 Welcome back to human-humane architecture on another beautiful early evening on a Tuesday here in downtown Honolulu On 4th Street Mall, which is the financial district where today the trades are up And for the ones in the audience you're not from here They might think that has to do something with stock market, but it actually has to do with climate and The perfect guess to talk about that is mr. Breezy easy how it wig welcome Howard to the show. Thank you. Thank you and Beautiful to be here and many know hard when he's sitting here And if you don't know Howard in that capacity, please go to think take Hawaii and look up cold green Which is your show and it's one of the longest standing shows here for a good reason because it's awesome and so we want to talk a little bit about sort of the the the sort of the The boundary between our disciplines, I would say and I'm really excited about and you will start off to talk about Some statistics and graphs that you got excited about Zürich is going to actually show something in the background That is something I created together with my family business My father Grinter and my sister Cynthia back in Germany that I was bouncing off you while I was back in Germany And we're kind of starting to be getting a little bit of philosophical about the aspect of biochlamatic design Mm-hmm, and it's sort of global and intercultural international potential But why don't we start off to jump right in because we have to face a sort of relatively new 30-minute pretty tight Yeah slot But I in the announcement of the show everyone knows you as bringing in these exciting guests You know that's that you make talk about actually economy and ecology I would say and how they could both sort of support each other But you're just such a humble person that you're hardly ever you know talk about yourself So we want to do this a little bit as well here and I want to share with the audience Sort of maybe there are many memorable moments Too many to tell here But one most memorable is that you always over there in a governmental building and amongst the people the policy makers especially the the building code council members and We have adopted something here a while ago. That's the IBC the international building code and You believe that that is not sufficient enough here for the island. So you're working really really hard To Make an amendment I would say to that or make amendments to that and one of these sort of key moments for me was that Some of the decision-makers basically said well, you know, just so maybe you guys are a little bit more quiet or you guy I'm a little bit more quiet I might change the code that egress emergency staircases don't have to be enclosed anymore Because in New York City They might want to be if there's a fire in the building you want to get out of the building and you slip on an overized Metal grating and break your neck. It's not a good idea. And that's why the IBC says let's enclose it And you said we don't have that problem here We don't have eyes and why don't we open up staircases? They become easy breezy And that's why I call you mr. Breezy easy So thank you again for being here and maybe Zuri you can make give the first a graph the first chart and you explain us what these are and With that who you are when you're not sitting here. So who's the other Howard? Who's the other Howard? somebody who's been with the state energy office for Longer than most viewers have been on the planet. I started. I won't even say the year That's too too shocking, but I started when the state energy office Offices nationwide started and I've been there ever since how did I last so long because it's fun? We really really get things done Amazing awesome So and you're also, you know, you're here your local you've been here for the majority of your life But you don't always stay here. You travel actually quite a bit right for I just just made the the United Airlines million mile club Mm-hmm, and it's not it's also pleasure, but not primarily leisure So what what are the reasons why you're traveling so much? I go to the national code hearings We have you know just in general when you're building a building you have the plumbing code electrical code and You have the energy code and that ensures that the buildings or homes will be built in the most energy efficient manner and These codes are updated every three years, and I participate at the national level in the IECC the international energy conservation code and We have all of these propositions. We're going to change the code a b c d e And it goes on like over 500 different propositions And we meet in a mainland city and we sit there from Eight in the morning sometimes till 10 11 at night Debating debating debating And there's all these industry people there the insulation guys the window guys the lighting guys the piping guys And they want the code to kind of Kind of benefit them a little bit And then there's us government types who are just pushing for maximum energy efficiency In a cost-effective manner. So it's a really interesting dynamic But over the years I've become Friends with the people who used to be the bad guys at our view the na hb national home builders association And I've come to think like them Any proposition that I look at I'm asking is this cost effective? Will it add anything to the cost of building? And if so Is that minuscule cost totally worth it in the form of savings? So That's a lot of the traveling that I do is participating in those things Very exciting two three four hundred people in the auditorium So we're here in Hawaii beautiful Hawaii where when I came here I did some research too I better did and I I got really excited about you know learning which I sort of knew but then really not really Consciously reflected on but I heard