I’m really excited about today’s show. We’re going to explore modular homes and the importance of energy efficiency in making affordable housing affordable. My guest is Lisa Iulo, an Associate Professor of Architecture at the Pennsylvania State University.

The homes were solar powered and self-sufficient and everyone got around, of course, in hovering vehicles and things like that. So I guess childhood visions catch up to you at some point in your reality whether it’s intentional or not I guess. ~Lisa Iulo

Lisa Iulo, Associate Professor of Architecture at the Pennsylvania State University

My guest today is Lisa Iulo, an Associate Professor of Architecture at the Pennsylvania State University. She focuses on building a more sustainable future through residential green building practices, affordable housing, energy efficiency and incorporating renewable energy into buildings and communities. She was also heavily involved in Penn State’s 2007 and 2009 Solar Decathlon projects.

LI: Lisa Iulo. I’m an associate professor of architecture and I also have a courtesy appointment in architectural engineering.

DB: Okay. You gave a presentation yesterday about developing a system for delivering modular homes. So tell us a little bit about what’s involved in that. That seems, like delivering a home, a constructed home is a pretty big project.

LI: Well, yes it is and in fact the way that we look at it is perhaps even a bigger project because what we’re less interested in is the end result of the home or as you put it actually delivering the home and putting it on the site, but the process to get to a responsible design for a home that we know is going to be contextually appropriate in the existing fabric of a community, that’s going to enhance that community. And is also going to enhance the quality of life for the person that’s going to be living there. And so what we’re really interested in is how we can look at bringing down the cost of designing a really well-designed, well-insulated, high-performance if you will home that is ultimately going to bring down the expenses that a homeowner living in that home is going to pay over time to afford their utilities and things like that. So to that end we’re really thinking overall about the design process. How we can make sure, a) that designers are involved, that responsible choices are being made in the way that those homes are designed but facilitating a collaborative process that can allow better decisions to be made. One of the difficulties, especially with all projects, and I think you’ve seen some presentations that talk about this. With all projects but especially with housing, it’s very hard for projects to carry the soft costs that are associated with a very rigorous design process early on. So if we can help to disseminate information about just more responsible design choices, you know guiding people towards proper energy efficient wall systems and things like that. Then designers and project teams have perhaps the tools to be able to make better decisions and to design homes that can be site specific and meet those future needs and so that’s what with the kit of parts specifically what we were looking at was whether modular construction could be used to help to facilitate more energy efficient homes. And I think that there’s some research out there that says that this is possible because modular construction happens in a controlled environment. That there can be more oversight of the product. And making sure that things are sealed appropriately, insulated appropriately, that things that need to be done to make sure that energy efficiency is possible. And then by looking at what components technically are a part of that. They can be integrated into those modules so that the decisions and the oversight and some of the inspections happen in the plant, which is the way that modular construction works currently but now we’re focusing it much m...

It’s an economic decision to go solar. And that federal tax credit that gives you 30% of a tax credit off the cost of your solar installation, that’s money that stays in Texas. That is money that stays in Texas and there were other people that were in the room when he said that and their necks snapped back and they were like “Oh, yeah.” It’s a decision. By 2014 there were 7,000 people involved in the solar industry in Texas and that’s a lot of people. ~ Lucy Stolzenburg

Lucy Stolzenburg, executive director of the Texas Solar Energy Society

I had a great conversation with Lucy Stolzenburg. She has been involved with the Texas Solar Energy Society since 2007 and has served as executive director since 2012. Her position allows her to work with solar energy proponents across the state of Texas. And, she’s not afraid of a little personal sacrifice in the name of energy efficiency.

LS: My name is Lucy Stolzenburg and I’m the executive director of the Texas Solar Energy society.

DB: Is that several different chapters across the state or?

LS: I do have chapters. The Texas Solar Energy Society is a chapter of the American Solar Energy Society, a state chapter and I in turn have four chapters around the state. We have a chapter in Houston. We have one in San Antonio, one in Austin and then one in north Texas, the North Texas Renewable Energy Group.

DB: Now are there actually any active efforts for Texas to become its own country? Will we see the Texas Solar Energy Society any time soon?

LS: Well I don’t think the Texas Solar Energy Society will go off on its own and secede from ASES. I really appreciate being a part of ASES. It is a very nationalistic place and it stands up to be different from everybody else and my understanding is that our governor is out there again trying to steal from other states. I honestly don’t know how the last governor and this one can go to governor’s conferences and not walk in without a bag on their head.

