In quest of energy efficiency

An energy-efficient, steel-clad residential home, going up in West Asheville. Consultant Ken Huck helped with some of the design features, and Xpress interviewed him in an article for the Living Green issue last fall. Photo by Zen Sutherland, http://www.flickr.com/photos/zen/


Green-building consultant Ken Huck has been playing with energy since he was 12 years old. The Canadian native helped wire his family’s farmhouse more than 30 years ago, then toyed with radio kits in high school and studied the history of science and technology in college. By the time he worked on a solar-array project for the Vallejo, Calif., water system in 2003, he was hooked on alternative energy.

These days, he’s living in West Asheville and still experimenting. He’s trying to match pragmatism with theory in designing a “passive house” — one so airtight and efficient that even the warmth of a dog or two can make a significant contribution to its coziness in wintertime.

For an interview with Huck, see Xpress article “Passive Aggressive.”

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4 thoughts on “In quest of energy efficiency

  1. oneyetiger

    If it’s so airtight is Beano a required medication for the inhabitants? I know we can accept ugly if it’s in a good cause. I hope the cause is terrific because it’s really ugly. It certainly isn’t a babe magnet. Personally I think we need to go native if we are truly bound for obama’s agrarian lifestyle agenda.

  2. Jonathan Barnard

    When I biked past it the other day, I thought it looked kind of cool, actually. The photo doesn’t do it justice.

  3. entopticon

    oneyetiger, that comment really is so completely imbecilic that it is actually kind of funny. If you meant it to be a satire of the sort of dimwits who would actually make the sort of asinine comments that you made there, then bravo. And if you were serious… well, the joke is on you.

    Personally, I think it is pretty cool. And I have met Ken, and he is a kind and thoughtful guy.

  4. pff

    obamas agrarian lifestyle agenda?

    this is seen by the mods as a useful, helpful addition to the topic?

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