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this guy u interview actually took time and learn the different faucet of the building and actually knows what he was talking about threes usually a big disconnect between Architects and engineers when it come to technical things very cool
You need to do a story on restoration ag, Mark Shepard and the Savannah Institute. His methods greatly reduce the amount of CO² conventional moncultured, synthetic chemical ag normally loses with annual, bare earth, dead-plant fallow practices. His methods actually sequester a large amount of carbon deeply into the soil instead of losing it to air compared to conventional, annual ag while producing food and livestock feed.
Yes, but that's a big problem with rental units. This is a huge upfront cost to make longer term utility cost lower. So long as the property owner has one cost burden and the renter had the other, incentives don't match, and upgrades don't happen.
What I like most about this is that the hotel was a retrofit on an already existing building. I was reading a study the other day by a group in the UK. They found that even making sure that 100% of new builds are Net Zero won’t be enough because most of our emissions come from our already existing buildings. So we have to aggressively pursue retrofits like in this video on all buildings if we want to hit our Net Zero goals!
@@UndecidedMF yea I’m currently working on my own video on that very topic. Feels like our governments aren’t giving enough attention to the need for retrofits. Like the guy in your video implies: it has a very steep upfront cost (although it does eventually have a payback). So currently it’s just a handful of people who really care that are going through the trouble. That’s where government legislation and subsidies can help push more people to do similar projects!
How much would that cost? Are there enough materials to do it with existing technologies? How much would China have to increase their emissions as a percentage of current ones to compensate for your efforts? How long until you realize you're chasing a dream?
From the standpoint of the previously emitted carbon versus new carbon emissions from new builds, we have to make many more of these old buildings work for longer. It just make sense to reuse viable structures. Also the disruption of new build structure with pile driving and traffic associated with a tear down and rebuild is way more disruptive than shipping in additional material to retrofit in urban areas.
@@LumenCache When I looked at this a few years ago the conversion/standby loses in the POE power units were significant (because they are sized to run the whole house and are always on). It was much more efficient to just have one CC LED driver per room (well, per switched circuit) with a few lamps on each. Standby usage is zero because the driver is actually turned off. One decent driver (as opposed to one cheap and nasty driver per lamp) is efficient and reliable. Maybe POE has got better, but at least in a domestic setup the always-on nature is a significant structural disadvantage. POE wiring is enormously flexible of course, but also expensive in comparison to dumb lamps at £5 each and drivers at £10. So that's £20-35 per room in a domestic setup. A single POE lamp costs more than that. I'd love to hear that this stuff was reasonably cheap and actually low-power by now. Hmm. I've just watched your video and it is a really nice system, which can use any lamps I like. And I can have a CC string or some parallel CV lamps. So whilst it's POE it's not using the (rather wasteful) 48V POE spec directly. But that flexibility costs money at $66/104 per switch, $36/24 per driver and $420 +PS for the system. And I'd like to know what the standby consumption is. So my house would be about $1500 vs the $340 it costs me to do it with mains and one driver per circuit. OK cabling is about £150 whilst it would only be £40 for lumencache, so that's a $130 saving. i.e lumencache $1550, conventional $520. So approx triple the price and higher loses (but maybe not excessive) for the flexibility. Also not available in the UK. And do you not have string-pull bathroom lightswitches over there in the US? I guess with 48V there is no need. But it would be great if you did some UK/Euro style switches. There's a big market your US-only switches currently preclude you from.
Dryers using heat pumps are available. That's what I have in my home. It uses less power, and has no vent. Rather than generating hot air to increase evaporation, and vent all the humid, hot air, it condenses moisture from the air onto the coils, which then drains away. I'm sure a commercial use version can be found or made. Hopefully they could have their current dryers retrofitted.
That's pretty cool. Is it more time-consuming than a traditional dryer's "fully loaded at high heat" cycle? I wonder if the traditional dryers were selected due to their speed.
@@MoeBabaloosh Well, he seemed surprised that the dryers used more energy than the whole rest of the building, so he might not have thought of that when installing them. But even if heat-pump dryers might take longer (which I don't see WHY they would; a large enough heat-pump could compensate for any kind of heat demand. It would just cost more), I'm sure a project this green-focused could find the space to add an extra machine or two to recoup the productivity lost by the slower machines. This also assumes the machines are run 24 hours a day. If they only run for a fraction of the day, a slower machine could be allowed to run for longer; just using up the otherwise unused operating hours.
@@darksunrise957 condensing dryers take longer, don't dry quite as well, and don't have the wrinkle removing qualities of heating dryers. But I think they could do a two step process of doing mostly condensing drying and then finish them off with hot air from heat pumps.
@@darksunrise957 They do actually have to take longer because the colder the air circulating in the dryer, the less water the air can hold, so the evaporation rate from the wet clothes goes way down when you're using cold air to dry vs hot air. That's actually one thing most people get wrong - heat doesn't dry things; it just raises the vapor pressure of the water. It's the air movement that moves the moisture away, so to dry things you need heat to get the water into the air, and you need new dry air to replace the humid air you just made. The condenser isn't the limiting factor - it's the air temperature. Driving the condenser harder would just make ice on the coils, but wouldn't dry any faster.
I think a hotel is a great showcase for this kind of tech & execution. It demonstrates what can be achieved without significant lifestyle changes on the part of the guests/residents, which would make adoption that much easier. If you can make it work in a hotel, you can probably make it work anywhere.
Literally about to drive past this building on my way to a jobsite today. I didn't know it was being converted into this. That's fascinating! Such a unique looking building.
It's a great example of brutalist architecture. Not actually derived from the word "brutal", but rather from the French term "béton brut" ("raw concrete"). Hence the stark, intentionally unpainted concrete exterior.
HVAC Engineer here. The Swegon ventilation system, using heat recovery is basic stuff for buildings in northern Europe. You would not get a building permit without it. Same thing for the heat pumps and PV-panels. Interesting to see that you are watching this as something new and innovative.
@@UndecidedMF Good to know. Kudos for the owner of the hotel. Its good to see that he had everything under control and could monitor everything in his phone on the spot. This is something that stood out and not every owner is this informed.
This guy from Sweden is far too optimistic. I lived in many houses in Europe, mostly central and none of them had ventilation with heat exchanger. And it is a pity, because if it is so popular in Scandinavia why are you not selling it in mass to be the rest of Europe?
As an HVAC controls programmer in the States it's definitely frustrating how common it is to see new projects using non-energy-recovery systems. It should be a no-brainer, but it's just not. 😞
Stayed in the hotel, the technology works! so quiet, best nights sleep ive had in a long time. thers alot of reasons to say that, but for me, the biggest part was: the room is silent, you can hear virtually nothing. after that comes perfect temperature, perfect indoor air quality. Thanks so much Matt for doing the review on this, please post more updates to this place when you go back! Can you talk more about ERVs: Recovery wheel (like the hotel has) and the plate (like you showed in the CGI demo)? whats better?
Hands down one of your best videos so far and for someone who loves this channel, that's a big deal. I spent many years working in commercial construction and now work in the energy sector. It's great to see "blue sky's" thinking coming down to Earth.
Matt this is one of your stronger efforts to date. A very thoroughly designed retrofit and a great template for the hospitality industry. I love that he found space for 1000 SP’s on the property, love the power over Ethernet, inverter cookers, batteries, insulated windows…wow, so many details! I wouldn’t waste time moving weights on and off the elevators. I agree with comments that he needs to add heat pump dryers to complete the picture. And offer incentives to his guests to arrive via EV.
Passivhaus standards are based on KW/sqm so the larger they get the easier it is to comply especially if you have a large block which will have very little exposed area ( i.e. Zero heat loss on adjoining walls). The challenge is making a small detached Passivhaus
skipping the DC/AC/DC conversions is really great move! Lots of energy is saved this way (when it's produced or retrieved from storage in DC). Most appliances either internally work on DC (and have convertors inside them), or can work on both AC & DC either directly or be easily modified to do so. It's great to see it implemented, especially on a larger scale like in this hotel, rather than just a home.
