activity from radium-226 (excluding radon and uranium) of 15 pCilL. The determination of a soil’s gross alpha emission would require analysis by a laboratory equipped with a proportional counter and supplied with a few hundred milligrams of powdered soil sample (11). Data on the total alpha content of a soil could help determine which soils need further analysis for specificradionuclides. Soil radon information is vital for additional reasons. Data from areas overlying high-uranium-bearing geologic material would be beneficial to community planners, radiation and health officials, and home owners. The cost of monitoring all the homes in the United States for radon without geologic or soil information is estimated to be $1 billion. If the soil concentration of radon is known, then the decision to monitor homes could be made more cost effective. Soil radon information can be used to reduce health risks to current as well as future home owners. The incorporation of radon data into new soil survey reports of the SCS would expand the role of the soil scien-
tist as provider and interpreter of soil information. Acknowledgment Support was provided by grant CR-812699 to the Environmental Health and Public Policy Program by EPA. This paper dws not necessarily represent the views and policies of the EPA. References
can Chemical Society: Washington. DC. 1987; pp. 10-29. (8) Baranov. V. 1.: Morozova. N . G. In RadioemloRy: Klechkovskii. V. M. et al.. Eds.: 1. Wiley: New York. 1973; pp. 321.
(9) “Evaluation of Occupational and Environmental Exposure to Radon and Radon Daughters in the United States”; NCRP Report No. 78; National Council on Radiation Protection and Measurement: Bethesda. MD. 1984. (IO) Tanner. A.B. In Norural Radialion Environment ~~~. 111: Cesell. T.F.: Lowder. W.M.. Eda.: Technical i n f o r k t i o n Center; Springfield. VA, 1980; Vol. I. pp. 2-56. ( I I ) Standard Merhodsfor the Eraminorion of Wnrer and Wosiewarcr, 16th ed.; American Public Health Association: Washington. DC. 1985; pp. 640-46. (12) Amos wirh Porrnriol Hinh Rodon Lpwls. FACTShcer; U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Ofice of Radialion Programs. U S . Government Printing Office: Washington, DC, 1986. ~
( I ) “Environmental Radiation Measurements”; NCRP Report No. 50; National Council on Radiation Protection and Measurement: Washington. DC. 1976; pp. 5-23. (2) BElR IV. Health Risks of Radon and Other Internally Deposited Alpha Emitters; Committee on the Biological Effects of Ionizing Radiation; National Academy: Washington. DC. 1988: pp. 24-83. (3) Nero. A,, Jr. Sci. Am. 1988,258.42-48. 141 Nero. A. V.. Jr. et al. Scirnce 1986.. 234.. 992-97. “Natural Background Radiation in the United States”; NCRP Report No. 45; National Council on Radiation Protection and Measurement: Washington. ” . DC. 1975; pp. 54-59. Cothern. C. R.; Smith, 1. E., Jr. Environmenial Radon; Plenum: New York, 1986; Vol. 35, 35. OD. pp. 98-110. Sextro, R. G. et al. In Rodon and lis DeSextro,’d.’ coy Produeis: Hopke, I? K . . Ed.; Ameri-
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Michael Eoyle is a fellow in the interdisciplinary programs in health at the Harvard School of Public Health. He has a Ph.D. in soil science from the University of California, Berkeley, and is interested in the soil biochemistry and microbial ecology of [and deposited wastes.
