Autonomous Building

I. Translate the following word combinations:

Infrastructural support services

Sewage treatment system

Apply environmentally responsible building design

Reduce environmental impact

Energy-efficient in operation

Technologically advanced autonomous houses

Basement battery system

Immediate household use

Solar water heaters

II. Read the text: Autonomous building

An autonomous building is a building designed to be operated independently from infrastructural support services such as the electric power grid, municipal water systems, sewage treatment systems, communication services, and (in some cases) public roads.

Advocates of autonomous building describe advantages that include reduced environmental impacts, increased security, and cost efficiencies. Off-grid buildings often rely very little on civil services, and are therefore safer and more comfortable during civil disaster or military attacks.

British architects Brenda and Robert Vale have said that, as of 2002, "It is quite possible in all parts of Australia to construct a 'house with no bills', which would be comfortable without heating and cooling, which would make its own electricity, collect its own water and deal with its own waste... It is possible to build a "house with no bills" for the same price as a conventional house, but it would be (25%) smaller."

Autonomous buildings can reduce environmental impacts by using on-site resources (such as sunlight and rain) that would otherwise be wasted. Autonomy often dramatically reduces the costs and impacts of networks that serve the building, because autonomy short-circuits the multiplying inefficiencies of collecting and transporting resources. Other impacted resources, such as oil reserves and the retention of the local watershed, can often be cheaply conserved by thoughtful designs.

Autonomous buildings are usually energy-efficient in operation, and therefore cost-efficient, for the obvious reason that smaller energy needs are easier to satisfy off-grid.

An autonomous structure is not always environmentally friendly. However, autonomous buildings also usually include some degree of sustainability through the use of renewable resources.

First and fundamentally, independence is a matter of degree. Complete independence is very hard or impossible to attain. For example, eliminating dependence on the electrical grid is one thing, and growing all of your own food is a more demanding and time-consuming proposition.

Living in an autonomous shelter can require one to make sacrifices in one's lifestyle choices, personal behavior, and social expectations. Even the most comfortable and technologically advanced autonomous houses may require some differences in behavior. Some persons adjust easily. Others describe the experience as inconvenient, irritating, isolating. A well-designed building can reduce this issue, but usually at the expense of reduced autonomy.

Greywater systems reuse wash water to flush toilets, and water lawns and gardens. Greywater systems can halve the water use of most residential buildings. Some builders are installing waterless urinals and even composting toilets that completely eliminate water usage in

sewage disposal.

Most desert and temperate climates get at least 250 mm of rain per year. This means that a typical one storey house with a greywater system can supply its year-round water needs from its roof alone. In the most extremely dry areas, it will require a cistern of 30 m³. Many areas average 13 mm of rain per week, and these can use a cistern as small as 10 m³. It can be convenient to use the cistern as heating system or air conditioning system; however this can make cold drinking water warm, and in drier years the efficiency of the Heating, Ventilation and Air-Conditioning system may decrease.

Cistern design can reduce costs and inconvenience. Gravity tanks on short towers are reliable, so pump repairs are less urgent. The least expensive bulk cistern is a fenced pond or pool at ground level.

Since electricity is an expensive utility, the first step towards conservation is to design a house and lifestyle to reduce demand.

Using a solar roof, solar cells can currently provide electric power. Solar roofs are far more cost-effective than retrofitted solar power, because buildings need roofs anyway. Modern solar cells last about 40 years, which makes them a reasonable investment in some areas.

There are a number of areas that lack sun, but have wind. To generate power, the average autonomous house needs only one small wind turbine, 5 m or less in diameter. On a 30 m tower, this turbine can provide enough power to supplement solar power on cloudy days.

The largest advantage of wind power is that larger wind turbines have a lower per-watt cost than solar cells. However, location is critical. Just as some locations lack sun for solar cells, some locations lack sufficient wind for an economical turbine installation. Paul Gipe says that in the Great Plains of the United States a 10 m turbine can supply enough energy to heat and cool a well-built all-electric house. Economic use in other areas requires research, and possibly a site-survey.

During times of low demand, excess power can be stored in batteries for future use. However, batteries need to be replaced every few years.