Until the moment all the things aren’t compatible with (old) cat 6 anymore and therefore one is forced to change all CAT 6 wires with the new CAT standard ;) except of that it’s indeed really awesome.
@@MathieuDeVinois That's not happening in the next 2 decades, networking standards last an incredibly long time and new CAT standards are already compatible. CAT6 is already overkill for IoT so they are set for a long future.
@@MathieuDeVinois CAT standards are backwards compatible. You could still use Cat3 today if all you needed was 10 Mb/s (more than enough for smart devices).
Would be nice if this became more standardized and popular in the market. Right now there are companies that do it but its not the most friendly system. If your lighting company stops supporting the trendy poe light product 3 years after launch because its not selling... what do you do when if fixture dies? Are there "friendly" to use residential use POE supplies/control boxes? I messed with this stuff commercially 3-4 years ago and dealing with Cisco network equipment and their support was a pain in the ass. (i think this was UPOE+? 60w per port)
@@mixamun this is why you should insist that smart devices you buy are able to be controlled locally. No cloud service for someone else to shut down and brick your devices.
Incredible. A genuinely futuristic hotel thats essentially created a benchmark for design and redevelopment. Thanks for the top quality production as always Matt 👌
The second you showed this building, I was like "wait, I know that one..." I've driven past it a million times over the years. Cool to hear what's being done with it!
The Kone powered elevator is nuts and I love how they made this building in such an amazing unque way and the guy himself Bruce he sounds pretty cool and saying that he's passionate about what he does is more of a reason we need more people like this!
Most lifts have counterweights which makes the motor doing the stopping and starting. If you take them away then it would make the motor work harder on the ascent. This would negate any power gained by using brakes instead. Counterweighted lifts are about as efficient as the lift can be made. If there is a gain it would be so minimal as not to be worth it. The CO2 to produce a lift with that much technology would take decades if not longer to ever make back. Physics is physics.
@@Vile_Entity_3545 I have not looked this up, but I would be quite confident that it has counterweights like any elevator and uses regenerative braking when the elevator is loaded and descending, since that is a scenario when you need to use braking to control the descent as the weights are out of balance. A regular elevator would just use regular brakes for this, dispersing the energy as heat in the elevator shaft and/or a service room on top of the shaft. That is the lost energy you are adressing, plus the possible use cases for energy storage. It could be that this elevator uses regenerative braking for stopping when asending as well, depending on the speed you are going and how fast you need to slow to a stop. It seems very plausible to me that a regenerative brake system can make up for its cost in energy savings over time. At the fundamental level you are just running an electric motor (something you necessarily would have anyway) in reverse. Yeah, physics is physics, but clever engineering is clever engineering.
i've been following this channel for around 2 years now, and I have to say it's one of your best videos ever, Matt. Very well put together, the hotel deserves congratulations too, and deep enough to make us feel the difference it makes to try to be as sustainable as possible. Congrats all the way from Brazil!
09:00 Bruce said all the rooms run 100% out door air...that is unbelievable as other than hospitals or a Vega Casino every other place runs at the minimum standard of 10% fresh air because of the massive costs. Now some newer systems like cool beam tech cheat this math like a crooked accountant because they reduced the size and volume of the supply air system down to about 10% of the normal and don't run a return air mixing system, they just exhaust. Matt it looks, you chose an exceptional property to cover for your channel, truly impressive!
It's unbelievable... because we are so much used to these high-energy-loss fabric, taht we just can not "imagine" that almost all of these losses are ... losses! And are avoidable losses. To realize this is actually the key for any solution: If you reduce losses BY a factor 8 or so, heating/cooling demands are reduced by this factor. AND, simple consequence, the small amount of fresh air needed ... all the sudden will be just enough to deliver the heat (or remove the heat) still needed. We can even afford to increase fresh air a bit (because of the heat recovery), still don't add much losses AND improve indoor air quality also by factors (really not less important in times of high viral loads). This way you get a lot of additional extra benefits (not just reducing energy bills; the noise reduction is another one; ...)
Great video. I got an architectural degree in 1972 and wanted to work on projects like this, but there was little happening at the time. It was too early. I am so happy that it is becoming possible now. By the way, I have had solar on my home since 1995. We love it!
This is such a good example of "where there's a will, there's a way". Fantastic video! Well done. This should be standard viewing for every sustainability doubter.
This is amazing! So inspiring to think that these ideas are not limited mostly to single family homes but are cost effective enough to work for businesses!
Since I've learned about passive housing, I was really excited. Actually, this video reflect a idea that I had that it would be really incredible to build large apartment buildings with passive housing principles. Between a hotel and a apartment building, except for a few differences, it pretty much comes down to similar things so this video really proves that not only it can be down but it would be a big improvement on quality of life for aartment renters and owners.
Apartment owners and MDUs is one of our main market focus. We can give them reliable smart lighting and more without all the security and wireless connectivity issues of mesh systems. No need to "just add more nodes" in an already thick soup of colliding signals.
I have a special kinship with experimenters like this gentleman. Im about to retrofit a residential home and have been wondering why no one inside the US is manufacturing vacuum insulated panels for residential structures yet. After doing some research it looks like I can make my own panels for this particular project. There are no examples online explaining how the panels are made or how to install them on residential structures so I've already got some materials arriving in the mail this week to practice making some small scale VIP's and test their effectiveness against closed cell polyurethane foam and fiberglass. Some times you've just got to experiment yourself to see if an idea is viable.
I suspect the tricky parts will be making sure it maintains a vacuum for 20 to 30 years, and making sure no one sticks a nail through it to hang a picture!
@@Cynthia_Cantrell - Yes exactly. Someone needs to make a puncture resistant panel with the VIP inside. For my particular project it wont matter because its my house and i'll be careful. And the way Im going to install them it wont be too difficult to replace if/when they fail. Im projecting my panels to stay sealed for 50+ years.
Well if you do this, definitely make a video about it. I've wondered as well, but my guess was that material science wasn't there to maintain a passive vacuum for years
@@__-pl3jg Interesting... sounds like a serious challenge. Stainless steel could probably do that, but it would be ungodly expensive! If it works you should get a patent!
Double glazing is a good example of why Vacuum insulation is a bad idea for fixed structural elements. It's hard to maintain a vacuum, and even if 'most' glass panes don't fail regularly, you only need a couple to fail to lose that insulating value. Structurally insulted panels with PIR are comfortably available where I am, but also there are insulated renders for retrofit on brick structures. Attaching PIR panels to the exterior or interior is relatively easy.
Amazing information. I really enjoyed the presentation by both of you. This concept makes me excited for what is to come. I look forward to more presentations about this topic.
I love everything about this hotel, and hope it's a blueprint for things to come. Thank you so much Matt for covering this. I know my office building could definitely use a retrofit and I'm sure a lot of people feel the same. One thing that stands out that our office is sorely lacking is fresh air. Some days you feel as if you can't breathe and it affects everyone's health.
I generally love all your vids, and this one blew me away! I am looking forward to your follow-up video in a year! I still don't know why their aren't PV panels on every warehouse in the Southwestern US...
Definitely, between solar and thermal / LFP storage that portion of the continent can run with near zero fuel costs with near zero environmental impact. Other parts of the country nuclear and wind (with storage) makes more sense. Using energy storage with SMRs will work for the high northern latitudes, the amount of SMRs is reduced and you won't need to waste energy by rejecting load at periods of low demand.
Seeing that KONE elevator makes me incredibly proud of Finnish innovation as a Finn. Not only that, but in my experience they are most consistently comfortable, quick and reliable to ride on (looking at you, OTIS, Schindler, ThyssenKrupp). I've followed KONE's new tech from time to time, but this energy generating elevator was new to me and indeed something else.
