Welcome to the JAHUS blog

I have created this blog to share with you my thoughts and experiences as we try to make an effort to use less energy and hence reduce the emissions of gases that cause global warming.

There are too many people who expect the government to deal with these questions (on our behalf). They seem to think “if my neighbor doesn’t do anything - why should I”. This isn’t only the case for people in the street, but seems to be the case for countries who, in preparations for the UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen in December 2009, fight over the amount of cuts - and who should pay the highest price for saving the planet.

We all know that politicians (at least in a democracy) have a short political life if they try to introduce dramatic changes to peoples everyday life - so rather than try to force people to act, I believe that they should focus on efforts that make it in peoples own interest to do what the politicians want them to (tax relief, cheap loans, etc.)

“I have a dream”: just think what we could achieve if for instance there was an easy way to reduce energy consumption in normal houses by 30-50%. Wouldn’t everybody do it if the cost was zero and the quality of life actually improved?

I was inspired to write this blog when I watched the movie “Julie and Julia” ( www.julieandjulia.com ) - Amy Adams is Julie Powell who decides to make all 524 recipes in 365 days and write about this adventure in a blog. As Julie in this movie, we are quite ordinary people. Rather than cook for a year, we want to turn our house in to a JAHUS (“a yes-house”: in norwegian). We want to properly isolate the house, install a ventilation system and a heatpump and some other recommended tasks that according to specialists will cut 30-50% of our yearly energybill. Initial calculations indicate that this can be done at a cost no higher than what we save on electricity for heating.

The technology is available, but the up-front cost is too high. If it turns out that our JAHUS project is successful, I hope our government (and other governments) will follow the example from France where such projects are financed by the government (10 year interest-free loans up to 30.000 Euros). Make these types of products VAT-free and also add possibilities for income tax deductions like they do in USA - and it will be a “no-brainer” for people to sign up for.

This blog will initially include descriptions of pitfalls and be used to let out some steam when it turns out that implementing the recommended energy saving projects are more difficult than anticipated.

It is said that all countries need to spend 2% of their GDP on these types of projects (reduce energy consumption and increase the production of renewable energy). This translates to 10.000 million USD here in Norway - and I’d hate to see these dollars be spent on projects that do not give the best “bang for the buck” (we don’t have the time…). 40-50% of all electricity spent in Norway is used for heating in building and with a massive adoption rate (many JAHUS projects), savings could get as high as 10TWh per year by 2020. If 1 kwh saved in Norway means 1kwh exported to Europe and hence 1 kwh clean energy (hydroelectric energy from waterfalls) replacing 1kwh coal-fueled energy - there would be one kilo CO2 less in the atmosphere (or 10TWh => 10 million tons of CO2 per year)

You may also find inspiration (like I did) in David MacKays book “Sustainable Energy - without the hot air” (http://www.withouthotair.com/)