There's a lot of low-carbon climate control solutions ranging from relatively cheap and simple (though some require design from the get-go), to elaborate, but still easy compared to the overall task of home construction, that we just...don't use regularly and it baffles me.
I just stayed at a beach house in Florida for a bit and the walls are single-layer with zero insulation anywhere. The a/c runs basically 24/7. And this is apparently really common in the south. Like, do people think "insulation = makes inside warm" and not make the connection that it keeps warm out in the same way? It's a 1000sqft duplex bungalo that sold for like $800k at the trough of the housing bubble pop so like, materials/construction cost is a fraction of the value. Just like short-sighted decisions like this, everywhere.
Overall, the best solution is to design buildings in ways that facilitate passive temperature regulation, such as eaves over sun-facing windows that block high-angle direct sun, orienting and windowing the building so it's easy to get a cross-breeze in the prevailing wind (around here they love to put windows on the front/back and nothing on the sides, ugh) and locating such that deciduous trees are on the south side to block sun in summer but allow it in winter.
One of the easiest "retrofits" simply requires a programmable thermostat, even a manual one. Simply cool the building more overnight to build up a "store of cold".
I just stayed at a beach house in Florida for a bit and the walls are single-layer with zero insulation anywhere. The a/c runs basically 24/7. And this is apparently really common in the south. Like, do people think "insulation = makes inside warm" and not make the connection that it keeps warm out in the same way? It's a 1000sqft duplex bungalo that sold for like $800k at the trough of the housing bubble pop so like, materials/construction cost is a fraction of the value. Just like short-sighted decisions like this, everywhere.
Overall, the best solution is to design buildings in ways that facilitate passive temperature regulation, such as eaves over sun-facing windows that block high-angle direct sun, orienting and windowing the building so it's easy to get a cross-breeze in the prevailing wind (around here they love to put windows on the front/back and nothing on the sides, ugh) and locating such that deciduous trees are on the south side to block sun in summer but allow it in winter.
One of the easiest "retrofits" simply requires a programmable thermostat, even a manual one. Simply cool the building more overnight to build up a "store of cold".