Gregory Duncan

@duncanarchitect.bsky.social

177

Posts

Designing comfortable, healthy, energy-efficient buildings
Certified Passive House Designer
Registered Architect in NY and NJ

Posts Replies Media

New battery tech could make it easier to upgrade to induction cooktops and electric ovens without 240 V receptacles.

www.wsj.com/tech/persona... ?

www.wsj.com

White-box retail space in Elmhurst, Queens. Repairing fire damage and upgrading roof insulation to current NYC energy code. Even on a simple project like this, complications arise, so it’s important to have good communication with the contractor.

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Gregory Duncan

This research has come up several times at a big climate conference: A huge majority of people are worried about climate change and want governments to do more to control the crisis. BUT they think they are in a tiny minority and nobody else cares. Everybody (almost) cares! You are not alone 🧪

Climate Change Actions Are Far More Popular Than People in U.S. Realizewww.scientificamerican.com “False social reality” obscures widespread U.S. support for climate protection measures

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New study by @gauravganti.bsky.social and co-authors shows that for 1.5°C pathways, 90% of the mitigation between 2020 and 2030 will come from emissions reductions: -70% CO2 emissions cuts -20% non-CO2 emissions cuts -10% land-based CO2 removals (e.g. afforestation)

Evaluating the near- and long-term role of carbon dioxide removal in meeting global climate objectives - Communications Earth & Environmentwww.nature.com Carbon dioxide removal via afforestation and reforestation could be scaled up globally to account for ten percent of net greenhouse gas emission reductions required between 2020 and 2030, according to...

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Congrats, Kathy Hochul.

Up to $1 Billion May Go to Waste After Hochul’s Congestion Pricing Haltwww.nytimes.com Transit leaders had already allocated hundreds of millions of dollars before Gov. Kathy Hochul’s last-minute reversal on the long-awaited tolling plan.

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Reply to

Michael Hobbes

I don't know if this is the a term for it, but the flipside of a moral panic is a moral bandwagon: Elites are coalescing around the idea that there is something inherently good about the outdoors and prescribing exposure to nature as a cure for all kinds of societal challenges, especially for kids.

As part of the Passive House Standard for comfort and energy efficiency, the house retrofit by Duncan Architect has continuous filtered fresh air with a heat recovery unit that keeps it cool in the summer

Protest against cybertruck in Hamburg

📣 Cybertruck in Hamburg mit Farbe übergossen - Gepanzert in die Klimahölle Seit dem 2. Mai tourt der SUV als Ausstellungsstück quer durch Deutschland und versinnbildlicht den Umgang der Superreichen mit der Erderhitzung: Gepanzert im Luxusfahrzeug ab in die Klimahölle. 1/7

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I recently reviewed @Paul Brannen 's book Timber! in which he extols the virtues of mass timber as carbon storage. I have been writing about wood for years from a #sufficiency point of view, suggesting that wood is wonderful, but we should still strive to use as little as possible.

How Good is Wood?lloydalter.substack.com An excerpt from "The Story of Upfront Carbon" where I am still looking for an answer to that question.

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What's at risk without congestion pricing: ❌ Modern signals, which lead to faster, more frequent, and more reliable service ❌ Q train extension to 125th Street ❌ Upgrades at nearly 100 stations, including elevators, ramps, and new platforms

See How Your Subway Service May Suffer Without Congestion Pricingwww.nytimes.com Extensive cuts totaling $16.5 billion have suspended crucial repairs and upgrades to New York City’s vast transit network.

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I blurbed for the cover of Timber!: "Paul Brannen's engaging and accessible book explains how building materials that are grown instead of mined can change buildings from being a climate problem to part of the solution.”

Timber!lloydalter.substack.com Paul Brannen's book has made me rethink the way I look at wood.

New York requires landlords to provide heat in the winter, but not air conditioning in the summer. At least not yet. By building or renovating to the Passive House standard, property owners can easily and inexpensively provide tenants with comfortable apartments year round.

On days like today, ALL New Yorkers need to remember to stay hydrated. To #BeatTheHeat, just sip, sip, repeat.

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Wind now generates more electricity than coal in the US

Some friends of mine featured here in this article about Passive House architecture in New York nypost.com/2024/07/07/l...

Is 'passive' design the future of architecture?nypost.com It’s another sunny day on the Internet. Dozens of participants are lined up in their digital boxes attending Reimagine Buildings ’24, an online conference held in the spring dedicated, mostly, to...

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If you do the math, electrifying *all* ground transportation in the US would increase electricity demand by less than 20%. HVAC, especially in heating climates, is going to be a considerably bigger challenge for the grid. Easily shiftable EV load could actually help make the grid stabler!

