expo

Just got back from the 2010 Green Living and Energy Expo being held at the Roanoke Civic Center; I went over during lunch.  I sat in on Adam's "Cutting Edge Low Energy Construction: Introduction to Passivhaus Design Principles" presentation for the hour I had.

As I listened to Adam talk, I looked around the room for reactions when words like, "air tight, 2-10% more expensive, ~75% more efficient" or "heat it with a candle" were mentioned.  To be honest, the general crowd reaction was "shock."  Some of the faces in the audience said, "wow, really," while only two I noticed translated to, "ha, yeah right."

As the presentation came to a close, Adam opened the floor to questions.  "How much insulation do the walls require," came from one listener and "what does it cost to build a 4400 sq. ft. home," from another.  Adam did a great job delivering the message and addressing the questions for the amount of time he had.  One can only hope others will take the message home and accurately relay it to their friends.  After all, passive house is a complicated concept for most of us American's to understand.

As I complimented Adam, "well done," on my exit, a nice retired couple from Martinsville, VA confronted me after they overheard Adam talk about Steph and I being his client.

They said that they were really interested in building a small, energy efficient home because there son convinced them that electricity rates aren't going down.  I described our current progress and they seemed really excited and interested.  By the end of our conversation, they had the URL for this blog and said they wanted to talk to Adam.

As for the Expo, even though I had to get back to work, I made a quick pass through after the presentation; lots of cool stuff - photovoltaic panels, electric cars, wind turbines, LED lighting, and much more.

Tomorrow's the last day, and don't forget, its FREE!