this is the place that has the most You know resources as far as renewable energies We got the breeze. We already talked about we got the sun We got the ocean We got many others and so So here we are but then you go back on the mainland and you just told me before the show that the most Innovative or cutting-edge, you know states and that one of them is messachusetts, which is kind of interesting, right? He wouldn't necessarily associate messachusetts with that maybe not quite so surprising as california is the west coast in general And also the pacific northwest right in particular And I think the the first couple of charts are about that and especially the fifth one the slide number five Is the one you're most excited about maybe we want to bring that up Yeah, yeah, if we could just go how about uh, sorry, we we start with slide one and I'll go through quickly to that and then get to this one So this slide graph is produced by hawaiian electric When nexera looked like it was a real possibility And on the left is the current year and on the right is 2045 when we're supposed to hit zero or 100 clean energy And that big green or blue splotch in the middle was natural gas Well, that was before nex energy Or when it was still in the game now that's off And so hawaiian electric is going to have to drastically Revise this chart So I've revised it myself according to efficiency if we go to the next slide This is the energy code impact and appliance efficiency impact as I see it We're going to go down down down in energy use and as soon as 2024 we could Reduce our energy use just by efficiencies that far and then we go to the next slide And 2030 even more and finally we go to the final slide We have come very close to attaining 100 clean energy just by efficiency measures now Why do I make that outrageous statement and by efficiency? I mean just reducing energy use in building schools hospitals and homes And I can't go into the details right now But in my humble view it can be done And then to reinforce that finally we go to the next slide This is from the pacific northwest They're doing a similar type of slide Except that the efficiency measures go up That big green splotch they're starting with the 2015 going to 2035 Achieving the all the savings towards 100 clean energy that green Is all energy efficiency and then looked at all the bar graphs on the right This is Hawaii specific And that little purple thing on the far right that is the cost of a kilowatt hour With efficiency 2.2 cents all the other renewables all the oils and everything are much much much much much higher So they are taking my dream and taking it So if there was ever a true believer in energy efficiency, it's me and that's my mission Thank you very much and I'm going to explain what the audience sees in the back So which Zurel is so perfectly arranged is that it looks like we are sitting in there But actually we're not we're sitting in the studio But this is the project that I did with my with my ohana practice And it's a school and that's actually how we got to know each other That we got to know each other briefly before but then I was reading in the papers here many years ago I think about three years ago that they're thinking about air conditioning schools here And it was the odd rage because I had started to work in that field in germany which Has the highest energy efficiency Standards in the world are one of the highest and the building Sort of rating system is called passive house and passive house says 15 kilowatt hours per square meter per year Period and that that would translate into About 1.5 kilowatt hours per square foot gets very close to your number which is like Zero exactly. Yeah, and that we're talking in a cold temperate climate where it also gets hot over the summer We're hitting 40 degrees at times. It doesn't last long 40 translating into almost over 90. Exactly. Exactly. Thank you Exactly. So that's uh, there's still the the european metric guy in celsius versus fahrenheit. You caught me on that one So that's what the audience will see and we're not going to talk about individual pictures I'm not going to explain the project But i'm i'm going to explain that that here on the island we have the phenomenon to have a temperature That's the closest to thermal comfort that we can get anywhere in the world There there are other tropics. So, you know, there's 40 percent of the tropics Which we're part of and 60 percent the majority in the world at temperate climates Where it's way more complicated to to get off the grid or to reach that goal So the mainland people have it a lot harder than we have it here to be good because they have both summer and winter You have to cope with both of them. Yeah, exactly So here, um, you know, when I when I came they put me up in a hotel Actually the alamuana hotel and I came and it was all Closed and there was this thermostat and it was set to now i'm doing fahrenheit 73 Which is close. Very good. Very good. Yep. And I was thinking this is feels like what it had outside With a natural air conditioning and I turned it off and i'm sliding the doors open Which I was lucky that hotel still allowed the door. Yeah And and it basically was that and that sold me to come here and say that's for my personal comfort But it's also for my professional comfort that I want this place to be To be really sort of the leader Thinking, you know in the united states that there's one beacon that shows it Faster it's almost a little like cheating because it's easier here, right then on the mainland on the mainland You need triple paying glass You know you need a foot of insulation or more that we get to insulation Which you might say we need insulation here too, but we might not actually might not need that much It's a different type too. Mm-hmm