I love seeing this kind of innovation. Europe has A LOT of companies innovating in this space, which is very cool. That bit where Bruce blew my mind in the video was at the very beginning of my tour. I found it funny how Bruce was basically throwing that nugget of information out there like it was no big deal.
@@UndecidedMF In my time at work(15 years ago) those inverters were already standard. In fact I made a drive for a gas compressor that delivered energy to keep the total plant at Power factor = ONE. All because the power feeding cable cable to the plant would otherwise have to be replaced for a bigger one, which would have been very expensive!
This is so cool and making the future come to today. We got our new build close by and had few challenges but all the lights are wired for PoE! Can’t wait for DC lights to become available at Lowe’s and HD! Thanks for reminding me that I am not losing it!
Bruce clearly knows a lot of detail on this project. Knowing the weight of the battery modules really shows he’d been quite hands on with the build. If they are net zero with hot water, driers and HVAC that is quite amazing.
So I love the idea of this. I guess things will be different for every situation and location. What works for that hotel may not be good for someone's house. Like you guys were saying a little more time and planning will help in the long run
I've passed that building (now Hotel Marcel) at least several thousand times driving I-95 as a child and adult. The architecture always caught my eye, but I had no idea of this building's potential. Fascinating!
Fabulous video, Matt. Thank you for this. There's SOOO much to learn here, & this industry is changing so quickly. We live on our cruising sailboat, currently in the Philippines, so we have to be very energy efficient. We generate all our electricity with solar, & we converted to LEDs many years ago, but I hadn't considered the PoE advantages before. Very cool!
That was amazing. I had no idea it was possible to do so much with cat5 and PoE. A true lightbulb moment 💡 It's got me wondering how I can apply this in my own home. Thanks for a great report.
This is great to see. Right in my backyard, I grew up 2 blocks from here, currently I retrofitted a net zero home in Prospect CT right up the road.. With 50 panels, 5 separate heat pump systems, HRV, air sealing, new windows/siding. I agree with your closing statement, this technology does make the building more comfortable BY A MILE, My home is heated and cooled 100% of the time.. I just let my heat pumps run and I forgot about. Really great work!
Such a cool HOTEL! I wish I have to funds to go netzero or even get a solar setup.... maybe one day! Thanks MATT and everyone at UNDECIDED for yet another amazingly informative video!
He needs a heating room to replace those dryers. 1 room heated to about 50c. The sheets gut hung on a moving line and they come out dry. You do need to extract the humidity which gives you grey water for those toilets. To soften the sheets they go into a non heated tumbler.
When I started playing this video TH-cam presented an ad for natural gas. This was happening to ClimateTown as well - ‘The Algorithm’ seems to want to sell people fossil fuels when they try to learn about sustainable energy. Turns out there is a setting in TH-cam channel options to disable oil & gas ads tho, so… it’s there if you want it.
Pretty jolly awesome to see a Hotel architect/coordinator so personally invested in a currently difficult goal. He is obviously very knowledgeable about the detail. And no BS detected in the making of this video. All kudos to this gentleman. AND - with an old building? Wow! Lots of brownie points from me...
This was excellent..I imagine a total cost analysis would put this much higher in price in fact, but, being a retrofit it was was bound to be economically difficult. In the long term they are winners. Applying these concepts to modern architecture, from scratch (and others) will revolutionize the business for sure.
I like this guy. It's clear he doesn't know all the technical details of everything in his building, but instead he hired the right people and put his faith in them to get things working. He listened to the professionals, which is the only real way of achieving something as technical and interconnected as a large net-zero building.
I love how truely enthusiastic he is. I have been waiting for manufactures to introduces DC first appliances for a while now. It’s just makes sense when most of your energy needs are being met by solar and batteries that switching from DC to AC to DC just creates waste.
Fantastic video. Thank you for sharing! I used to work for an IT service provider about a decade ago and we were just getting into low voltage digital lighting over ethernet for customers in the late 2000s/early 2010s. I haven't heard much about it in the industry since. This is wonderful to see it still thriving alive and well and being used on large scales amazing project
Thanks Matt + Team@Undecided, you are my #1 favorite channel. You're the rarest team that actually doesn't just scream and yell, you are calmly giving us our hopeful solutions for a future where we see cool things doing the most coolest things.
This video has been enlightening! We have a 100+ year old home and I have been very interested in retrofitting our home to a net-zero house without killing our savings. Some of the ideas here have really helped in those goals.
I love your channel, and this hotel is amazing. Someone has at last produced a near net zero building without demolishing it and building from scratch. I would love to adopt some of these ideas when I move into a retirement flat - I've got some serious homework to do!
You continue to stretch our understanding and knowledge base, but this one seemed to step it up another level altogether. Amazing reworking of an older building, and I’m going to be checking into the ‘power over CAT 6’ since honestly I’d never heard of that before. Solar DC to direct lighting, with central control w/o an inverter? Wow.
Power over CAT6 is common in the industrial space. Search for "Power over Ethernet" or PoE. Its used to power all kinds of stuff like security cameras, VOIP phones, and more. You've probably passed 1000s of PoE devices in your life and had 0 idea.
Yes, would love to see an episode just on wiring DC LED lighting using power over Ethernet, seems like this could become more common and even work in residential.
I love the idea of keeping things on DC from the solar panel to the battery out to the load and how much efficiency can be gained with it is mind blowing
I have built solar generators since the 1980s. My first was a simple DC system that I loved for it's simplicity and dependability. AC inverters are so common now that I find DC lights and appliances are more difficult to purchase. So today I live in a RAM Promaster City Van with one solar panel, two battery packs and two 400W inverters. My refrigerator connects directly to the battery however everything else is plugged into the inverters including my electric heaters.
Just talking about the first item, elevators use a counterweight system - so there is no need for regen breaking on a system (since you have a car going down and a balancing weight going up).
I really enjoy how enthusiastic he is about his achievement. I do think they did write a new book making this possible for others to follow suite. Maybe in the future selecting (near) net-zero hotels for you stay really can be the deciding factor. Thanks for sharing this because I have never heard of this even being attempted!
Eye candy!!! My two areas of expertise (Hospitality and Architecture) and one of my favorite architects (Breuer) altogether in one video, alongside passive design (probably my greatest interest nowadays). Cheers!
Our house is a retrofitted *mostly* concrete construction home built in 1950. The previous owners had installed solar as a backup, but not for continuous powering of everything. We upgraded fully by the end of 2021, and got rid of all natural gas (we have a meter outside the home, but the line is capped and would need to be reconnected if NG power was to be used again). All electric- we overproduce and sell power back to the grid, and have battery storage that would allow for 5 days of power if the solar was not producing at all, up to 10 days at reduced usage or only partial efficiency from our panels. We power an entire home, a small SW development studio/office with multiple computers and servers, 2 greenhouses, and a converted large shed building that can function as a warm room for starting seeds and plant cuttings for our garden and houseplants or a living space for 2 people, with rainwater collection and purification for the sink and shower, and a composting toilet. Recent raises for NG and city grid electricity prices in our area have cut our full payback time from ~7 years to just under 4.5 years. SWPA here- we get cold winters and hot summers, and when the neighbors lose power or NG service, we're still up and running- 100%. Lots of time planning and sourcing and finding the best installers and maintenance people- but we think it was worth it. It is possible- but right now it is more than most people could afford to get set up. That needs to change, and hopefully it will- as more renewable energy products are manufactured and installed here in the US, instead of being imported from other parts of the world.
I like that the lights are all DC. I recently bought a DC fan to save some juice over my old AC fan. It was a noticeable drop because I typically run the fan 24/7 to make the space feel cooler instead of using air conditioning. Really impressive for a hotel to only have 5kw for lighting the whole thing.
Wow that Power over Ethernet idea is incredible! Would love to see more about it getting scaled down for residential use. I would love to build a net-zero office in my backyard and something like that would help significantly lower the amount of solar that would be required.
