Conclusion
You have now finished your tour of this demonstration building. Hopefully it has stimulated your imagination and increased your knowledge of some of the exciting technologies and designs that permit very resource-efficient buildings to be both beautiful and comfortable. Please remember, though, that they don't have to look or cost like this building in order to work the way this one works: similar energy and dollar savings are achievable in ordinary tract houses too.
What are those savings? In round numbers, co-owners RMI and Amory Lovins are saving 99 percent of space- and water-heating energy, 90 percent of household electricity, and 50+ percent of household water. With early 1980s technologies, the resulting ~$19-a-day energy savings repaid the extra cost of the efficient equipment in the first ten months, and will pay for the entire building in about seventy years. The electricity that the building saves will avoid burning its own volume in coal about every twenty years.
Not all the technologies used here are suitable for all people or climates. The large amount of overhead glass used in the greenhouse, for example, would overheat a building in warmer climates. Knowledge and technology have advanced by leaps and bounds since 1984, when this building was completed; it would be interesting to repeat the project today.
Even more important than the technologies used here are two other features of the building: its integration of dwelling, farm, and workplace under one roof, and how it makes you feel. If you've visited the building in person, you may have noticed that it's an unusually pleasant space. RMI staff members certainly feel more happy and productive here than in a normal home or office. Why? Perhaps the reasons include the curves, the natural light, the good indoor air quality (natural materials and careful choice of cleaning compounds), the low air temperature and high radiant temperature, the relatively high humidity, the lack of mechanical noise, the sound of the waterfall, the sight and scent and oxygen and ions (and sometimes the taste) of the plants, the virtual lack of electromagnetic "smog" (since very little electricity is used except by the office equipment), and perhaps other factors not yet known. Whatever the real reasons may be, buildings are supposed to make you feel good, and many people report that this one does.
Thank you for your visit and for spreading what you've learned here. We appreciate your interest in RMI's work, and hope you will return—online or in person—soon.
