I saw a YouTube video this weekend about how energy inefficient modern homes are, and how old cabins Vikings (and others) built are engineered differently, and why they stayed so much warmer despite constant sub-zero temps outside.
This isn't a subject I know much about, and I don't assume that a random YT video is accurate. But assuming that the contents of the video were correct, the guy made the point about how much less energy we could expend on heat if we still built homes according to the principals he outlined in demonstrating old-world log cabins.
What he never addressed was, yeah, we probably could, but he completely left out the part where we started building homes this way because it made them so much more affordable and mass-produceable, and most people wouldn't be able to build or buy a dwelling built to the specifications he outlines.
So.....yeah. We could do way less in energy consumption. If everybody was wealthy, and we wanted to cut and harvest way more trees than we currently do.
He also claimed the principals he outlined keeps houses cooler in the summer and would need less AC. Even if true, I'm skeptical of that in the south, where the humidity is as much of a problem as the heat. Even if the temps stayed cool enough inside, the humidity around here is miserable if it's in your house like it is outside, which is what happens if you aren't using an AC system to filter moisture out of the air. This I know from experience.