And let me throw in that when you're bringing that natural air in at the alamuana hotel It is much better air generally than you're getting from air conditioning. There's this concept called iaq indoor air quality And generally speaking indoor air quality, especially in hawaii where the cleanest air in the world Is not as good as the outdoor air you you get all these interior pollutants So you're improving your health in addition to minimizing energy use Definitely I think this is a good point to take a little one minute break and barely warmed up That's the nature of it as you know, I see how it feels from the other side, right? Probably even worse So take that a little break and then be back with Howard wig mr. Breezy easy Aloha, I'm richard emory. I'm with co-host Jane Sugimura of condo insider hawaii's weekly show about association living The purpose of these videos is to educate board members and condo residents about issues Relating to association living We hope they're helpful and that they assist in resolving problems that affect the relationship between boards and their residents Each week thursday at 3 p.m. We bring you exciting guests industry experts who for free will share their advice About how to make your association a better place to live and answer a lot of very interesting questions Aloha, we hope you'll tune in Welcome back to humane human architecture today with Howard wig mr. Breezy easy and We just stopped before the break where you actually what I Probably like Amongst the many things the most about you there you're a holistic thinker You're not just thinking about the signs You're thinking about the arts as well and the arts include the human aspects We were talking about the thermal comfort not just in a way How much do I have to make it so I don't I don't sweat but you also pointed I need to I need to inhale I need oxygen right so this is an important part This is actually a tricky part on in the temperate climates because the passive house I think has to take the position to say once a person opens the window I waste energy out of the window because they do it at the wrong time in the winter when it's cold You open your window you get fresh air, but you waste your your heat That's why a machine is doing that or has to do that And that's a big controversy And actually Europeans used to basically heat with with water With radiant heat water radiant heat and because of that system next you switch to the american system of forest air or moved air And it's not ac. I call it ad it's air it's air distribution So you have an air handling unit that flushes the air in the building through the building with a very low velocity And then you have a heat exchanger If you run the heat over or the cold in the In the summertime and it basically re-injects it back to the fresh incoming air But there isn't there isn't increasing sort of opposition from the general public That says we don't want hermatic homes, you know, we don't want a machine to control our life And once again here in Hawaii We don't we don't have that necessity. That's why it's paradise. It could be paradise Which which it isn't yet, but that's your that's your mission both in your daily job and also Very often on your show If you're fighting for reconnecting to the natural systems But also embracing modern technology So you're not saying we're going back to the to the beach and and to the grass shack Because that's an illusion. We can't do that. So we need to embrace modern modern technologies So maybe talk a little bit about these means and methods and technologies that we can apply In buildings today. Well first and foremost my basic design I call rushing headlong into the 1950s Because that that's when I was a kid here and air conditioning In homes was absolutely unheard of and we had big windows And we opened up doors so the air would flow through the entire house And long overhangs and we had lanais And that's where we hung out. We didn't Enclose the house at all everything was open open open And then because of the wonders of modern technology Now virtually all new home not almost new home construction is centrally air conditioned and What I do with the energy code is encourage Couraging us to go back to the passive design But with new technology the homes that I grew up in and my friends grew up in Were single wall which was okay Except that the heat came pouring through when the radiant sun was pouring against it And the windows if we Close them Almost all the sun's heat came through there And did it with a roof the sun's heat would come pouring through Now we have reflective technology and I built that into the energy code Reflective roofs and they don't have to be white. They can be other colors Where they reflect back the huge majority of the radiant heat striking that roof So that you're naturally cool Did it with the walls or the only state in the union with cool walls And the windows you can have almost perfect Visibility through the windows, but there was called high performance windows and you reject easily 70 percent Of the heat that wants to come through there So that's the type of thing we do and and overhangs overhangs overhangs If possible, I would like to see one whole wall Of a residence be one great big lanai Just with a concrete slab electrical outlets and you just have all your parties your evenings Everything you just hang out on that great big lanai And the kids can go running around on the grass the dogs can go running around too It's just great hawaiian living that that's the way I have constructed the tropical energy code for for residences That's awesome. Yeah, thank you for that. It helps us those practitioners the students Because if the law isn't with us the code isn't with us it just stays a dream But if you know the the rules and