Alfredo De Vido | Architects

Con Edison's "Conservation House"
Consolidated Edison, New York's largest utility, wanted to show that conservation concepts and techniques can be combined with conventional construction practices to produce an attractive and energy-efficient house. The architects designed a house which reduced energy usage 40% of that of a comparable new house, at a cost of conservation features that added less than 10% to the construction costs. The key features included high insulation values, balances of southern-openings with heat absorbing thermal "mass" recirculation of solar gain, affecting distribution to other zones, and a central greenhouse/atrium space with glass down to the central heat distribution.