TechPulse 360

Almost two decades ago, Marc Porat captured the imagination of Silicon Valley with a radical idea and a hot new start-up, General Magic.

Spray foan insulates an attic space at March Porat's California home

The radical idea was to develop software agents – or virtual genies – able to carry out the wishes of computer owners, such as booking a flight to Phoenix.

General Magic’s dream never came to be. Now Porat has turned his interests to green tech, launching several start-ups and serving on the board member of green building materials maker Serious Materials.

He also turned his Palo Alto home into a showcase for environment conservation – a so-called zero energy home. Only a few homes in the country can truly claim that distinction.

“I wanted to go all the way to the edge,” he said during a Thursday evening tour of the home. “In the future, this will be the new normal.”

Porat acknowledges that his $100,000 home redesign is out of the reach of middle class homeowners eager to conserve energy. But prices are expected to fall by as much as 50 percent in the next year, and many projects don’t need to go to the same extremes to achieve significant energy reductions.

Magnetic storm windows add a second layer of glass to Tudor style windows

Still, if mastering home energy use is your goal, here is a list of the innovations Porat brought to his 1936 two-story all-electric English Tudor. They work was carried out by Sustainable Spaces, a retrofit firm planning to change its name to Recurve:

*The installation of an air-to-water heat pump in place of a furnace to transfer the heat in outdoor air to water for interior heating and hot water. The pump also produces cold water for air conditioning;

*The installation of magnetic interior storm windows to add a second pane of glass to the home’s original leaded panes;

*Spray foam attic insulation applied to the inside of the roof for an airtight seal;

The basement becomes an environmental labyrinth of systems designed to conserve energy and resources.

*Cellulose wall insulation made from recycled newspapers and thoroughly insulate walls;

*Force air heating to manage air circulation. The air changes within the home every three hours;

*Radiant floor heating in the foyer and sunroom. Heat is provided by hot water produced by the air-to-water heat pump. The remainder of the home uses forced air heating;

*Compact fluorescent bulbs in lighting fixtures;

*Induction range in kitchen provides 30 percent greater efficiency than an electric stove;

*Energy star appliances, including refrigerator;

*Bathroom pumps to bring hot water to showers and facets more rapidly.

The result is a 62 percent reduction in energy use. With 8 kilowatts of solar on the rooftop, the home becomes a net zero energy user, generating more juice than it needs in the summer and consuming energy from the grid in the winter when the sun’s rays are less intense.

With new technologies, materials and know-how coming to the buildings industry, the U.S. should be able to cut building and infrastructure energy use by 50 percent, says a determined Porat.