PROBLEM SPEECH OUTLINE

Name: Josh Wentz

Topic: Green Intelligent Buildings

Title: Creating a more efficient tomorrow, today: A look into the relationship
between the energy crisis, building emissions, and revolutionary
intelligent design

Purpose: To increase the awareness of the energy crisis and its correlation to
building energy consumption and revolutionary intelligent design.

Thesis: The inefficiency of today’s existing buildings paired with consumer

consciousness of the subject is ruining the environment and restricting a
move in political process.

INTRODUCTION:

Attention Getter: Imagine a house that can calculate its own energy cost per square foot to
save you money or even its carbon footprint. Cool for the environment,
boring for most. Let’s take it a step farther. Imagine the convenience of
your computer on various surfaces through your home. Whenever you
wake up your mirror displays your facebook notifications, weather
forecast, and latest news. Imagine walking through your home and having
the music follow room to room – being controlled by nothing more than
your voice.

Audience Relation: We all live in and use buildings everyday of our lives. And as we use
each building there is an expectation for comfort and convenience.

Credibility: I first got interested in this topic of a green intelligent building at the
beginning of this year. Since then I have paired my Architectural
Engineering major with an Information Science & Technology minor and
obtained a research job with an Associate Professor of Architectural
Engineering.

Thesis: The inefficiency of today’s existing buildings paired with consumer

consciousness of the subject is ruining the environment and restricting a
move in political process.

Main Point Preview: By looking at traditional building methods, the current national situation,
and future political plans, we will gather the pieces of the puzzle that have
contributed to this energy crisis.

BODY:

Transition: Let’s first look back in order to look forward.

1. The traditional building methods used through the past century are
contributing to the inefficient nature of existing buildings.
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a. Almost three-quarters of our nation's 81 million buildings were built

before 1979. Buildings tended to be over-designed and over-ventilated,
often with large built-up air handlers and inefficient lights. Heating and
cooling equipment consumes 35% of all building energy use at a cost of
$81 billion. Lighting accounts for about 18% or $44.25 billion of all
electricity consumed in the United States.

b. The systems within existing buildings are very disconnected. Relate

house systems to human systems. Respiratory = HVAC, Skeletal =
Structural, Digestive = Plumbing, Nervous = Electrical. Missing: the
central ability to process information into knowledge so that it can carry
out functions on its own, or in other words, automate tasks.

c. CLINCHER: Without a central control system all of the building systems

are performing detached tasks rather than working together to create a
holistic process.

Transition: Today, however, we see a new public interest on the topic of

sustainability. Suddenly, green is the new black. But when it comes to
actual knowledge, at the very least people know there is a crisis. But
where is it coming from?

2. The bleak outlook on the current national energy needs to be

addressed now more than ever.

a. NOTE: Statistics complements of the Energy Information Administration

(EIA), an agency of the U.S. Department of Energy, was created expressly
to track American energy statistics.

b. U.S. ENERGY PRODUCTION VS. CONSUMPTION: Note the

widening gap (30% of consumption) between rising consumption and
flattening domestic production.

c. U.S. ENERGY CONSUMED BY SECTOR: Studies show that buildings

produce 39% of dangerous greenhouse gas emissions contributing to
climate change.

d. U.S. CO2 EMISSIONS BY SECTOR: Building energy-related CO2

emissions grew 4.4% in 2006-2007, more than any other sector.

e. COMPARING THE U.S. TO OTHER COUNTRIES : On a per-capita

basis, U.S. energy use is double that of some European countries.

f. Whether it is from misinformation of simply a lack of it, only 7% of

American voters identified buildings as the top contributor of greenhouse
gas emissions in a recent poll by the American Institute of Architects
(AIA).

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g. CLINCHER: More education for the public and proper media coverage is
needed to help understand the impact of our everyday actions and uses.

Transition: Where do we go from here?

3. Political policies in place do not provide enough incentive to change

consumer behavior in future.

a. Just three weeks ago today, President Obama and Secretary Chu
announced a $346 million investment from the American Recovery and
Reinvestment Act to expand and accelerate the development, deployment,
and use of energy efficient technologies in all major types of commercial
buildings as well as new and existing homes.

b. Good News: Major changes to energy conservation standards predicted

to save consumers $1 to $4 billion annually from 2012 through 2042

c. CLINCHER: Bad News: These programs will affect short term research
attention but do not educate or provide enough incentive for the public to
participate.

Transition: All of these building related issues must be addressed to move towards a
green and bright tomorrow.

CONCLUSION:

Recap of Main Points: Disconnected building systems, a bleak national energy outlook, and
political policy incentives are restricting revolutionary leaps in building
designs.

Restate Thesis: The energy crisis is real. Awareness of its largest contributor - building
emissions – is crucial to save the environment and move political process.

Closure: If we put the contributing pieces of this crisis puzzle together, these far off
smart home ideas from the beginning will soon become a reality. Creating
an efficient today will lead to an intelligent tomorrow.

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Resources

"EIA - Annual Energy Outlook 2009 - Energy Demand." Energy Information Administration -

EIA - Official Energy Statistics from the U.S. Government. Mar. 2009. 14

July 2009 <http://www.eia.doe.gov/oiaf/aeo/demand.html>.

Gowan, Jack. "Green Intelligent Buildings: What Next? " Engineered Systems

1 May 2009: Sciences Module, ProQuest. Web. 14 Jul. 2009.

Randolph, John, and Gilbert M. Masters. Energy for Sustainability. Washington D.C.: Island P,

2008.

Srebric, Jelena. Design of Low-Energy Cooling Systems by Using Coupled Energy Simulation

and Computational Fluid Dynamics. 2001. 12 July 2009.

Walsh, Michael. "U.S. Energy Consumption - the Big Picture - a knol by Michael Walsh." Knol:
a unit of knowledge. Dec. 2008. 12 July 2009
<http://knol.google.com/k/michael-walsh/us-energy-