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Superinsulated homes By Eugene H. Leger Much of the energy research literature coming from Sweden has been of considerable value in my research. However, it is not clear to me why Flavin and Durning chose to use “...new superinsulated homes in Sweden which stay warm all winter on $100 worth of fuel ...” as an example of what is possible in this field (I). In Pepperell, MA, the 1979 heating bill for the first Leger House (the name given to it by Gautam Dun of Princeton University) was $38. Heating bills for the house have remained less than $50 per year for more than IO years now. One of the first double-wall superinsulated houses in the world, this house was conceived and built at about the same time as the Canadian Saskatchewan Conservation House (SCH). As Nissen and Dutt say in their book, 7he Superinsulated Home Book, the incredible performance of superinsulation was first demonstrated to the American public by these two well-publicized houses in distant parts of the continent (2). There were some significant differences between the two houses. The Leger house had no air-to-air heat ex-
&\
E q m e H. k g e r
changer ( M E ) (the lack of which led to some important discoveries) and no interiorlexterior thermal shutters. It had none of the complicated doublewall framing necessitated by the vapor barrier, as it was then called, which is labor intensive and accounts for the substantially higher cost of current superinsulated houses. Notwithstanding the incredible performance of the SCH, which requires no heat other than that supplied by occupants and appliances until the outside temperature goes down to -5 “E as
0013936x1881w22-1399$01.50/0 @ 1988 American Chemical Society
Nissen and Dun note, “it is an example of extreme applications of superinsulated technology.” Flavin and Durning seem to suggest that “a new generation of efficient technologies” is responsible for (among other things) the $lW-per-year heating bill of the Swedish superinsulated houses. These houses may well incorporate some sophisticated technology, such as waste heat recovery heat pumps, AAHE, and ventilation systems. David Eyre, chief project scientist of the SCH, said in the Conservahome project, published in 1981, that “Furnace technology is not developing in the right direction. 7here is too much concern with improved ejiciency [read technology] and scarcely any concern with low prices and reduced capacity” [emphasis added] (3). The Leger House did not achieve 0.6 Btu/sq ft/”F using “a new generation of efficient technologies.” Had we used interiodexterior thermal shutters and an AAHE, and achieved the tightness of the SCH, we would not have had a heating bill. We have no regrets for not having done so. Certainly the polyurethane foam (PUR) used to seal the windows and doors is modern (circa 1930). Environ. Sci. Technot., Vol. 22. NO. 12.1988 1399
but cellulose insulation and doublepane windows are hardly new technologies. I intend no criticism of SCH or Swedish houses using new technologies. However, I am concerned that the public could come to believe that superinsulation or superinsulated houses are a product of new technologies. I have long argued against the term superinsulated because it emphasizes insulation to the exclusion of everything else, as though superinsulation were the secret. Much as I dislike inventing new terms, I coined the phrase Microenergy System Houses (MESH) to separate this approach from that of others and to call attention to the fact that insulation is only one of many elements that constitute the system. A MESH house has a micro energy heat load, a micro energy cooling load, a concern for the energy embodied in building materials, a concern for the energy cost of construction activity, and a concern for the energy cost of maintaining the house over its lifetime. This is precisely Dave Eyre’s criticism of how we perceive a furnace: “thinking of the furnace as an isolated self-sufficient unit, rather than as a small element in the larger entity of the house.” There is no need for magic or new technology to produce a house that heats for less than $50 per year. How-
ever, the double wall exacts a stiff added cost to achieve this performance. Unfortunately, all energy-efficient houses have unnecessary added cost. In 1980 I announced that the double wall was an unnecessary method that was adding thousands of dollars to the cost of superinsulated houses. The superinsulation aficionados long refused to acknowledge this cost; yet when they did, they argued that with the virtual elimination of the heating bill one would have one’s money back in a year or two. Were the double wall the only way to build, I would agree. But there are better, more cost-effective ways to superinsulate. Better walls, not deeper walls, are needed. A wall with 5-1/2 in. of PUR foam will give an R-41 and is impervious to moisture, rain, and wind. A 12-in. double wall with fiberglass gives us an R-38, perhaps, at an unacceptable cost. The insulating value of a material is its resistance to heat flow. The RValue represents the total resistance to heat flow. The higher the R-value, the more resistance it has to heat flow, and therefore the better it insulates. A better wall requires a product of modern technology called polyurethane foam. Unfortunately, there are two disadvantages to using it: cost and the use of chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) in its production. At 40-70 cents per board foot, 5-1/2 in. of sprayed foam cost
from $2.20 to $3.80. At least one Canadian company has developed a CFC-free PUR. Even more exciting, however, is the insulation research going on in France, in Japan, and at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (Oak Ridge, TN), where insulations with R-values of as high as R-20 per inch have been achieved. Clearly, if we are going to get rid of the double wall-which requires us to either increase the length and width of a house by 2 ft. or decrease it by that amount, at an unacceptable cost-we must use new efficient insulations.
References (l)Flavin, C.; Durning, A. B. Environ. Sci. Technol. 1988,22, 872-13. (2)Nissen, J. D.; Nissen, J. N.; Dutt, G. S. The Superinsulated Home Book; Wiley: New York, 1984. (3)Eyre, D. “The Conservahome Project, Part I. An Overview of the Project. Saskatchewan Research Council”; Technical Report No. 119, September 1981; SRC Publication No. E-825-4-B-81. Saskatoon, Canada.
Eugene H. Leger is a code enforcement oficer with the Town of Merrimack, NH 03054. He designed and built one of the first success&l double-wall, so-called superinsulated houses in the world. Leger attended Springfield College and Clark Universiq. He owns an architectural and design firm, Leger Designs.
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