The US added 1.2Million EVs to the grid last year & electricity use dropped due to inc. efficiency. Grid stability will increase further when V2grid charging is deployed at scale. 🧪🔌💡https://cleantechnica.com/2024/02/02/the-us-added-1-2-million-evs-to-the-grid-last-year-electricity-use-went-down/

The US Added 1.2 Million EVs To The Grid Last Year, & Electricity Use Went Down - CleanTechnicacleantechnica.com With over 1 million new EVs plugging into garage outlets, home charging stations, and Superchargers, you’d think our electricity usage would have shot up dramatically. You’d be wrong.

Not sure about that 98% number but the overall point about confirmation bias is correct

Seeing some discourse about old buildings vs new buildings and like, 1) yes most old buildings are built very solidly. no that's not because they used to build every building very well, its because the 98% of buildings from 100 years ago are gone and only the well-built ones made it

In not very sunny Germany, they got 60% of their power from renewable sources in the first half of this year. Closing all the nuclear plants didn’t hurt the energy transition. New York could learn a lot from this.

AfD und Union werden nicht glücklich über diese Nachricht sein, aber mir egal.

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“The M.T.A. is an economic development engine for the entire region — not just to get people where they need to go, but to create jobs through all the infrastructure they have to maintain and repair and build.” A thing we are often too dimwitted to grasp in this country.

Canceling Congestion Pricing Could Kill 100,000 New York Jobswww.nytimes.com Thousands of high-paying jobs in the state could be at risk if the funding that had been expected from congestion pricing is not restored, a new report says.

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Great job, everyone. www.nytimes.com/2024/06/26/n...

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Super, es gibt ein Passivhaus-Schwimmbad. In Bamberg. Dieses kann immense Energieeinsparungen vorweisen, u.a. 56% an Wärme. Gefunden in der kostenlosen Broschüre "Passivhausstandard in Kommunen" www.propassivhaus.de/images/downl... online-Text zum Schwimmbad: www.propassivhaus.de/passivhaus/p...

In our Ditmas Park, Brooklyn Passive House retrofit, we’re saving 700 W cooling by using a ventilation system that has heat recovery: Zehnder Q600 ERV. Continuous filtered fresh air without losing all the A/C! This helps make the house comfortable, healthy, and energy efficient.

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ICYMI: Canceling congestion pricing threatens critical upgrades to the subway. We need to let people know who’s to blame. Plus, a new sign for the Q after the MTA stopped work on the 2nd Ave subway now that funding is at risk. Download + print: drive.google.com/drive/folder...

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Governor Hochul’s decision threatens critical upgrades to the subway system — and we need to let people know who’s to blame. Download posters to print and hang in your station. There’s one for every single line with upgrades on the chopping block. drive.google.com/drive/folder...

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This evening’s protest by the governor’s office in support of congestion pricing. Almost as many people at the back of the march too. Photo via Open NY.

NY State Homes and Community Renewal: new buildings must be all electric and achieve third-party certification stretch goal includes Passive House certification

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"Excess traffic congestion costs the city over $20 billion a year. And that's a combination of lost productivity, increased fuel costs, and impacts on the environment and health," Wylde said. Congestion "in general has been very expensive, far more expensive than the congestion pricing tool."

New York's governor ordered the MTA to kill congestion pricing. What now?www.bondbuyer.com Her abrupt suspension of the tolling plan for Lower Manhattan leaves a $15 billion hole in the Metropolitan Transportation Authority's capital budget.

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A record-setting 11.8 gigawatts (GW) of new solar panel manufacturing capacity came online in the U.S. during Q1 2024, making up 75% of all new electricity-generating capacity added to the U.S. grid in that period. electrek.co/2024/06/...

The US installed more solar in Q1 2024 than it did in all of 2018electrek.co In Q1 2024, the US saw the largest quarter of solar manufacturing growth in its history, bringing its total installed capacity to 200 GW.

Annual PV additions: historic data vs IEA predictions. Imagine going back in time and showing them this graph

Ach ist bei der IEA auch mal der Groschen gefallen? Unvergessen, wie die IEA über Jahre wiederholt den Zubau an Erneuerbaren grandios unterschätzte.

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Here's what NYC is losing because Hochul killed congestion pricing. Look at all those ADA accessibility upgrades!

There’s a good lesson to learn here about also calling your reps for the programs you like instead of just the ones you don’t like, but now’s not the time for that. Hochul’s phone lines opened five minutes ago and it’s time to call again. (518) 474-8390 is the number to let her know this sucks.