The New Ecological Home by Daniel D. Chiras

Author:Daniel D. Chiras [Chiras, Daniel D.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: ebook, book
Publisher: Chelsea Green Publishing
Published: 2011-02-07T22:00:00+00:00

Figure 8-2.

Concrete houses like this home in Florida are an excellent choice in coastal areas subject to hurricanes.

Source: Dan Chiras

While the average stick-frame home has little chance against a category 5 hurricane or a tornado, concrete homes can withstand these assaults with little damage.

Concrete homes are being built all over the country, but they are especially popular in coastal states such as Florida (figure 8-2). One reason for their popularity in such locations is their supreme resistance to hurricanes. With winds often exceeding 100 miles per hour and their occurrence increasing as we unwittingly alter the planet’s climate with a continuous outpouring of greenhouse gases and the ongoing destruction of carbon-dioxide-absorbing forests, hurricanes could become a major factor in the evolution of home building over the next few decades.

Hurricanes are not the only weather phenomenon that could affect the direction of home building in the years to come. Meteorological studies show that tornados are also on the rise, having doubled in frequency in the past twenty years.Tornados are causing tens of millions of dollars of damage to homes each year. Home builders and home buyers in the path of twisters would be wise to rethink the materials from which they build—or rebuild—their homes.While the average stick-frame home has little chance against a category 5 hurricane or a tornado, concrete homes can withstand these assaults, incurring little, if any, damage. In the wake of devastating storms, while neighbors struggle to pick through the debris of their shattered homes, the owner of a concrete home is able to resume life with little, if any, change in routine.The only repair required might be windows and the only picking up involved in getting back to normality is removing trees that may have been toppled by the storm.

Durable as it is, concrete does have its drawbacks. For one, it has a rather high embodied energy. Embodied energy, as explained in chapter 1, is the amount of energy required to produce a material. In this case, it is the energy required to mine and process the raw materials and manufacture concrete, a mixture of Portland cement, aggregate (small rocks), sand, and various chemical additives. Energy required to transport raw materials and the finished product is also part of the total embodied-energy equation.

For concrete, one of the biggest contributors to its high embodied energy is Portland cement, which is the binder, that is, the material that holds everything together. Portland cement consists primarily of limestone, silica, and alumina, which are mined, crushed, and heated to over 2,000°F. The product is then mixed with gypsum, which controls the set time of cement. When concrete cures, it creates a hard, durable material.

Mining and manufacturing of Portland cement not only requires a fair amount of energy, it produces considerable amounts of environmental damage and pollution. In fact, the cement industry is one of the largest producers of carbon dioxide in the United States, and the second major producer in Great Britain.Worldwide,manufacture of cement is responsible for 8 percent of all carbon dioxide emissions.

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