16/2007 1:23:00 PM writes: Hello readers. I conducted this interview at ECN and heard back from Steve Wozniak today. He said, "I'm traveling today but will reply eventually. You could post that for me." So, please check back here in a few days for a personal reply from Steve himself. - Evan Koblentz, online editor
ENERTIA on Science Channel Wed. night on 8/16/2007 9:27:00 PM writes: You can see what ENERTIA is all about on the ECO-TECH episode "Building Green" starting Wednesday night, August 22, at 9 EST on the Science Channel. Tour an Enertia House, tour the factory, see how they work. -Michael Sykes
Working on getting Mike Sykes and Enertia financing to automate production on 8/16/2007 9:33:00 PM writes: Thank you for publishing this interview with computer visionary Steve Wozniak. Mike Sykes is my client and is seeking capital to go from building 12-20 of these homes a year to hundreds and perhaps thousands. If mass-produced, these homes could have a significant effect in reducing the amount of carbon dioxide in our atmosphere. I left the banking world to enable people like Mike to save the planet while making a living. His aesthetically beautiful structures, which have residential and commercial applications, receive rave homeowner reviews. They function very efficiently in all terrains and climates and are incredibly cost-effective to build. There's a wealth of information on the patented Enertia Building System on Mike's Web site. With a visionary investor, these homes could soon be available to anyone wanting a house needing no air-conditioning or heating.
energy efficient housing on 8/17/2007 1:49:00 AM writes: i want to make a small project on energy efficient housing for tybsc(physics).sir, i request you to give a project on lighting or related topics.
Thermal mass/Enertia not all it's cracked up to be on 8/24/2007 6:32:00 AM writes: As a mechanical engineer currently building my own green/passive solar home, I spent a year researching this topic. I'd like to share some insights. Thermal mass/thermal inertia/Enertia is only effective when the outside temperature fluctuates around the indoor set point temperature. When day/night temps are 80F/60F, thermal mass helps in maintaining a constant 70F set point. When temps are 40F/20F (winter) or 90F/70F (summer), thermal does not have a positive effect. Theortetical R-Value of a 6" log wall is 9. Theoretical R-value of a 2x6 frame wall with fiberglass insulation approaches 19! Thermal mass does increase the "effective R-Value" of the log wall, but by a very small amount. Google "effective R-value" to discover how little.
Mr on 8/24/2007 9:10:00 AM writes: How can I make a printer friendly copy?
re: How can I make a printer friendly copy? on 8/24/2007 9:31:00 AM writes: I put a .PDF version here: http://tinyurl.com/2darv3 - Evan Koblentz, online editor
eco on 8/25/2007 8:15:00 AM writes: read
A bit skeptical here on 8/25/2007 12:20:00 PM writes: Ground loops definitely have their place, but some of the claims made here by the Woz sound far too good to be true. For starters, solid wood houses tend to be plagued by air infiltration problems. This is worst for hand cut log cabins that inevitably end up with oversized woodstoves and/or silicon caulking along every joint between the logs, but also happens for laminated machine-cut logs too. Lots of joins in your walls means draughts, its as simple as that. There is even a Finnish company called Erlund who sell log cabins with cavity walls full of cellulose insulation. They export a lot to Germany where standards are very high, so they must be doing something right. I personally cannot believe that a "solid wood" wall can be draught free. Even more so if they are selling kits for self-builders. Tongue and groove or no tongue and groove. I think the ground temperature in a typical Northern Hemisphere 4-seasons climate peaks in November and is lowest in May. That allows great potential for reduced heating and cooling costs through cycling or heat exchange, but in any big heating climate you're still going to need a heat pump to boost things to say 18C indoors. Cycling air through a simple basement is not going to get you there. The resin thing strikes me as snake oil. Some passive solar homes have used tubes full of salts for the same thing since the 1970s, but the lack of widespread adoption tells its own tale. While any company making energy efficient homes is worthy of praise, giving people false expectations isn't the way to go.
George on 9/5/2007 10:12:00 AM writes: Hello green society, we have one small-huge problem here...most of our society does not live in a detached countryside house...has anybody build a 50 storey 0 energy building...no...I think is time to think about this...China..India..downtown Chicago, LA, NY...and and..thanks I would appriciate your thoughts since I am involved in housing policy for the normel poor layer and not the super rich who are the bigist energy consumers in the world. Just build a smaller house and you will do your bit to save the world...thanks gpapa5@eircom.net
Great Innovation on 9/16/2007 1:55:00 PM writes: What is the story behind its development and whats next?Where might it take us?