My friend built a cabin with wind and solar, and I helped him install wiring for low-voltage lighting. Not only do dc lights save inverter losses, they're also silent and they don't flicker.
US electrician here. Hard unchanging rule for electrical devices. Unless specifically stated any electrical device that can run for more than 3 hrs is considered continuous duty and can only draw 80% of the circuit design capacity. A 50 amp electric car charger must be able to operate on a continuous duty cycle and therefore could only draw a maximum continuous load of 40 amps or 9.6 kva and not 12kva. I am being pedantic but this is important to remember when creating expectations for people
Thank you for this informative video! So much information to absorb. I have an upcoming project where I might be able to implement the Lumencache system. Only thing I worry about is potential obsolescence. A friend bought a house years ago which used low-voltage switching to control conventional 120v lighting. The house was built for early remote-control systems with home runs to relays and distribution wiring throughout the house. My friend ended up having the entire house re-wired. As long as it works, it seems like a great idea.
Hotels have a possibility to have enough scale to make this kind of stuff work. It builds on itself also, efficient lightning, less need to cool, and more possibility to automate and build smart lightning. Very nice.
big fat thumbs up. at the end the comment for making a kind of new prototype as a model to be replicated made a lot of sense. so, this hotel is more an explorer where others can follow.
Great video Matt, as usual. I’d like to hear your thoughts on my situation. We bought a home in a rural setting in July of 2020, the original house was built in 1947, there are at least two, possibly three areas that are obvious expansions to the original, single-gable structure. In 2011, the whole thing was lifted and a converted into a two storey house. The lower level is mostly insulated to modern standards although the envelope is definitely porous. When the first winter arrived, we realized what a sieve it truly was. Upstairs, there’s three separate attics and during the fall of 2021 I pulled out all of the insulation from the main and original gable, a mixture of R7 and R12 fibreglass and added vapour barrier (probably not necessary) and R28 rock wool insulation. This change alone made quite a difference in the overall comfort come the following winter. The main floor is fan-forced heat, we weathered the first winter with the existing oil-fired furnace but last fall swapped that out for a heat pump and air handler; the upstairs is still heated with baseboard heaters, which I’ve added smart thermostats to to save energy. I purposely had the heat pump oversized so that I could add two individual heads to the refrigerant loop at a later date. I was compelled to post this word-wall at the point in this video where you addressed HRVs. I’m continually working towards a better sealed house, and thankfully I have the skill sets to do most work myself. I’m wondering if it would be beneficial to add an HRV system to my house, I’m already planning a way to extend the forced air system to the master bedroom upstairs and adding HRV ducts wouldn’t be difficult to include, but is retrofitting a house that may never be fully sealed with an HRV worth it? Is this one of the reasons you decided to build a net-zero house, because you thought it would just be too difficult to retrofit your existing one? I could go on with more of my admittedly over ambitious plans, but this is probably already one of the longest comments you’ve ever received. Thanks in advance.
My wife and I bought a tract house built in 1976, and we had it remodeled. We haven't hit Passivhaus levels but we did pretty well. More insulation, a ground-source heat pump, a heat pump water heater, heat-recovery ventilator (similar to the energy recovery ventilator he showed but much smaller), and we have solar cells on the roof and a backup battery now. We even have an induction stove in our kitchen, too! We would absolutely be net zero except that we also have electric cars and we are charging those, so I'm not sure if we will quite be net zero. There are tax breaks for these investments and the solar is on a 10-year fixed loan with a generous interest rate (special for solar installs). These changes will take a long time to pay for themselves... but they will pay for themselves and we have been very happy with our home. We don't want to sell our house (we want to just live in it) but I'm convinced that with the upgrades we have made, the resale value of the house must have been greatly increased.
Incredible! Please put on your calendar to do a follow-up after a year of business. Questions I would like to hear answers to are:1, are they making as much/more than they use, 2, Did they have to add more solar, if so how much, 3, any problems with control or other mechinal issues.They took the book, burned it and possibly wrote an opus. Where could an architect that could spec this type stuff be found?
They're able to achieve net zero from a retrofit building built in the 60s. I would imagine a purpose built hotel built today might even be able to produce more energy than it uses. If municipal electric utility companies had side investments in these net positive hotels that they ran as a non profit, the combination of bonus power plus hotel guests might act a a fund to subsidize more solar and renewable energy projects without charging electric customers extra.
An amazing Proof of Concept. Now that there is an operational prototype, even using an already existing building, other companies can do the cost analysis work to see what retrofits will cost, versus maintaining existing systems. That should really help the adoption rate.
I love watching these videos. I'm in a bit of a unique situation in that I live full-time in a large motorhome. I often watch these videos with an eye toward brainstorming how I can adapt some of the tech to my motorhome. I already have 1.7kW of solar and another 400W of wind power (that gets set up when I'm stationary). I removed the motorhome's rooftop air conditioners and replaced them with roof vents and bi-directional fans. I've found that airflow makes as big a difference as anything and the fans use only about 17W each. So all this "advanced" tech (some of which is quite old) is fascinating to me.
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Would you want to see your apartment building or office retrofitted like this? To get an Autel MaxiCharger for your EV, go to: amzn.to/3NbEFRn.
If you liked this video, check out Exploring Solar Panel Efficiency Breakthroughs in 2022 th-cam.com/video/m8crjuL8FFs/w-d-xo.html
Cum
Yes these types of buildings waste huge amounts energy. Making them more efficient will be a huge benefit to the environment.
this guy u interview
actually took time and learn the different faucet of the building and actually knows what he was talking about
threes usually a big disconnect between Architects and engineers when it come to technical things
very cool
You need to do a story on restoration ag, Mark Shepard and the Savannah Institute. His methods greatly reduce the amount of CO² conventional moncultured, synthetic chemical ag normally loses with annual, bare earth, dead-plant fallow practices. His methods actually sequester a large amount of carbon deeply into the soil instead of losing it to air compared to conventional, annual ag while producing food and livestock feed.
Yes, but that's a big problem with rental units. This is a huge upfront cost to make longer term utility cost lower. So long as the property owner has one cost burden and the renter had the other, incentives don't match, and upgrades don't happen.
What I like most about this is that the hotel was a retrofit on an already existing building.
I was reading a study the other day by a group in the UK. They found that even making sure that 100% of new builds are Net Zero won’t be enough because most of our emissions come from our already existing buildings. So we have to aggressively pursue retrofits like in this video on all buildings if we want to hit our Net Zero goals!
👍 Retrofitting is key.
@@UndecidedMF yea I’m currently working on my own video on that very topic. Feels like our governments aren’t giving enough attention to the need for retrofits.
Like the guy in your video implies: it has a very steep upfront cost (although it does eventually have a payback). So currently it’s just a handful of people who really care that are going through the trouble. That’s where government legislation and subsidies can help push more people to do similar projects!
How much would that cost? Are there enough materials to do it with existing technologies? How much would China have to increase their emissions as a percentage of current ones to compensate for your efforts? How long until you realize you're chasing a dream?
From the standpoint of the previously emitted carbon versus new carbon emissions from new builds, we have to make many more of these old buildings work for longer. It just make sense to reuse viable structures.
Also the disruption of new build structure with pile driving and traffic associated with a tear down and rebuild is way more disruptive than shipping in additional material to retrofit in urban areas.
net zero is also achievable by depopulation if you look at bill gates formula.
Even though that elevator is more efficient, I'm sure the technology still has it's ups and downs.
Boooo!
I love it...
😂 I can't believe I didn't make that joke in the video. Tip of the hat to you.
@@UndecidedMF I'm sure you will "rise" to the occasion in the future.
You just had to push our buttons?
You'll take it to a new level.
Digital electricity in concert with DC power is a concept I have never heard of, and it just blew my mind. I would love an entire video on this!
We've been doing it since 2012. We were also WAY too early at the time! 😀 Now it all makes perfect sense to everyone.
