Building technologies I’m skeptical about  – high roofs

Most houses are multi-story buildings. There is actually a good reason for this – it’s more energy efficent to have multiple floors as heat rises, and most heat loses are through the roof – the more roof per square foot you have the greater the building’s energy lost even with insulation. The most efficent building actually is square,  with multiple floors built upwards to minimize roof size per square foot.

But multi-story roofs involves ladders and more difficult maintance, even if they do involve less roofing material and losses of heat. Painting on a one story building can be done with little more then a step ladder. Putting solar panels on a high, multi-story roof makes it even more difficult to maintain the roof without professionals and careful use of ladders.

I do find the maintaince aspect of a single story building to be quite attractive, though the downsides of more roofing material and heat lost probably make a two story building make more sense. A small cabin with a bedroom built into lost – maybe 1 1/2 stories with a long-lasting metal roof and ground mounted solar panels might be the best option, even if I’m skeptical about multi-story roofs and having to climb up on the roof with ladders to preform ordinary maintance.