Study finds that the average family use only 40% of their home's floorpan regularly.

This floor plan hasn't been afflicted with red chickenpox – it's part of a fascinating study into how the modern family uses their home, and it’s contributing to a new field called “Residential Behavioral Architecture.”

What you’re seeing is a “heat map” of foot traffic in one of the subject’s homes in Los Angeles, with each red dot showing a person standing or walking when they took a survey photo every 10 minutes.

The study originated when a UCLA research group used advanced sensors and cameras to follow 32 middle-class families around the first floor of their home over two weekday afternoons and evenings – prime time hours. The UCLA team was trying to track the patterns and use of residential space for today's family and this heat map of the subject group "Family 11," a typical family living in an approximately 1,300 square foot single family home in the Los Angeles suburbs, tell us a lot. 

Even a cursory glance reveals something important about the location of each parent and child on the first floor of Family 11’s home: they don’t use a whole lot of it.

In fact, the study found that the family’s movements were concentrated mostly in three rooms: the dining room, family room, and kitchen. In the case of Family 11, the dining room, kitchen and family room comprised almost half of the total square footage on the first floor, yet the other rooms remained virtually untouched even during prime traffic hours.

While the “hottest” imprint occurred around the kitchen cooking space, kitchen table, and between the computer and TV area in the family room, the living room was untouched except for a piano lesson, the dining room only had one person walk in, and same goes for the pantry/laundry room.

Jeanne Arnold, who ran the UCLA study, said, "The propensity for the family to aggregate near the kitchen with table space is almost universal" among all of the subject families and homes they monitored.

Even the outdoor front porch went completely unused even tough the weather was perfect in temperate LA at the time they family was observed. It’s estimated that Americans use their outdoor living spaces only 10% of the year, even when the weather conditions are welcoming.

In all, it’s estimated that of the 1,344 square feet on Family 11’s first floor, only 528 square feet was used regularly – or just shy of 40%.

This ensuing heat map was featured in a Wall Street Journal article about the book "Life at Home in the 21st Century," which documents the findings of the UCLA researchers.

The map doesn't just document our typical daily lives in a unique aesthetic but speaks to the patterns of how we're living in the 21st century.

For instance, the average home size was about 2,662 square feet as of 2013, but the average home was only 938 square feet in the 1950s. We also had more people per household in 1950, with 3.37 people/house then compared to only 2.54 now.

Even in the 1970s, we had larger family sizes and more people in each home, with 40% of the US population comprised of married couples with kids in that decade. These days, that number has dropped in half to only 20% of our population that’s made up of married couples with children.

But our homes are still big and bigger – even though we aren’t using even half of them regularly according to this study. In fact, 20% of American houses have four or more bedrooms, 41% have three bedrooms, and 26% have two bedrooms, and only 12% are either one-bedroom homes or studios.

With expansively larger homes comes larger lots and. As residential behavioral architects point out, longer commute times, a bigger carbon footprint and environmental impact, and a propensity to purchase things that we really don't need or use. That overabundance includes a whole lot of unneeded square footage that we're not even using, according to this UCLA heat map study of Family 11.

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How much of your floor plan do you and your family actually use? Conduct your own study by putting a notepad in each room on the first floor. Every time someone goes into that room, they are to mark a check on the pad. At the end of the allotted period (one afternoon/evening or one weekend day when everyone is home) add up the check marks, put a red dot on your floorplan graph for each one, and you'll be able to see how much of your space is being used.

Should you go tankless? A fact sheet on tankless water heaters for your home.

Have you ever looked at the water heater in your garage with its perpetual-burning heat source, rusty, battleship-like drum, and think that there must be a better way to get hot water? If not, then you’ve certainly given it some thought when you open your bills and start writing checks.

In fact, there is a better way to supply hot water to your home, saving significant money and energy. Today, we’ll cover everything you need to know about tankless water heaters, also called instantaneous water heating systems. They’re most prevalent in new homes and high-end homes these days, but with 27 million households in the U.S. using a water heater that’s at least 10 years old, tankless systems are expected to soon become the new norm.

The average household used about 64 gallons of water each day, adding up to a $400-$600 annual expense for hot water alone. In fact, heating water usually represents the second-highest utility expense in the home, accounting for 14-18% of all utility bills!

Tankless water heaters are powered by either an electric, gas, or propane heating device inside the unit. Electric heaters using 110 or 220 Volts are most common for single-unit tankless heaters that supply hot water to only one bathroom or kitchen, while larger whole-house tankless systems are usually fueled by gas or propane because they heat the water more quickly.