More videos on this, please
Yes please!
@@LumenCache When I looked at this a few years ago the conversion/standby loses in the POE power units were significant (because they are sized to run the whole house and are always on). It was much more efficient to just have one CC LED driver per room (well, per switched circuit) with a few lamps on each. Standby usage is zero because the driver is actually turned off. One decent driver (as opposed to one cheap and nasty driver per lamp) is efficient and reliable. Maybe POE has got better, but at least in a domestic setup the always-on nature is a significant structural disadvantage. POE wiring is enormously flexible of course, but also expensive in comparison to dumb lamps at £5 each and drivers at £10. So that's £20-35 per room in a domestic setup. A single POE lamp costs more than that. I'd love to hear that this stuff was reasonably cheap and actually low-power by now.
Hmm. I've just watched your video and it is a really nice system, which can use any lamps I like. And I can have a CC string or some parallel CV lamps. So whilst it's POE it's not using the (rather wasteful) 48V POE spec directly. But that flexibility costs money at $66/104 per switch, $36/24 per driver and $420 +PS for the system. And I'd like to know what the standby consumption is. So my house would be about $1500 vs the $340 it costs me to do it with mains and one driver per circuit. OK cabling is about £150 whilst it would only be £40 for lumencache, so that's a $130 saving. i.e lumencache $1550, conventional $520. So approx triple the price and higher loses (but maybe not excessive) for the flexibility.
Also not available in the UK. And do you not have string-pull bathroom lightswitches over there in the US? I guess with 48V there is no need. But it would be great if you did some UK/Euro style switches. There's a big market your US-only switches currently preclude you from.
Likewise!!
Dryers using heat pumps are available. That's what I have in my home. It uses less power, and has no vent. Rather than generating hot air to increase evaporation, and vent all the humid, hot air, it condenses moisture from the air onto the coils, which then drains away. I'm sure a commercial use version can be found or made. Hopefully they could have their current dryers retrofitted.
Seems like this would be a huge energy saver especially if it can work with those commercial dryers.
That's pretty cool. Is it more time-consuming than a traditional dryer's "fully loaded at high heat" cycle?
I wonder if the traditional dryers were selected due to their speed.
@@MoeBabaloosh Well, he seemed surprised that the dryers used more energy than the whole rest of the building, so he might not have thought of that when installing them. But even if heat-pump dryers might take longer (which I don't see WHY they would; a large enough heat-pump could compensate for any kind of heat demand. It would just cost more), I'm sure a project this green-focused could find the space to add an extra machine or two to recoup the productivity lost by the slower machines.
This also assumes the machines are run 24 hours a day. If they only run for a fraction of the day, a slower machine could be allowed to run for longer; just using up the otherwise unused operating hours.
@@darksunrise957 condensing dryers take longer, don't dry quite as well, and don't have the wrinkle removing qualities of heating dryers. But I think they could do a two step process of doing mostly condensing drying and then finish them off with hot air from heat pumps.
@@darksunrise957 They do actually have to take longer because the colder the air circulating in the dryer, the less water the air can hold, so the evaporation rate from the wet clothes goes way down when you're using cold air to dry vs hot air. That's actually one thing most people get wrong - heat doesn't dry things; it just raises the vapor pressure of the water. It's the air movement that moves the moisture away, so to dry things you need heat to get the water into the air, and you need new dry air to replace the humid air you just made. The condenser isn't the limiting factor - it's the air temperature. Driving the condenser harder would just make ice on the coils, but wouldn't dry any faster.
I think a hotel is a great showcase for this kind of tech & execution. It demonstrates what can be achieved without significant lifestyle changes on the part of the guests/residents, which would make adoption that much easier. If you can make it work in a hotel, you can probably make it work anywhere.
likewise with office buildings! implement and iron out the creases with commercial then transfer to residencial.
Literally about to drive past this building on my way to a jobsite today. I didn't know it was being converted into this. That's fascinating!
Such a unique looking building.
You should stop and pop your head in for a quick look around.
@@UndecidedMF I think I might, I need to stop by the Ikea next door anyways lol
It's a great example of brutalist architecture. Not actually derived from the word "brutal", but rather from the French term "béton brut" ("raw concrete"). Hence the stark, intentionally unpainted concrete exterior.
@@streetwind. I´d say i's Bauhaus! but that a good fit as well
@@hongotopiadada7574 It may well be both! Buildings are allowed to have elements of multiple styles :)
HVAC Engineer here. The Swegon ventilation system, using heat recovery is basic stuff for buildings in northern Europe. You would not get a building permit without it.
Same thing for the heat pumps and PV-panels. Interesting to see that you are watching this as something new and innovative.
Murica, the best country in the world.
/s
Europe is way ahead of the US on these standards, so it's still very new/novel here.
@@UndecidedMF Good to know. Kudos for the owner of the hotel. Its good to see that he had everything under control and could monitor everything in his phone on the spot. This is something that stood out and not every owner is this informed.
This guy from Sweden is far too optimistic. I lived in many houses in Europe, mostly central and none of them had ventilation with heat exchanger. And it is a pity, because if it is so popular in Scandinavia why are you not selling it in mass to be the rest of Europe?
As an HVAC controls programmer in the States it's definitely frustrating how common it is to see new projects using non-energy-recovery systems. It should be a no-brainer, but it's just not. 😞
Stayed in the hotel, the technology works! so quiet, best nights sleep ive had in a long time. thers alot of reasons to say that, but for me, the biggest part was: the room is silent, you can hear virtually nothing. after that comes perfect temperature, perfect indoor air quality. Thanks so much Matt for doing the review on this, please post more updates to this place when you go back! Can you talk more about ERVs: Recovery wheel (like the hotel has) and the plate (like you showed in the CGI demo)? whats better?
ARE THE WINDOWS OPENABLE
Hands down one of your best videos so far and for someone who loves this channel, that's a big deal. I spent many years working in commercial construction and now work in the energy sector. It's great to see "blue sky's" thinking coming down to Earth.
Agreed I hope we get many more videos like this in the future, especially now that travel restrictions are back to normal for the most part!
Matt this is one of your stronger efforts to date. A very thoroughly designed retrofit and a great template for the hospitality industry. I love that he found space for 1000 SP’s on the property, love the power over Ethernet, inverter cookers, batteries, insulated windows…wow, so many details! I wouldn’t waste time moving weights on and off the elevators. I agree with comments that he needs to add heat pump dryers to complete the picture. And offer incentives to his guests to arrive via EV.
Passivhaus standards are based on KW/sqm so the larger they get the easier it is to comply especially if you have a large block which will have very little exposed area ( i.e. Zero heat loss on adjoining walls). The challenge is making a small detached Passivhaus
The "PROBLEM" is making small detached Passivhaus ... Is so much more inefficient.
skipping the DC/AC/DC conversions is really great move!
Lots of energy is saved this way (when it's produced or retrieved from storage in DC). Most appliances either internally work on DC (and have convertors inside them), or can work on both AC & DC either directly or be easily modified to do so.
It's great to see it implemented, especially on a larger scale like in this hotel, rather than just a home.
Would love to see this development for public schools and universities, POE everything is genius!
The whole cat5 and cat6 wiring is an incredible idea. I hope that becomes the standard because it would sure make things much simpler in homes.
Until the moment all the things aren’t compatible with (old) cat 6 anymore and therefore one is forced to change all CAT 6 wires with the new CAT standard ;) except of that it’s indeed really awesome.
@@MathieuDeVinois That's not happening in the next 2 decades, networking standards last an incredibly long time and new CAT standards are already compatible. CAT6 is already overkill for IoT so they are set for a long future.
@@MathieuDeVinois CAT standards are backwards compatible. You could still use Cat3 today if all you needed was 10 Mb/s (more than enough for smart devices).
