If some group gave out awards for the least energy-efficient structures-the way those LEED (Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design) designations for state-of-the-art 'green' buildings are handed around-our home upstate would likely make it into at least the semifinals.

假如某个机构要颁发最不节能建筑奖――正如那些能源与环境设计认证(Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design)称号被授予最先进的“绿色”建筑一样――我们家在州北部的住宅可能至少能闯入半决赛。

The furnace dates from the '60s and burns lots of oil. We have three large hot water heaters. Why three? Don't ask me. The insulation¹, to the extent there is insulation, includes horsehair from the 19th century-we believe the place was built around 1850, if not earlier-and some sort of foam² my grandparents, who bought the place in the 1940s, had injected into the walls in the '70s.

我们家的炉子还是上世纪60年代的，非常耗油。我们还有三台大热水器。为什么有三台？这个问题别问我。房子的隔热材料（如果说还有隔热材料的话）夹杂着19世纪的马毛――我们认为房子建于1850年左右或更早的时候。另外，它们还含有我的祖父母（他们在40年代买下这所房子）在70年代注入 内的某种泡沫材料。

There's also central air conditioning that my mother added as an afterthought when she renovated³ and enlarged the place in the early '80s. And a sunroom with lots of glass.

在80年代初，母亲在翻修和扩建房子时又新添加了中央空调系统，并且建了一个安有大量玻璃的阳光房。

In short, the place is probably an energy sieve⁴, and one I'd like to stanch⁵ as quickly as possible. I have no illusion that it can be turned into one of those net-zero structures that actually contributes more energy to the grid⁶ than it takes, but it would just be nice if it didn't bankrupt me.

简言之，这所房子称得上是一个“能源漏筛”，一个我想尽快把它堵上的漏筛。我不幻想它能变身为一座零能耗建筑，实际产生的能量比它耗费的还要多，只要它没让我破产就不错了。

In the hope of cleaning up the house's act, I paid a visit last week to a solar house conveniently situated⁷ in Hoboken that students and professors from Stevens Institute of Technology have just completed. Hoboken isn't its final destination. 'Ecohabit,' as it's called, will be disassembled and trucked to Irvine, Calif., where it will be reassembled for October's 'Solar Decathlon.' That's a biannual⁸ competition hosted by the U.S. Department of Energy where 20 energy-conscious schools, such as Stanford, the California Institute of Technology, Middlebury College and the University of Texas, compete in categories such as architecture, engineering, appliances, hot water efficiency, home entertainment and communications to create the most energy-efficient solar homes.

怀着改变房子耗能现状的希望，前不久我去附近的霍博肯(Hoboken)参观了一所太阳能房。它名为“Ecohabit”，刚刚由斯蒂文斯理工学院(Stevens Institute of Technology)的学生与教授们组建完成。霍博肯并非它的最后一站。接下来它将被拆装运至加州尔湾市(Irvine)，然后在那儿重新搭建以参加10月份的国际太阳能十项全能竞赛(Solar Decathlon)。这项一年两度的竞赛由美国能源部(U.S. Department of Energy)主办，包括斯坦福(Stanford)、加州理工(California Institute of Technology)、米德尔伯里学院(Middlebury College)和得克萨斯大学(University of Texas)在内的20所具有节能意识的高校将参赛，角逐建筑设计、工程技术、家用电器、热水供应能效、家庭娱乐以及通信等类别的奖项，以打造出最节能的太阳能房。

'Two years ago, we won affordability,' explained Michael Bruno, the dean of Stevens's Schaefer School of Engineering and Science. 'This year, we want to win the whole thing.'

斯蒂文斯理工学院谢弗工程与科学学院(Schaefer School of Engineering and Science)的院长迈克尔・布鲁诺(Michael Bruno)说：“我们在两年前赢得了可负担性方面的奖项，今年我们想赢取总冠军。”

Let me state from the outset that I know nothing about electricity (solar or otherwise), plumbing⁹, air conditioning, heating, construction, condensation¹⁰, etc. I grew up in an apartment. Besides which, I'm mentally, physically¹¹ and emotionally impaired¹² when it comes to doing anything with my hands more advanced than replacing a light bulb.

