Incorporate Passive Survivability into Building Codes

While staying with friends in western Connecticut recently, I got in a conversation with a real estate agent there. She told me that the high cost of building materials was leading some builders in her part of the state to shift from 2x6 construction back to less-energy-efficient 2x4 construction. These builders tell her that most potential homeowners don’t know enough to ask how much insulation is in their walls, and they won’t own the houses long enough to care. What these homeowners don’t realize is that poorly insulated homes leave them unnecessarily vulnerable to utility interruptions.

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