Would be nice if this became more standardized and popular in the market. Right now there are companies that do it but its not the most friendly system. If your lighting company stops supporting the trendy poe light product 3 years after launch because its not selling... what do you do when if fixture dies? Are there "friendly" to use residential use POE supplies/control boxes? I messed with this stuff commercially 3-4 years ago and dealing with Cisco network equipment and their support was a pain in the ass. (i think this was UPOE+? 60w per port)
@@mixamun this is why you should insist that smart devices you buy are able to be controlled locally. No cloud service for someone else to shut down and brick your devices.
Incredible. A genuinely futuristic hotel thats essentially created a benchmark for design and redevelopment. Thanks for the top quality production as always Matt 👌
The second you showed this building, I was like "wait, I know that one..." I've driven past it a million times over the years. Cool to hear what's being done with it!
I had the same exact thought when I first heard about this hotel. 😂
That was exactly my thought!
The Kone powered elevator is nuts and I love how they made this building in such an amazing unque way and the guy himself Bruce he sounds pretty cool and saying that he's passionate about what he does is more of a reason we need more people like this!
Most lifts have counterweights which makes the motor doing the stopping and starting. If you take them away then it would make the motor work harder on the ascent. This would negate any power gained by using brakes instead.
Counterweighted lifts are about as efficient as the lift can be made. If there is a gain it would be so minimal as not to be worth it. The CO2 to produce a lift with that much technology would take decades if not longer to ever make back.
Physics is physics.
@@Vile_Entity_3545 I have not looked this up, but I would be quite confident that it has counterweights like any elevator and uses regenerative braking when the elevator is loaded and descending, since that is a scenario when you need to use braking to control the descent as the weights are out of balance. A regular elevator would just use regular brakes for this, dispersing the energy as heat in the elevator shaft and/or a service room on top of the shaft. That is the lost energy you are adressing, plus the possible use cases for energy storage. It could be that this elevator uses regenerative braking for stopping when asending as well, depending on the speed you are going and how fast you need to slow to a stop.
It seems very plausible to me that a regenerative brake system can make up for its cost in energy savings over time. At the fundamental level you are just running an electric motor (something you necessarily would have anyway) in reverse.
Yeah, physics is physics, but clever engineering is clever engineering.
Matt, this is an amazing tour, props to Bruce and his vision 👏
i've been following this channel for around 2 years now, and I have to say it's one of your best videos ever, Matt. Very well put together, the hotel deserves congratulations too, and deep enough to make us feel the difference it makes to try to be as sustainable as possible. Congrats all the way from Brazil!
09:00 Bruce said all the rooms run 100% out door air...that is unbelievable as other than hospitals or a Vega Casino every other place runs at the minimum standard of 10% fresh air because of the massive costs. Now some newer systems like cool beam tech cheat this math like a crooked accountant because they reduced the size and volume of the supply air system down to about 10% of the normal and don't run a return air mixing system, they just exhaust. Matt it looks, you chose an exceptional property to cover for your channel, truly impressive!
It's unbelievable... because we are so much used to these high-energy-loss fabric, taht we just can not "imagine" that almost all of these losses are ... losses! And are avoidable losses.
To realize this is actually the key for any solution: If you reduce losses BY a factor 8 or so, heating/cooling demands are reduced by this factor. AND, simple consequence, the small amount of fresh air needed ... all the sudden will be just enough to deliver the heat (or remove the heat) still needed. We can even afford to increase fresh air a bit (because of the heat recovery), still don't add much losses AND improve indoor air quality also by factors (really not less important in times of high viral loads).
This way you get a lot of additional extra benefits (not just reducing energy bills; the noise reduction is another one; ...)
Great video. I got an architectural degree in 1972 and wanted to work on projects like this, but there was little happening at the time. It was too early. I am so happy that it is becoming possible now. By the way, I have had solar on my home since 1995. We love it!
This is such a good example of "where there's a will, there's a way". Fantastic video! Well done. This should be standard viewing for every sustainability doubter.
This is amazing! So inspiring to think that these ideas are not limited mostly to single family homes but are cost effective enough to work for businesses!
Since I've learned about passive housing, I was really excited. Actually, this video reflect a idea that I had that it would be really incredible to build large apartment buildings with passive housing principles. Between a hotel and a apartment building, except for a few differences, it pretty much comes down to similar things so this video really proves that not only it can be down but it would be a big improvement on quality of life for aartment renters and owners.
Apartment owners and MDUs is one of our main market focus. We can give them reliable smart lighting and more without all the security and wireless connectivity issues of mesh systems. No need to "just add more nodes" in an already thick soup of colliding signals.
I think this is my fave of all your great vids! Practical and implemented vs possible but yet to be achieved. Love it!
I have a special kinship with experimenters like this gentleman. Im about to retrofit a residential home and have been wondering why no one inside the US is manufacturing vacuum insulated panels for residential structures yet. After doing some research it looks like I can make my own panels for this particular project. There are no examples online explaining how the panels are made or how to install them on residential structures so I've already got some materials arriving in the mail this week to practice making some small scale VIP's and test their effectiveness against closed cell polyurethane foam and fiberglass. Some times you've just got to experiment yourself to see if an idea is viable.
I suspect the tricky parts will be making sure it maintains a vacuum for 20 to 30 years, and making sure no one sticks a nail through it to hang a picture!
@@Cynthia_Cantrell - Yes exactly. Someone needs to make a puncture resistant panel with the VIP inside. For my particular project it wont matter because its my house and i'll be careful. And the way Im going to install them it wont be too difficult to replace if/when they fail. Im projecting my panels to stay sealed for 50+ years.
Well if you do this, definitely make a video about it. I've wondered as well, but my guess was that material science wasn't there to maintain a passive vacuum for years
@@__-pl3jg Interesting... sounds like a serious challenge. Stainless steel could probably do that, but it would be ungodly expensive! If it works you should get a patent!
Double glazing is a good example of why Vacuum insulation is a bad idea for fixed structural elements. It's hard to maintain a vacuum, and even if 'most' glass panes don't fail regularly, you only need a couple to fail to lose that insulating value.
Structurally insulted panels with PIR are comfortably available where I am, but also there are insulated renders for retrofit on brick structures. Attaching PIR panels to the exterior or interior is relatively easy.
I think it’s awesome that you go out find these things out for yourself and us, and share them with the world.
Amazing information. I really enjoyed the presentation by both of you. This concept makes me excited for what is to come. I look forward to more presentations about this topic.
I love everything about this hotel, and hope it's a blueprint for things to come. Thank you so much Matt for covering this. I know my office building could definitely use a retrofit and I'm sure a lot of people feel the same. One thing that stands out that our office is sorely lacking is fresh air. Some days you feel as if you can't breathe and it affects everyone's health.
I generally love all your vids, and this one blew me away! I am looking forward to your follow-up video in a year! I still don't know why their aren't PV panels on every warehouse in the Southwestern US...
Definitely, between solar and thermal / LFP storage that portion of the continent can run with near zero fuel costs with near zero environmental impact. Other parts of the country nuclear and wind (with storage) makes more sense. Using energy storage with SMRs will work for the high northern latitudes, the amount of SMRs is reduced and you won't need to waste energy by rejecting load at periods of low demand.
Bruce Becker should get a Nobel prize for showing how this can be done. Many thanks for telling us about this project.
Seeing that KONE elevator makes me incredibly proud of Finnish innovation as a Finn. Not only that, but in my experience they are most consistently comfortable, quick and reliable to ride on (looking at you, OTIS, Schindler, ThyssenKrupp). I've followed KONE's new tech from time to time, but this energy generating elevator was new to me and indeed something else.
I love seeing this kind of innovation. Europe has A LOT of companies innovating in this space, which is very cool. That bit where Bruce blew my mind in the video was at the very beginning of my tour. I found it funny how Bruce was basically throwing that nugget of information out there like it was no big deal.
