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Comment by swampthinker | Hacker News Reader

Building science has been stonewalled and ignored by regulators who work closely with property developers. The efficiency of US buildings/homes is abysmal, and because energy is relatively cheap, there is little economic pressure to invest in efficiency upgrades.

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Most buildings aren't new. They're old. My house is over 100 years old, and it could still be standing in another 100 years. The neighborhood is mostly these old houses, and lots of the people living here are retirees or young couples who simply don't have the money to do massive renovations on their homes. And frankly, there's an upper limit to the energy efficiency of a drafty old bungalow.

Speaking as someone who spent a good part of my life renovating homes, I can tell you that there is not much of an "upper limit" to the energy efficiency of an older home. If you're already planning on renovating a home, there is an incremental $25-$50k energy efficiency improvements that you can make to turn the house into a nearly net-zero energy home.

The issue is that the young couple who do renovate their home have a far better ROI on updating the kitchen + bathroom than the efficiency of the house.

As half of a young couple that's at the cusp of starting a remodel (focusing as you point out on bathrooms and the kitchen), I'd be very interested in your thoughts on what's possible in terms of efficiency.

We're replacing the insulation in the attic and getting mini-split based cooling/heating. We also replaced the windows and briefly considered blown-in insulation for the walls, but weren't convinced that it would be worthwhile.

Sure! Email is in my profile. Happy to nerd out over building efficiency and help out.

It’s because of AC too. In France buildings have to be more efficient else you die in the summer.

Europeans also need to understand that A/C does not make you ill.

It’s killing the planet and making you less aware of your surroundings though.

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