News

It seems that germs can’t live on copper or copper alloys like brass or bronze, while they survive on almost all other building materials, including stainless steel. Doorknobs, faucets, countertops, handles, and table tops can all be made with copper. Using copper doesn’t cause microbes to develop resistance the way anti-bacterial soaps do; hospitals are switching to copper surfaces now to fight MERS and other deadly superbugs. This recent discovery has to do with the way copper’s electrons burst the cell walls of microbes, while still being safe for people and pets. In our projects, we’re moving toward copper touchable surfaces wherever we can.

The passive system uses an extremely tight building envelope that is highly insulated. We used to call this the “thermos bottle” concept. Mechanical equipment then controls air coming into the building, heating, cooling, or cleaning it. Heat from air leaving the building is captured by equipment and reused. Passive houses tend to be a lot more expensive than the type we design for the California coast. First of all, the windows required in passive houses need to be especially tight, of a type not general available in America. The special equipment to condition the air and capture waste heat is also quite expensive. Moisture created inside the house, from cooking, showers, laundry, and just by people breathing can build up and cause mold if not very carefully controlled.