1) Builders at scale aren't willing to make these kinds of investments. They want standard designs that they can throw up as cheaply and quickly as possible. Frankly some of the developments I've seen in my area are just hideous - like if they had just run the streets the other direction people would have had view lots, but they were too effing cheap and lazy to even do that, let alone hire an actual architect.
2) Distribution networks of building supplies are ineffective and feels like a market ripe for disruption. Just because there exists some cool new material or energy-saving option out there in the world doesn't mean that one's local builders have access. So, whatever is available to them is what's going into local houses.
3) Consumer tastes. Human beings have notions about houses. Lots of humans like house designs that are conforming to local norms and traditions. So thermally efficient designs like below-ground homes often end up as outliers that don't sell particularly well to buyers who don't understand the benefits.
Wouldn't that have allowed them to make more $$$$$$$ because places with a view sell for more than places without?
Talk to a few architecture / landscaping experts. They got plenty of ideas of how to optimize homes.
EDIT: And then a technologist comes in, wonders who put this big tree in front of their roof. They cut down the tree, install 20% efficient solar panels and overall have to spend more energy cooling down their house in the summer... completely ignoring the thought and effort the architect and landscapers put towards the home.
I'm also surprised other homebuilders/designers haven't connected the a/c condenser heat exhaust to a centralized location for hot water tanks. I've seen a few people on YouTube do it however for their heated pools.
They also put their HVAC into the attic and the entire house is insulated with spray foam, so the attic only a few degrees warmer than the house below it.
I need to ask them what the energy bills were but I imagine they were low enough to prevent complaint.
The only common appliance that I can think of that produces a lot of unwanted heat would be a dryer. But instead of a gas dryer that sends all the waste heat outside, you could get a condenser dryer with a heat pump which consumes much less energy and hence produces much less heat.
From a residential standpoint it doesn't really make sense.
But you forgot the "oven-in-summer" :)
I think no one wants a new hole in their home unless they can't avoid it. Its a hard sell all around I'm afraid. Not to mention the DIY spirit around electric appliances. They are such wonderful marvels because we can just buy them and plug them in! We don't need a credentialed professional running tubing or cutting through our walls to install them. A competitor asking for an exhaust port will simply get eaten up by the one not asking for it.
The problem is that most homes aren't build with this in mind and don't provide a place to run the refrigerant lines (nor comes with the lines built-in) especially for the fridge.
This already exists and is starting to gain popularity for new builds. It’s also not that expensive to retrofit, but is most effective when a home is sealed well.
Its thermometer currently reads 6° C, so in winter it can more-or-less be used as a second refrigerator.
Unfortunately winter air is actually _too warm_ for heat pumps to use winter air for cooling! They use outside air for heating, year round.
Manufacturers killed the feature to reduce energy waste, instead of adding thicker insulation around the compartment.
Its a small step to run hot/cold water supply lines when you are using tax-free muni bonds to put in the streets and sewers already, and have to have a maintenance fee structure that operates the plant.
We would need todo the same thing but more modern take with a heat exchanger/heat pumps. That would save gadzallions amount of energy used for cooling refrigerators. Depending on climate of course.
Your time and money would be better spent on buying solar panels and batteries. And once you have those it would be better spent on investing in solar farms.