Being Smart About Home-Energy Conservation June 15, 2011

Panel Discussion: Dr. Evalyn Gates, Mark Hoberecht, and Chuck Miller
Moderator: Holly Harlan
Introducer: James Harris, H/L Communications


The City Club of Cleveland hosts a panel discussion on the future of passive home design featuring: Dr. Evalyn Gates, Executive Director of the Cleveland Museum of Natural History, Mark Hoberecht, Certified Passive House Consultant and Chuck Miller, designer and architect, Doty & Miller Architects and moderated by Holly Harlan, former executive director, Entrepreneurs 4 Sustainability; members of the team that made this concept a reality.

The Cleveland Museum of Natural History has been busy building a two-story "passive" house on its grounds in University Circle. The structure, dubbed, "PNC SmartHome Cleveland," complements the museum's exhibition on Climate Change, which will run from July 23 through Dec. 31, and will soon open to the public.

PNC SmartHome Cleveland demonstrates how we can live more energy-efficiently and is designed to conform to current best practices of energy performance -- being a passive home, it doesn't even have a furnace. Despite this, the house is 90 percent more energy efficient than a typical home, has no drafts, no cold spots, and extremely low heating bills. Is CMNH's PNC SmartHome Cleveland a futuristic exercise or is it possible right now in the "real" world? And if it is practical how can Cleveland lead the way in passive home design construction?