[ecopath] Housing

[John Van Hazinga]

Yesterday's New York Times had an article about the rise in the price of propane and quoted a retired Iowa construction worker who "got shafted" and could no longer  heat his dream retirement home{ with soaring cathedral ceiling and walls of windows}  with a quadrupling of the price of propane on his fixed income.  He guessed he would  have to sell and build something smaller, but said it was good while it lasted.  As a remodeler I frequently work for older couples with very large houses.  Generally they have owned them for a long time and with family raised  have the money for  upgrades.  I am usually glad to get the work {believing it is advantageous to redo a kitchen or bath every 50 years or so}but what bothers me is the size of the houses and that they usually heat all the space all winter.  It would make more sense to heat a small central core  with options to heat more if guests come or for hobbies, but the houses are not designed that way.  Significant  rises in the price of heating fuels  may promote more remodeling but  if the basic  design is inefficient  relief can be only symptomatic. vann , southern NH where we just celebrated a 30 inch storm our biggest since 93.