“An autonomous building is a building designed to be operated independently from infrastructural support services such as the electric power grid, gas grid, municipal water systems, sewage treatment systems, storm drains, communication services, and in some cases, public roads.
Advocates of autonomous building describe advantages that include reduced environmental impacts, increased security, and lower costs of ownership. Some cited advantages satisfy tenets of green building, not independence per se (see below). Off-grid buildings often rely very little on civil services and are therefore safer and more comfortable during civil disaster or military attacks. (Off-grid buildings would not lose power or water if public supplies were compromised for some reason.)
Autonomous buildings can increase security and 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. But they may substitute energy production or other techniques to avoid diminishing returns in extreme conservation.”
Source: Wiki
Most definently
Mr. Geiger, I would like you to know, as a 15 year old in High School, you really determine a lot of what i will know and live to accomplish in the future. I have frequented your blog for half of a year now, and you truly inspire me. Just keep doing what your doing. You are the teacher of the generation to come.
Thank you very much. Actually, there are a lot of people doing lots of good things. Mainstream media for the most part doesn’t cover what’s really going on. That’s why the Internet is so important.
Well there you have it, Dr. Geiger. From the mouths of babes… You’re the sculptor of the next generation. Better not screw it up! We’ll be watching you… :)
I’ve just developed a nervous tic now that I know the future of the world is on my shoulders.
What? You must be kidding…
This is the end of civilization as we know it.
We’ll push unemployment to the breaking point! What will all those electrical utility guys do, when they don’t have all day to show up “sometime between 9 and 5 pm” to resolve our power issues?
What will the guys at the water works do when they don’t have all day to tear up the streets and obstruct traffic, (usually at peak traffic times) as they stand by the side of the road propping up all those shovels, drinking cokes and glaring at us?
What will our significant others do now as they have to struggle to discover household tasks to inflict upon us, as they concoct those seemingly endless “Honey Do” lists of things that must be accomplished before we can return to our “rightful places in the bedroom” and get off that lumpy couch that we should have thrown away when were still in college?
I propose that you’re suggesting another form of terrorism yet experienced by the common man.
I mean, the prospect of having a low maintenance home that works with you instead of against you sounds like “sheer terror”…
At the very least, it will change the trek of mankind as we slowly evolve into something that resembles pure energy… or is it a cloud of methane gas? I forget.
I’m turning you in to the Department of Homeland Security.
Clearly, you’re a threat to the nation… ;)
You may be right. This would put all those bankers, lawyers, inspectors, electricians and gov types out of work. It would also cause a huge drop in tax revenue. This could cause world wide economic panic and collapse. And worst of all, people would start experiencing freedom and start thinking and acting independently. Now that’s pure terrorism.