Systems thinking understands that spending more on one system can mean spending less on another.
Why it matters: Focusing on individual line items in a budget can cause us to miss these opportunities.
📖 Story time with Steve: Steve Baczek is an architect and one of the great voices in building science.
- Steve says we should look at the building envelope, the windows and the HVAC as one budget.
- Click here to hear his explanation of this.
Steve’s client had two options for his window package.
- $50,000 for furniture crafted triple glazed windows.
- $35,000 for standard double glazed windows.
But the better windows allowed them to cut the HVAC budget from $35K to $6,500!
🥊 The bottom line: Spending $15K more on windows created a savings of $28.5K on HVAC.
- And that’s only accounting for the first cost — it costs significantly less to run the smaller AC.
✅ For your Smart Homeowner list
- Today’s example is specifically about new construction, but we can and should apply systems thinking whenever spending money on our homes.
- That’s why I have been reimagining my approach to helping people interested in solar.
- Let me know if you want help looking at your house as a system and developing a smart plan.
Best,
Travis