@@UndecidedMF In my time at work(15 years ago) those inverters were already standard. In fact I made a drive for a gas compressor that delivered energy to keep the total plant at Power factor = ONE. All because the power feeding cable cable to the plant would otherwise have to be replaced for a bigger one, which would have been very expensive!
This is so cool and making the future come to today. We got our new build close by and had few challenges but all the lights are wired for PoE! Can’t wait for DC lights to become available at Lowe’s and HD! Thanks for reminding me that I am not losing it!
Bruce clearly knows a lot of detail on this project. Knowing the weight of the battery modules really shows he’d been quite hands on with the build. If they are net zero with hot water, driers and HVAC that is quite amazing.
So I love the idea of this. I guess things will be different for every situation and location. What works for that hotel may not be good for someone's house. Like you guys were saying a little more time and planning will help in the long run
👍
I've passed that building (now Hotel Marcel) at least several thousand times driving I-95 as a child and adult. The architecture always caught my eye, but I had no idea of this building's potential. Fascinating!
Fabulous video, Matt. Thank you for this. There's SOOO much to learn here, & this industry is changing so quickly.
We live on our cruising sailboat, currently in the Philippines, so we have to be very energy efficient. We generate all our electricity with solar, & we converted to LEDs many years ago, but I hadn't considered the PoE advantages before. Very cool!
probably your best video to date. crazy innovative repurposing! luv it.
That was amazing. I had no idea it was possible to do so much with cat5 and PoE.
A true lightbulb moment 💡
It's got me wondering how I can apply this in my own home. Thanks for a great report.
This is great to see. Right in my backyard, I grew up 2 blocks from here, currently I retrofitted a net zero home in Prospect CT right up the road.. With 50 panels, 5 separate heat pump systems, HRV, air sealing, new windows/siding. I agree with your closing statement, this technology does make the building more comfortable BY A MILE, My home is heated and cooled 100% of the time.. I just let my heat pumps run and I forgot about. Really great work!
Such a cool HOTEL!
I wish I have to funds to go netzero or even get a solar setup.... maybe one day!
Thanks MATT and everyone at UNDECIDED for yet another amazingly informative video!
Glad you liked it, Dave.
I've never thought about d.c. lighting. What a great idea. Amazing hotel - this is the new benchmark.
He needs a heating room to replace those dryers. 1 room heated to about 50c. The sheets gut hung on a moving line and they come out dry. You do need to extract the humidity which gives you grey water for those toilets. To soften the sheets they go into a non heated tumbler.
Exactly what i was thinking.
They can use a heat pump to run the dryers
@@andrewsteinhaus8267 they can. I have just seen drying rooms but in sunny locations because they also get passive heating of the room by the sun
I never get tired watching and re-watching this video. It is the best video to me that you've ever made.
When I started playing this video TH-cam presented an ad for natural gas.
This was happening to ClimateTown as well - ‘The Algorithm’ seems to want to sell people fossil fuels when they try to learn about sustainable energy.
Turns out there is a setting in TH-cam channel options to disable oil & gas ads tho, so… it’s there if you want it.
Pretty jolly awesome to see a Hotel architect/coordinator so personally invested in a currently difficult goal. He is obviously very knowledgeable about the detail. And no BS detected in the making of this video. All kudos to this gentleman. AND - with an old building? Wow!
Lots of brownie points from me...
So fun to read positive comments like this, having been there with Matt during this amazing technology tour!
Its kinda funny to me that they could probably go net zero by just hanging clothes to dry instead of using dryers😅
This was excellent..I imagine a total cost analysis would put this much higher in price in fact, but, being a retrofit it was was bound to be economically difficult. In the long term they are winners.
Applying these concepts to modern architecture, from scratch (and others) will revolutionize the business for sure.
No way I didn't know this building was net zero and I work right behind it
That's too funny.
Beautiful. Hats off to the hotel owner. Regenerative braking was installed years ago in construction cranes.
What an inspirational outcome, and great to hear it from Mr Becker in person. That's a really smart guy!
I like this guy. It's clear he doesn't know all the technical details of everything in his building, but instead he hired the right people and put his faith in them to get things working. He listened to the professionals, which is the only real way of achieving something as technical and interconnected as a large net-zero building.
I love how truely enthusiastic he is.
I have been waiting for manufactures to introduces DC first appliances for a while now. It’s just makes sense when most of your energy needs are being met by solar and batteries that switching from DC to AC to DC just creates waste.
Matt please make a video about digital electricity in general.... That blew my mind. It really is an amazing solution for the AC/DC "problem"
this is IMO definitely your best video to date: please just keep going out and interviewing people who have actually done things that work.
That was such a great demonstration by Bruce Becker, talking about his hotel. Great talk.
Fantastic video. Thank you for sharing!
I used to work for an IT service provider about a decade ago and we were just getting into low voltage digital lighting over ethernet for customers in the late 2000s/early 2010s.
I haven't heard much about it in the industry since. This is wonderful to see it still thriving alive and well and being used on large scales amazing project
Thanks Matt + Team@Undecided, you are my #1 favorite channel. You're the rarest team that actually doesn't just scream and yell, you are calmly giving us our hopeful solutions for a future where we see cool things doing the most coolest things.
Impressive hotel, glad the owner had foresight and doesn't like hearing no. Brave man, kudos to him.
I want to meet and have a cup of tea with that guy. What an inspirational figure. I hope he changes the hospitality world.
Great video Matt. 👍
Just wana say, kudos to this architect, he was super knowledgeable of what he was building as well as everything that went inside the building.
I worked for Pirelli in the mid 90's and our offices were in the upper part of the building above the cutouts. Glad to see how it had been reimagined.
This video has been enlightening!
We have a 100+ year old home and I have been very interested in retrofitting our home to a net-zero house without killing our savings. Some of the ideas here have really helped in those goals.
That's great to hear! I was hoping there may be elements to inspire in there.
Love the dc-dc use. This is the playbook we need for homes, even if they are not net-zero.
I love your channel, and this hotel is amazing. Someone has at last produced a near net zero building without demolishing it and building from scratch. I would love to adopt some of these ideas when I move into a retirement flat - I've got some serious homework to do!
You continue to stretch our understanding and knowledge base, but this one seemed to step it up another level altogether. Amazing reworking of an older building, and I’m going to be checking into the ‘power over CAT 6’ since honestly I’d never heard of that before. Solar DC to direct lighting, with central control w/o an inverter? Wow.
Power over CAT6 is common in the industrial space. Search for "Power over Ethernet" or PoE. Its used to power all kinds of stuff like security cameras, VOIP phones, and more. You've probably passed 1000s of PoE devices in your life and had 0 idea.
Even if there's no DC/Battery onsite, having one robust AC/DC converter with power factor correction saves about 25% just due to the PFC.
Yes, would love to see an episode just on wiring DC LED lighting using power over Ethernet, seems like this could become more common and even work in residential.
Bruce is such a cool, knowledgeable person to interview. So glad I stumbled upon this video.
That's an amazing story Matt - love it. The POE stuff is extremely clever - I hope it becomes the standard for new homes around the world.
I always wondered what that building was. I've gone past it so many times on my way to school. It's so cool that a building like this is so close by!
Nice. I've driven by it a bunch of times myself and had no idea either until I was introduced to Bruce.
This is brilliant! No stone unturned to address the efficiency of each system within the building. Very cool.
Wow! Never thought about all those transformers in my ceiling. Creative juices flowing for my next build. Thanks for sharing.
👍
I love the idea of keeping things on DC from the solar panel to the battery out to the load and how much efficiency can be gained with it is mind blowing
I have built solar generators since the 1980s. My first was a simple DC system that I loved for it's simplicity and dependability. AC inverters are so common now that I find DC lights and appliances are more difficult to purchase. So today I live in a RAM Promaster City Van with one solar panel, two battery packs and two 400W inverters. My refrigerator connects directly to the battery however everything else is plugged into the inverters including my electric heaters.
Thanks for sharing
Absolutely fantastic . Adding greenery on a building would make it more appealing.