While that those may be the same fuel sources for heating water in conventional water heaters, tankless water heaters operate not by storing large quantities of water in a tank but heating the water as it's needed, in only the quantity that’s needed.

The standard size for conventional water heaters is typically 40 gallons, but they do range up to 120 gallons. Conventional water heaters work by channeling some of the cold water from your water source into the tank, where it continuously heats it. If the water temperature falls below a certain set temp, the burner kicks in and the entire volume of water is heated up again.

In tankless systems, however, water is heated up quickly via an exchanger, which turns on anytime you tune on your hot water faucet, so water is only heated when there’s a demand, saving a whole lot of energy (and cost.)

In fact, the Department of Energy estimates that tankless systems reduce home energy costs by about 34% annually!

The most energy efficient tankless water heaters are single-point application heaters, which means they are present in each room where hot water is necessary (kitchen, bathrooms, and laundry room.) These single-point application heaters run between 2 to 5 gallons per minute.

While a standard water heater costs about $400 at your home supply store, tankless units do cost more – typically $700 to $1,500 each. But  homeowners can recoup that cost within a few years with the energy savings from going tankless.

Even better, tankless systems last longer, with an average life expectancy of 20 years, compared to 11-15 years life span for conventional tank water heaters.

Tankless water heaters are only about the size of a suitcase, taking up far less space than their round-drum counterparts (saving you garage space!) and are safer. You’d be surprised how often water heaters malfunction and explode, hence the need for a pressure release valve and drain. Likewise, when conventional tank water heaters do finally fail and die, it could potentially cause some serious water damage in the home.

Tankless systems can be difficult to costly to retrofit into your home, however, so they’re usually best installed with new construction or when your home is being renovated.

The hot water also may take a little longer to reach your faucet when it comes from a tankless system and is heated on-demand, although homeowners quickly become accustomed to this.

But while conventional heaters can run out of water when someone takes a long, hot shower (leaving the next person with a cold shower), tankless systems never run out of hot water since they heat on demand.

Water tanks can also corrode inside over time, compromising the cleanliness and even the safety of the water being supplied to your home.

Other options for hot water at home include hybrid electric systems, solar water heaters, and heat pump systems.

When shopping for a tankless water heater, check the unit’s flow rate, which is measured in gallons per minute. The higher the BTU rating (British Thermal Units), the higher the unit’s flow rate. It usually takes about 31,000 BTU to heat 4 Gallons Per Minute (GPM) of hot water. For reference, 4 GPM is about enough to supply hot water to one sink and one shower simultaneously, while a 6 GPM system can deliver enough hot water for two showers at the same time.

Dishwashers and washing machines can take a lot of hot water, but newer models also self-heat their own water, reducing the demand on your tankless system.

Look for a tankless water heater with a good efficiency rating, which usually takes between 78% and 87%, as well as the ENEGRYSTAR designation.

The elegant natural beauty of trees built into living spaces.

“Trees are the earth’s endless effort to speak to the listening heaven.” 

-Rabindranath Tagore

Almost every home contains a few houseplants and probably some fine landscaping outdoors, but now, architects and homeowners are taking the green living movement to a new level by incorporating live trees into their homes. And unlike a typical potted plant or tree, these residential real estate floor plans actually include trees rooted in the earth, creating stunning indoor nature-scapes that are redefining the separation of man, home, and environment.

Building around venerable and grand trees instead of cutting them down is nothing new of course, but now, luxury architects and some of the world’s most exclusive designers are refocusing on the symbiosis with nature that results in these unique eco-loving visions.

Logistically, it’s quite easy to do. When a tree is identified as sitting smack dab somewhere in the center of the future floor plan, the only options are to cut it down or keep it. From there, homeowners have myriad ways to exercise their creativity in keeping the prized arbor; building around it, letting it rise right through from floor to sky, encasing it in glass, building the house’s foundation on its roots, or allowing the tree to blossom and spread right inside the structure. A good number of tree species grow well in partial light and can endure a variety of temperatures, climates, and moisture levels. 

But whether a tropical tree house or ultra modern estate, from Argentina to Auckland, Mexico City to Manhattan, the Hollywood Hills to the jungles of Honduras, chestnut, fig, sycamore, ash, and even redwood trees are being used as a centerpiece of construction.

So just like enjoying a silent stroll through a tranquil forest, we’ll cease the chatter and let you enjoy the emerald beauty of the world’s nicest houses with trees built into them.