DB: So what is he trying to steal from other states?

LS: Industry, industry of all sorts. Industry, corporations, workers. You know, he wants to appeal to high tech.

DB: They’re not trying to take actual territory though right?

LS: No they’re not surprisingly enough, they’re not trying to take territory but sometimes I think that’s on the back burner.

DB: So tell me a little bit about the chapters in Texas and how do you spread the word about solar?

LS: The chapters are volunteer. I have a paid position. But the chapters are volunteer. The north Texas chapter is probably my most active chapter as far as the diversity of what they do. They meet monthly, they are at every event in earth month to support solar. They have solar trailers. They’re involved with the high school solar car challenge that brings high school students from across the country with their solar cars. They do the largest solar tour in the state. Last year they have 50 solar locations on the tour. Solar Austin is more involved with policy. They meet monthly, they keep their eye on Austin Energy and keep them honest about solar and try and increase the goals for renewable energy. Solar San Antonio has just merged back with Build San Antonio Green on that idea that you want your residence and your business, the built environment to be as energy efficient as possible before you add solar. Houston is involved in many different things which I can never quite keep track of. But they’re really active and they have made some very interesting points lately. Houston is such an international community that they have the ability to communicate overseas with the family members of these people that are in Houston about solar. So it’s a really interesting approach. They certainly do other things. They are in an oil town. Houston is a tough place to be involved in solar energy. But I have always loved that approach that this is an international town,

“Where I first kind of noticed that was In tenth grade biology and we did a yeast culture. I remember distinctly. A little petri dish and you put these little yeast cells in there and then you looked at ‘em through a microscope and you counted them in a little grid system and I learned how to do that and then you let them sit for a while and we just charted the growth of the population and it was pretty cool….

It started going up and then it really started going up and then it kind of flattened off and then it dropped off and that’s when I started thinking about, well if you consume all the food and you pollute the environment that you live in it’s unsustainable.” ~ David Panich, chairman, American Solar Energy Society.

Passive Solar and the Wisdom of Yeast

My guest today is David Panich, chairman of the board of the American Solar Energy Society.

David is an architect who has worked with passive solar building design and energy efficiency since the 1970s. Now he’s the chairman of the board of the American Solar Energy Society. Here is a transcript of our interview.

DP: My name is David Panich. I’m an architect. I worked for a variety of architectural firms around the country, upstate New York, Oregon, Ohio, and then in 1981 I formed my own firm that I ran until 2009. And then I moved away from Ohio and kind of semi-retired and I became way more involved in ASES when I left my practice and somehow ended up being the chairman of the board of ASES this last year and a half and for the remainder of this year.

DB: So you’ve had a lot of different jobs over the years with ASES. Can you talk about a couple of those?

DP: Yeah, I’ve been chair of the sustainability division. ASES has 9 divisions and I’ve been chair of two of them. One is sustainability. The other is solar buildings. And after a year or two of solar buildings I was nominated for a board position representing the division and in ASES we have representatives of chapters and divisions and then the general membership on the board and after a couple of years on the board as a representative of the buildings divisions I became the chair. So that’s kind of the genesis of how I got here.

DB: A lot of people when they think of solar they think of blue photovoltaic panels on a roof. ASES has a long history of reaching across all different types of solar and even other forms of renewable energy I think.

DP: That’s true and the forms are all represented in our technical divisions. We’ve got nine divisions and it ranges from clean water energy to solar resource assessment to sustainability which is kind of a catchall division. We have a solar electric, we have solar thermal, we have concentrating solar power. So most of the technologies that one would consider to be a solar technology. Wind actually is a division also because it’s uneven heating of the earth that causes the wind. And pretty much all of those things are a solar technology and in fact you know when you think about it coal is kind of one too since those were plants that decompose but that’s kind of a much longer story. But yeah we have the divisions and those are the areas. And one tough one is how do we fit efficiency in here because really energy efficiency is as important as generating energy. The watt you don’t use is just as valuable as those you create. So we also have an emphasis, I believe in our mission statement, actually about efficiency also.

DB: What is the mission of the technical divisions or how do they benefit the move toward clean energy?

DP: ASES is a fairly all-encompassing organization. The divisions give people who have a specialty interest a place to land I think, some identity, and hopefully the ability to communicate with their peers. The other function of the divisions really is this conference. We have a call for papers that goes out. And in that call for papers people respond and we generally try to steer the ...