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this week's episodes are are supported by

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the of the ways that they're doing that is with what theyre 1 billion

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meaningfully, just yet later

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at vox.com green innovation

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hey,

0:34

it's adam here with rico

0:36

daily co-host, ronnie my

0:39

voice is kind of of done say as you might be be able

0:41

to hear i i would never miss

0:43

the last episode of of the show nor

0:45

talking about my favorite topic

0:47

it definitely wouldn't feel right without you buy

0:50

yes for one final time this

0:53

is rico daily

1:02

take look around unless

1:04

you're commuting or perhaps communing

1:06

with nature there's a a very good chance

1:08

that you're listening to this podcast from

1:10

a building that

1:13

building is giving you you shelter from the the elements and

1:15

hopefully helping you you say cool all all summer long

1:18

i'm sorry to say it's big part of the climate

1:20

change problem

1:21

you break forty percent

1:23

of the total energy used by the united

1:25

states is used to power our

1:27

houses buildings offices

1:30

stores and more than half of that

1:32

is just to cool down or keep

1:34

them

1:35

so if we want to be serious about stopping

1:38

climate change we need to start cutting

1:40

back on the energy that buildings consume

1:43

on a member can focus on things

1:45

that are easy to swap in an hour

1:47

or things that are easy to install my install

1:49

solar panels are applied

1:52

for more energy efficient version

2:00

neil the nation science and research fellow

2:02

there are more ambitious idea that are out there in

2:04

there world i've written about the potential freezing

2:06

potential took vehicles as batteries free homes as

2:08

like com very backup was to be

2:11

huge in terms of making for your homes

2:13

running and blackouts which are more are more

2:15

as clementines mix whether or all

2:17

those ideas sound great the new them looking

2:19

into an even better solution in

2:23

our walls

2:25

owens corning built this glass

2:27

house so you can see all the places

2:29

insulation can save money, new

2:31

home or old just

2:34

insulation i know the idea

2:36

may not be very glamorous, i get really

2:38

excited about it, it's just insulation

2:41

frank bags information

2:43

sexy suck

2:46

here's

2:46

what here's what's sexy saving

2:48

money in

2:51

buildings are the extremely inefficient are

2:53

just keeps on leaking out and

2:56

if we just as better job of

2:58

keeping inside you'd use less energy

3:00

and also to see more comfortable in our day

3:02

to day lives you know like as you walk

3:04

into a building and you're like a like this

3:07

is comfy are like it feels lot

3:09

nicer than where he just came in from

3:12

you might not think about this first hand

3:14

over now after writing this piece this definitely

3:16

am but you're feeling the effects of

3:18

insulation and the ability to

3:20

keep the outside

3:24

wow

3:25

so the answer to our climate problems

3:27

has been hiding in the walls this whole time

3:30

yeah eventually i mean the natural resources

3:32

defense council the energy see it

3:34

could be the largest single answer is

3:36

greenhouse gas emissions in united states the

3:38

study found that this you admire inflation to

3:41

every single family home the next states it could reduce

3:43

the carbon emissions from power plants by but five

3:45

percent every year which is equivalent

3:47

of taking fifteen point six million gas cars off

3:49

of their own to make a pretty big difference

3:52

the

3:53

our this is secretly one of my favorite

3:55

topics my partner and i actually

3:57

designed and built our house from scratch and

3:59

one of the big horton thing for us was to

4:01

have really really good insulation

4:03

i'll be spray foam the whole thing

4:05

of is very expensive but now are heating

4:08

is very very cheap but

4:10

for everyone else out there might

4:12

have not had such a hands on

4:14

experience with the insulation to give us

4:16

a

4:16

introduction yeah so the basic

4:18

idea inflation essentially it

4:20

keeps the outside out and the inside

4:22

and it has to be sort of you

4:25

know fluffy seats are could be

4:27

sprayed into spaces are barbican hard and

4:29

i attended colorful pinker yellower

4:31

wider green and it's made something

4:33

or silos fiberglass or war

4:36

and nowadays is actually something called

4:38

loan body carbon insulation which

4:40

is intuition that made with a small carbon footprint