首先，我要声明一下，我对电能（太阳能或其他能源）、管道、空调系统、供暖、建筑以及冷凝技术等等都一无所知。我是在公寓房中长大的。除此之外，每每涉及到要我动手做任何一件难度高于换灯泡的事情时，我在精神上、身体上以及情绪上都会受到摧残。

My consciousness of such things is pretty much limited to having an intuitive sense of whether something is cool. So let's examine the house from that point of view. From a distance, situated in a parking lot overlooking the Hudson River, the $300,000, 980-square-foot home is way cool, and not just because the New York City skyline served as its backdrop.

我对此类事物的认识基本上只限于凭直觉判断某个地方是否凉爽，因此就让我们从这个角度考察这所房子吧。它位于一个俯瞰哈德逊河的停车场上，远远望去，这所耗资300,000美元、面积为980平方英尺（约合90平米）的房子相当地酷，而这不仅是因为它有纽约的天际线作为它的背景。

The architecture reminded me of one of Frank Lloyd Wright's prairie houses, an exercise in elegant simplicity¹³.

这座建筑让我想起了弗兰克・劳埃德・赖特(Frank Lloyd Wright)设计的牧场风格住宅，一座简约又不失雅致的房子。

The front of the house is covered in attractive red cedar¹⁴. Other parts of the structure are clad in a paneling that I'm sure has some sort of futuristic purpose but that resembled sheetrock before it's painted, or wallpapered, and whose appearance I wasn't wild about.

房子的正面铺着引人注目的红杉木，其他区域则铺着镶板，我相信它肯定有某种未来主义的用途，但它在未刷漆或贴上壁纸之前看上去像石膏板，外观不是让我非常喜欢。

However, my interest was genuinely piqued¹⁵ when I was shown one of the solar shingles¹⁶-not panels, shingles-of which the roof was constructed. 'This is one of the most innovative¹⁷ things and one of the easiest things somebody who already owns a house can do to make it more energy efficient,' explained Claire Griffin, a Stevens sophomore¹⁸ studying mechanical engineering.

然而，当我看到一块用于铺设屋顶的太阳能瓦片――不是面板，是瓦片――时，我的兴趣真正被勾了起来。斯蒂文斯理工学院机械工程学系的大二学生克莱尔・格里芬(Claire Griffin)解释道：“对于已经有房子的人来说，这是能用来提高房子节能效率的最有创新性、最简便的东西之一。”

'They work like normal shingles but generate energy at the same time,' added Liem Nguyen, a senior who is another member of the Ecohabit team.

Ecohabit团队的成员之一、大四学生连源(Liem Nguyen，音)称：“它们的功能与普通瓦片一样，但它们同时还能产生能量。”

These devices, donated by their manufacturer Dow Chemical, which include a fully integrated photovoltaic system to power the house, would certainly fall into the cool (bordering on awesome) category.

这些材料设备由它们的生产商陶氏化学(Dow Chemical)捐赠，它还包括一个给房子供电的全集成光电系统，房子的温度显然是属于比较凉爽的（接近于令人赞叹的程度。）

I mean, I assumed that if I wanted to solar-retrofit my house, I'd have to find a field somewhere or cut down a grove¹⁹ of trees to provide space for the array of solar panels required to power my dishwasher or dryer²⁰. It would obviously be a lot easier if I could simply slap a bunch of shingles on the house. The existing ones on the garage are starting to look pretty cruddy, as it is.

我想说的是，我曾经想当然地以为，如果要将我的房子改造成太阳能的，我得在其他地方找到一块地或是砍掉一片树林，以此为给我的洗碗机或烘干机供电的一排太阳能面板提供空间。如果仅仅换掉屋顶上的一批瓦片就可以，事情显然就要简单得多了。车库上现有的那堆瓦片已经开始看起来让人讨厌了，它们确实也让人讨厌。

There's also a green wall. It wasn't green yet, but will eventually be hydrated by a rainwater-capture system and covered in plants and flowers native to Southern California. Once the Solar Decathlon is over, the house will be donated and turned into a veteran's center on the campus of California State University San Marcos.

Ecohabit还有一面绿色的 。现在它还没有变绿，不过它最终将由雨水收集系统供水，长满南加州土生土长的植物和花卉。待此次比赛结束，这栋房子将被捐出去，成为加州州立大学 马科斯分校(California State University San Marcos)的老兵活动中心。

I neglected to ask whether such a system of plants could survive a Northeast winter, since there's probably nothing quite as dour²¹ as dead plants decorating the outside of your home. On the other hand, it would be pretty cool to have your garden growing up the wall of your house. It would also serve as a thumb in the eye of destructive woodchucks and rascally²² chipmunks²³.