the the regulations are basically going to be with us are going to be on our side so So you look at at nature a very nice shirt on as always, you know It's obviously shows us nature as an example But you're not looking at it as we see it in many ways where there's invasive systems introduced that works with artificial systems And then there's sort of a local ornament lick and stick on right? So you're not looking at it in a sort of facial way You're looking at it in a substantial way and it kind of reminds me of almost reconnecting to To the ancestors who knew how to do it and it always puzzled me actually for quite some time that There were different kind of hollies. So the other indigenous ways of living There were some they were all opened On the on the ground floor and easy breezy But there are some who were all enclosed and it puzzled me for a while until I started to understand How that must have been feeling in there as far as thermal comfort and straw as an insulator has an r value So it's actually insulating. So this is sort of the original source, right the ancestral source for which you're trying to Propagate right now and also because straws are hollow and if you pack them there's voids in between So they've always been breezy as well, right? In this case, we don't have straw But we have a lot of other materials with that same air content to serve as insulators And I didn't mention we do have one mechanical system in these tropical homes namely ceiling fans ceiling fan technology just like all other technologies is improved Vastly for less electricity. You can get more circulated air down there. And of course you have control slow medium high We have a hot corner weather day. Boom. You just turn the ceiling fan on high and you're comfortable as anything Yeah, and although we're not at all supposed to Make advertisements for any kind of brand But there is one brand recently that has sort of innovated the Tradition of you want to say their name? Otherwise I do it I'm a host also. It's okay. Yeah, but there are fans if guys go to Costco. They see them the big ones They look like big-ass fans, you know And the convention center actually the lobby which is hermetic was converted to actually work mainly with with fans So that works and the the other companies will say hey, that's an improved blade technology, but we'll do that So maybe you're running through some of the sort of 101 and biochlamatic design And using you know what the audience saw when Zuri is sort of seating in the images This building basically the orientation let's start with orientation orientation is really key. Absolutely. Why is that Howard? Because generally our trade winds come from the northeast You want the broad stick to homes because they're simpler. You want the broad long side of the homes Facing the northeast so the wind comes right there. You allow it in You have exhaust through the southwest part of the home So that just makes its way through there Plus the sun rises and east sets in the west you want to minimize those exposures So you don't get that direct radiant Heat especially the afternoon Heat from there. So you're sheltering by orienting like that. You're sheltering yourself from the western sun And that I think this picture is perfect because actually this is facing east This is facing the campus and people might say well I don't want to have a closed wall towards The east because there might be a nice view and this is a solution here We made these concrete slabs and these concrete slabs are geometric to the way that The sun when it gets past 10 11 a.m. Which is where the sun gets problematic these fins basically shade The indoor space. So we call this architecture an exoskeleton So use the structure as a shading vise for the for the building So these are elements, you know, there's there's a lot of repertoire, you know Within these sort of rules and regulation that we say you better follow Because these are the biochlamatic, you know Rules you you have to follow but within these there's a lot of wiggle room. There's a lot of interpretation Sure. Yeah, there's a lot of diversity So not every home you're talking about that is ideal has to look the same. Yeah, all right. Oh, heaven's yes. Yeah So so that's that's a big advantage So, um, we're getting close to the end of the show again I just my you made me aware of that actually the building, you know, I was revisiting We call this post occupancy evaluation or evidence-based design assessing you made me aware That the things we've been doing there because the climate in Germany besides it being tempered It's very similar to here as far as the sun You know angles and the sun orientation So you could just replace the fixed glazing here with with jealousies and you would have so there's something universal About biochlamatic design and there's obviously things. They're very specific to to our very special place here in hawaii And again, um, it was a pleasure to have you here Howard You're calling this an end. Come on. We're just gonna have to but I will just redirect the audience to your show See this as promotion because I'm a big fan of your show I watch it all the time and I'm a big fan of you personally with Had the chance to became good friends And you're very encouraging for my personal work as a biochlamatic architect and for the students You've been coming in many times as a as a juror as a reviewer So I just want to thank you for doing this for us and For the island because this is going the right direction This way through you. The island has a chance to stay paradise. Thank you for that Howard Well, I'll close with a famous quote from somebody much smarter than me Work is much funner than fun And that that's what I have with this type of work often often closing words. So thank you very much