The Ojai Post

I started building in 1976 in the Navy Seabees, and have used a lot of different technologies and materials along the way. In 1993 I became a general contractor, and then later a specialty contractor. In the last six years I’ve been the green building chairman for the Ventura County Contractors Association and a founding member of the local United States Green Building Council-California Central Coast Chapter. More recently, I began consulting in the solar industry.

With all the incredible new development in the building and energy industry, nothing has grabbed my attention as much as a presentation I saw a year ago by Dr. Jack Gosnell on something called Passive Design. This is much more than the orientation of a building. It’s architectural design that eliminates the need for mechanical heating and cooling of a building through the use of smart heating and cooling strategies like natural ventilation, solar heat gain and solar shading, and efficient insulation. Even in the cold Scandinavian countries, passive design buildings are proving that indoor climate control can be up to 90 percent self-sustaining.

Sure, designing a home covered with solar panels on the roof and wind turbines on the lawn is a great way to produce energy while sparing the environment, but why not build a house that doesn’t need so much of that in the first place?

I’m by no means an expert on passive design, but I believe what Dr. Gosnell says: “If we had to pick one thing that was going to give us the best return on our efforts to reduce energy demand locally and globally, it lies in the revolution of building codes to passive design.” So I’ve taken his message on the road and have been sharing the information with various organizations. On May 27 at 7 p.m. in the Chaparral Auditorium located at 414 E. Ojai Ave., Ojai, I’ll be presenting a program called “The Passive Design Revolution” at the monthly community gathering of the Ojai Valley Green Coalition. I invite everyone to come out and learn about the building strategies of the future!

- Wayne Pendry