4:42

as possible much also comes in similar

4:44

forms of seats and you could find it over

4:47

building itself into walls for

4:49

trying to goes into your added corbyn crosspieces

4:51

blow your home in go in gas around

4:53

windows are wrapped around air ducts and water

4:55

pipes is basically anywhere

4:57

that seat or cold

4:59

could escape or get in from as where you'd

5:01

usually find insulation if you notice

5:03

i am wearing a sweater behind it is eighty

5:06

degrees outside very very

5:08

nice the

5:09

air conditioning we have does you'd have turn

5:11

on york and since the know we don't have air conditioning

5:13

my god that's use yeah

5:16

well the he has inflation under our cement

5:18

floor or live in very strong

5:20

insulation other way around so when

5:22

we keep all the windows closed amadeus

5:24

is very cool inside he was really good

5:26

windows than to double pain

5:28

there it is exactly it's form

5:31

of insulation in slc now i just heard about this

5:33

for the stuff and stuff the cousin the walls but

5:35

yet the panes of glass like keep

5:37

your house seriously as it

5:39

really can see through are also form of

5:41

inflation were with no surprise is that

5:43

we had to put it under

5:44

our floor before we even part slab

5:46

there is a giant piece of foam

5:49

insulation to keep the heat from

5:51

just going down under the house in into ground

5:53

our yeah that makes use of of like

5:55

i guess in the winter of graphical

5:57

in the house too much on right and

5:59

freezing

6:00

radiant heat pipes yeah exactly that's

6:02

so cool and it's adams like a it's a limited

6:06

, i

6:08

actually live in an extremely

6:10

energy efficient building of that in

6:13

new york big buildings have to put

6:14

grades based on how energy efficient they're

6:16

building is it's between one on one hundred ah

6:19

my building a ninety nine allow allow

6:21

my apartment in brooklyn is rated d

6:25

stadium give it number of sissies yet

6:27

a lot of older buildings older buildings just have

6:29

terrible insulation because they're about before insulation

6:32

cause existence some near buildings are

6:34

also just really bad

6:36

in proper installation is

6:38

getting more and more important right we're getting

6:41

more more extreme weather this

6:43

year so it's not just extreme

6:45

cold as extreme

6:47

yeah that's right i'm in building that into the pearly

6:49

you can have serious consequences beyond

6:51

just energy and climate a can have

6:53

an impact on people's lives

6:56

and anti ability the global heat

6:58

related deaths on the rise as does more than five

7:00

million deaths each year term it's actually mean

7:02

or call me me on the impacts of for

7:04

intuition just last

7:08

there has oh how

7:11

, that represents only

7:13

survive the people died in their homes

7:17

and their homes or odds with or

7:19

the deck the department of state health services

7:21

released it's analysis putting the death

7:23

toll at two hundred and forty six

7:25

more than the agency previously reported

7:28

the health department says the majority of people died

7:30

from hypothermia but there are several

7:32

other causes including carbon monoxide

7:35

poisoning car crashes on sen

7:38

improving inflation can make building more

7:40

survivable it increases this

7:42

thing called passes run ability which

7:44

essentially how long a

7:46

building can remain at a temperature comfortable

7:49

for humans were without power

7:51

and it can go long way towards

7:53

helping us deal with a pack of extreme

7:56

weather especially as tax

8:09

this seems all pretty simple

8:12

why doesn't insulation get more hype

8:14

when we talk about climate solutions i

8:16

think insulation deserves more hype

8:18

i agree

8:22

when my sources it efficiency is one the

8:24

things that people don't talk about lot and

8:26

these things this is because it's not sexy

8:28

like when you think about climate who isn't so we focus

8:30

a lot on carbon emissions

8:32

and talk about like in a reducing the carbon

8:35

that we put out into the world and

8:37

inflation isn't story about reducing

8:39

carbon emissions first hand you know

8:41

installing more insulation won't magically

8:43

make a coal plant go away

8:45

but it will reduce the amount power that

8:47

be my youth makopo i

8:49

mean it's it's about making better use of the energy

8:52

even if comes from fossil fuels and

8:54

i guess that's just not as exciting as you know

8:56

shining you solar panels are wind power and

8:59

i think it should be think it's just as important

9:01

as where energy comes from is how we use

9:03

energy and i think

9:05

my lumpy green space home is beautiful