我忘了问这样一面绿色植物 是否能熬得过东北部的冬季，因为大概再没什么会像自家的外 满是凋谢的植物那般死气沉沉了。不过，把花园搬到房子的 上也会是一件非常酷的事情，而且它还可让搞破坏的土拨鼠和无赖的金花鼠无处藏身。

In any case, I doubt the concept will be integrated into our house, which seems to invite leaks. Our goal is generally to direct water away from the house rather than toward it.

不管怎样，我还是怀疑这一理念是否能融入到我们的房子中，它似乎会引起房子漏水。我们一般都是想要把水从房中引出去，而不是把它引向房子。

The inside of Ecohabit seemed as cheerful and airy as the outside, though I was informed that its most novel elements are invisible. The walls include phase-changing materials, or PCMs, that store heat during the day and release it at night.

Ecohabit的内部看上去与外部一样招人喜欢，而且也宽敞，但是我被告知它最新奇的元素是看不到的。它的 体含有相变材料，该种材料可在日间储存热量，然后在晚间把它释放出来。

A recirculating heat pump keeps the water warm in the kitchen and bathroom, so you don't have to run it and waste water. And there are sensors²⁴ in each room that monitor and send data about everything from temperature, weather patterns, power usage, lighting-even the number of occupants in the room-to a central control system.

循环式热泵一直保持着厨房与卫生间的水温，所以你不必先把冷水放掉而浪费了水资源。每个房间还配有传感器，它可监控并向一个中央监控系统发送有关温度、天气、电力用量、照明乃至房中人数的各类事项的数据。

'We hope to get to the point where [the system] can make suggestions,' explained Mark Pollock, the project's manager and an industry assistant professor at Stevens. ''You've done three loads of laundry and it's kind of cloudy. You should wait until tomorrow,' when it's forecast to be sunny, ''and you won't have to pull as much energy from the grid.''

Ecohabit项目的指导人、斯蒂文斯理工学院工科助理教授马克・波洛克(Mark Pollock)说：“我们希望（该系统）可以达到能够提供建议的智能程度。比如说‘你已经洗了三堆衣服，天气有些阴。你应该等到明天天气预报播报天晴的时候再洗’，这样一来你就不必耗费那么多的电量。”

More than 60 Stevens faculty²⁵ members and students contributed to Ecohabit. 'Doing this project is part of their curriculum,' Dr. Bruno explained. 'It draws from every discipline you can imagine and some you couldn't imagine: energy, management, computer science and the College of Arts and Letters.'

斯蒂文斯理工学院有60多名教职员及学生对Ecohabit项目做出了贡献。布鲁诺博士说：“做这个项目是他们课程的一部分，它要利用到你所能想象到的每一门学科，甚至还有一些你想象不到的学科，比如能源、管理、计算机科学以及人文艺术等。”

Jesse House, a music and technology major and a philosophy minor²⁶, was fine-tuning a computer program that controls the house's sound system. It seemed to be playing some sort of series of tones. 'The music program takes all the data the house is collecting and turns it into soothing²⁷ background music,' Mr. House explained, adding something about brainwaves and the theta state of consciousness.

杰西・豪斯(Jesse House)是一名主修音乐科技、辅修哲学的学生。在我参观房子时，他正在调试一个控制房子音响系统的电脑程序，它似乎正在播放一连串的某种音调。豪斯说：“这个音乐程序会接收房子收集到的所有数据，然后把它转变为舒缓的背景音乐。”他另外又谈了一些有关脑电波和潜意识状态的内容。

I want to live in a smart house, but I'm not sure one whose music apprehends²⁸ and reflects my mood. What if I'm depressed²⁹?

我想住在智能住宅中，不过我不确定我是否想住在一所它的音乐能理解并反映我的情绪的房子中。万一我觉得沮丧呢？

'You can put the Rolling Stones on, too,' Dr. Bruno assured me.

“你还可以添加滚石(Rolling Stones)的音乐。”布鲁诺博士向我保证道。