Just talking about the first item, elevators use a counterweight system - so there is no need for regen breaking on a system (since you have a car going down and a balancing weight going up).
I really enjoy how enthusiastic he is about his achievement. I do think they did write a new book making this possible for others to follow suite. Maybe in the future selecting (near) net-zero hotels for you stay really can be the deciding factor. Thanks for sharing this because I have never heard of this even being attempted!
Eye candy!!! My two areas of expertise (Hospitality and Architecture) and one of my favorite architects (Breuer) altogether in one video, alongside passive design (probably my greatest interest nowadays). Cheers!
This is what I was waiting for!! Wow! More please!
Thanks, Matt. Outstanding, again. Looking forward to his sustainability conferences. Shared your link with the family architect; she lives in NE.
Thanks for sharing!
Our house is a retrofitted *mostly* concrete construction home built in 1950. The previous owners had installed solar as a backup, but not for continuous powering of everything. We upgraded fully by the end of 2021, and got rid of all natural gas (we have a meter outside the home, but the line is capped and would need to be reconnected if NG power was to be used again). All electric- we overproduce and sell power back to the grid, and have battery storage that would allow for 5 days of power if the solar was not producing at all, up to 10 days at reduced usage or only partial efficiency from our panels. We power an entire home, a small SW development studio/office with multiple computers and servers, 2 greenhouses, and a converted large shed building that can function as a warm room for starting seeds and plant cuttings for our garden and houseplants or a living space for 2 people, with rainwater collection and purification for the sink and shower, and a composting toilet.
Recent raises for NG and city grid electricity prices in our area have cut our full payback time from ~7 years to just under 4.5 years. SWPA here- we get cold winters and hot summers, and when the neighbors lose power or NG service, we're still up and running- 100%.
Lots of time planning and sourcing and finding the best installers and maintenance people- but we think it was worth it. It is possible- but right now it is more than most people could afford to get set up. That needs to change, and hopefully it will- as more renewable energy products are manufactured and installed here in the US, instead of being imported from other parts of the world.
You don't shove a view point down the viewets throat. You give us information to digest. Great content, again.
Loved this episode. SO many opportunities to save energy. Impressed by the ERV's particularly
Glad you liked it!
I like that the lights are all DC. I recently bought a DC fan to save some juice over my old AC fan. It was a noticeable drop because I typically run the fan 24/7 to make the space feel cooler instead of using air conditioning. Really impressive for a hotel to only have 5kw for lighting the whole thing.
Wow that Power over Ethernet idea is incredible! Would love to see more about it getting scaled down for residential use. I would love to build a net-zero office in my backyard and something like that would help significantly lower the amount of solar that would be required.
My friend built a cabin with wind and solar, and I helped him install wiring for low-voltage lighting. Not only do dc lights save inverter losses, they're also silent and they don't flicker.
US electrician here. Hard unchanging rule for electrical devices. Unless specifically stated any electrical device that can run for more than 3 hrs is considered continuous duty and can only draw 80% of the circuit design capacity. A 50 amp electric car charger must be able to operate on a continuous duty cycle and therefore could only draw a maximum continuous load of 40 amps or 9.6 kva and not 12kva. I am being pedantic but this is important to remember when creating expectations for people
Thank you for this informative video! So much information to absorb. I have an upcoming project where I might be able to implement the Lumencache system. Only thing I worry about is potential obsolescence. A friend bought a house years ago which used low-voltage switching to control conventional 120v lighting. The house was built for early remote-control systems with home runs to relays and distribution wiring throughout the house. My friend ended up having the entire house re-wired. As long as it works, it seems like a great idea.
Hotels have a possibility to have enough scale to make this kind of stuff work. It builds on itself also, efficient lightning, less need to cool, and more possibility to automate and build smart lightning. Very nice.
this man's an inspiration to the way more buildings should be built.
big fat thumbs up.
at the end the comment for making a kind of new prototype as a model to be replicated made a lot of sense.
so, this hotel is more an explorer where others can follow.
Very impressive. Nice to hear from someone that truly knows his stuff.
Great video Matt, as usual. I’d like to hear your thoughts on my situation. We bought a home in a rural setting in July of 2020, the original house was built in 1947, there are at least two, possibly three areas that are obvious expansions to the original, single-gable structure. In 2011, the whole thing was lifted and a converted into a two storey house. The lower level is mostly insulated to modern standards although the envelope is definitely porous. When the first winter arrived, we realized what a sieve it truly was.
Upstairs, there’s three separate attics and during the fall of 2021 I pulled out all of the insulation from the main and original gable, a mixture of R7 and R12 fibreglass and added vapour barrier (probably not necessary) and R28 rock wool insulation. This change alone made quite a difference in the overall comfort come the following winter. The main floor is fan-forced heat, we weathered the first winter with the existing oil-fired furnace but last fall swapped that out for a heat pump and air handler; the upstairs is still heated with baseboard heaters, which I’ve added smart thermostats to to save energy. I purposely had the heat pump oversized so that I could add two individual heads to the refrigerant loop at a later date.
I was compelled to post this word-wall at the point in this video where you addressed HRVs. I’m continually working towards a better sealed house, and thankfully I have the skill sets to do most work myself. I’m wondering if it would be beneficial to add an HRV system to my house, I’m already planning a way to extend the forced air system to the master bedroom upstairs and adding HRV ducts wouldn’t be difficult to include, but is retrofitting a house that may never be fully sealed with an HRV worth it? Is this one of the reasons you decided to build a net-zero house, because you thought it would just be too difficult to retrofit your existing one?
I could go on with more of my admittedly over ambitious plans, but this is probably already one of the longest comments you’ve ever received. Thanks in advance.
So happy they saved that spectacular Breuer building!
My wife and I bought a tract house built in 1976, and we had it remodeled. We haven't hit Passivhaus levels but we did pretty well. More insulation, a ground-source heat pump, a heat pump water heater, heat-recovery ventilator (similar to the energy recovery ventilator he showed but much smaller), and we have solar cells on the roof and a backup battery now. We even have an induction stove in our kitchen, too! We would absolutely be net zero except that we also have electric cars and we are charging those, so I'm not sure if we will quite be net zero. There are tax breaks for these investments and the solar is on a 10-year fixed loan with a generous interest rate (special for solar installs). These changes will take a long time to pay for themselves... but they will pay for themselves and we have been very happy with our home.
We don't want to sell our house (we want to just live in it) but I'm convinced that with the upgrades we have made, the resale value of the house must have been greatly increased.
A "reuse" building becoming the new standard, what a concept.
Incredible! Please put on your calendar to do a follow-up after a year of business. Questions I would like to hear answers to are:1, are they making as much/more than they use, 2, Did they have to add more solar, if so how much, 3, any problems with control or other mechinal issues.They took the book, burned it and possibly wrote an opus.
Where could an architect that could spec this type stuff be found?
They're able to achieve net zero from a retrofit building built in the 60s. I would imagine a purpose built hotel built today might even be able to produce more energy than it uses. If municipal electric utility companies had side investments in these net positive hotels that they ran as a non profit, the combination of bonus power plus hotel guests might act a a fund to subsidize more solar and renewable energy projects without charging electric customers extra.
An amazing Proof of Concept. Now that there is an operational prototype, even using an already existing building, other companies can do the cost analysis work to see what retrofits will cost, versus maintaining existing systems. That should really help the adoption rate.
I love watching these videos. I'm in a bit of a unique situation in that I live full-time in a large motorhome. I often watch these videos with an eye toward brainstorming how I can adapt some of the tech to my motorhome. I already have 1.7kW of solar and another 400W of wind power (that gets set up when I'm stationary). I removed the motorhome's rooftop air conditioners and replaced them with roof vents and bi-directional fans. I've found that airflow makes as big a difference as anything and the fans use only about 17W each. So all this "advanced" tech (some of which is quite old) is fascinating to me.