9:08

i think for the around and say that i'm angry

9:14

well even if most people besides you

9:16

to don't think that insulation is fun and sexy

9:19

is , like a practical reason why we are

9:21

just inflating crap out of all buildings

9:23

especially new ones yeah

9:25

it's few reasons one of them come sandwiches

9:27

is really hard hard

9:30

people who own and existing building of any

9:32

kind don't really like the idea of cooking

9:34

bunch of holes into the walls and and blowing insulation

9:36

into it it's daunting it's expensive

9:39

and disruptors and at mean

9:41

realistically on the anyone like the idea

9:43

of a dime home them offer few days

9:45

are few weeks quite few people can

9:47

really cover the cost of making your building

9:49

better insulated without government assistance and

9:52

brc tends to be slog in there are programs

9:54

at state and local and federal levels

9:57

by dealing with all that his sister

9:59

a real pain and

10:01

also it's were think my enough people who rent

10:03

a car look at mercy their landlords and the

10:05

landlords don't necessarily have an incentive

10:08

to make their buildings that they don't

10:10

necessary live in better insulated

10:13

about feeling the effects of poor

10:15

insulation every day there's

10:17

nothing to make them go away i'm gonna make this building

10:20

that insane of us

10:23

so what about you know in my case new construction

10:25

i happen to know that it was a lot more

10:27

expensive have a choice but i guess

10:30

was looking for down the road saying how much

10:32

would have to spend on heating and cooling bills that

10:35

what are the obstacles there besides

10:37

cost again

10:38

as some like incentive to accepted

10:40

practice within the building industry is that when

10:42

you're deciding how much inflation to put and it's

10:44

not so much but the sufficiency as it is when

10:47

the inflation will pay for itself

10:49

down the line and that tends

10:51

to mean that you know we're going prioritize cheaper

10:53

kind of worth insulation because of because pay for

10:55

itself faster and so you're a

10:57

front costs are defrayed pretty quickly

11:00

but that really needs change i think that people

11:02

need to be thinking okay like you

11:04

know it's not just cost of been

11:06

under construction that we taking into account but also

11:08

like long term costs of this building long term costs

11:10

of getting the energy to keeps building

11:13

at a comfortable temperature

11:15

and fifty thousand kind of thing kind of inflation

11:17

makes the case for itself everything you're saying

11:19

make sense to menial but i target

11:21

everybody else on board were doing

11:23

start how do we get the insulation hype

11:25

train rolling and it's good builders

11:28

in landlords and homeowners onboard

11:31

it wasn't for a while i wasn't sure

11:34

if the train would really get rolling but recently

11:36

present by then signed a defense production at

11:38

authorization that included money for inflation

11:41

and personal preference listen older buildings

11:43

and is gonna provide funding to a manufacture

11:45

more insulation be looking at

11:47

ways to make older building

11:50

more energy efficient and think that's a great

11:52

sign think that is gonna help get the ball rolling

11:54

because manufacturers and contractors

11:56

will be getting this money that is essentially pushing

11:58

them to try and make happen and

12:01

i think realistically that was can come down to

12:03

think people are motivated by savings and i think people

12:05

motivated by the costs of the energy bills and we're

12:07

seeing the brunt of that right now with the gas

12:09

prices were saying and i think is

12:11

that emphasized mars people start talking

12:13

more about how like see our energy costs

12:15

are going through the roof and here's what matters is that

12:17

people will be more likely to think about

12:19

insulation

12:21

the male thank you so much for talking about

12:23

my favorite subjects and subject that apparently

12:25

a lot of other people aren't thinking about but

12:28

shut he for her the

12:30

a separate kind of insulation space

12:32

them as the nicest inflation it the

12:34

most expensive but it puts everything

12:37

and no gap

12:38

spray or insulation also sounds like more fun

12:40

to install yeah agreed

12:47

today's episode was produced by taylor

12:50

make in the mix is by melissa

12:52

ponce special thanks to sam altman

12:54

yeah editor of retired and amber hall

12:56

the deputy editor of talk podcasts

12:58

at box imani mola and

13:01

i'm adam forecasters thank you so

13:03

much for listening

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