Registration is now open for the Mid-Atlantic Sustainability Conference. A special offer to the first 30 people to register will get a free copy of the National Green Building Standard ICC 700-2012. This conference features industry experts in the subjects of sustainable sites, alternative energy, legal green, building science, energy code, design solutions, energy modeling, HVAC design, indoor air quality, and zero energy homes. Speakers include Allison Bailes, Sam Rashkin, Ross Spiegel, and Peter Yost just to name a few.
This is the event of the year for building science issues in the mixed humid climate. Hope you will be there.
Talking to a friend this weekend, she has had animals getting into her crawl space. To fix this you have to first get the animals out. Then to keep them out, you should encapsulate the crawl space closing off all the vents, holes, gaps, and cracks. This will keep it critter free, improve indoor air-quality and comfort, and reduce energy usage. An encapsulated crawl space is a sealed and conditioned space like the rest of your home. This approach lines the floor and walls with a sealed 12 mil poly and air tight insulation along the top of the foundation wall to the underside of the floor sheathing above. The walls should have a rigid foam material behind the poly to keep a constant temperature. You could also foam the floor or pour a “mud” slab in the crawl space, but this is often considered a luxury step. The final piece of the puzzle is to take the space to positive pressure to further push the gas and moisture out of the space.
I was visiting a charming little farmer’s market in Durham this weekend and stumbled on a green product called the ELF. This bicycle is an excellent example of innovation, green design, and style. This battery assisted, solar charged bike will go 1.5 hours on a charge depending on total weight on a charge and allows you to apply pedal power to extend your ride. It has a shell to protect you in weather, small storage area, and will go 30 mph while pedaling. It takes approximately 2.5 hours to recharge the battery via outlet and 7 hours via sunlight.
I hear all the time that green costs more. However, with good design, these homes being built-in Lexington will show that green design can be done for any budget. A high-performance home is achieved through an understanding of building systems/building science not increased budgets. Using innovative products available in the market today, allows you to reduce monthly energy bills generated from heating and cooling your home. This is the added value of design.
R-Value is a measure of the reduction of heat transfer across a defined path. An R-Value of a product will provide you with information about the thermal performance of that specific product. It does not tell you the R-Value of the system (fiberglass, wood studs, sheathing, siding making up a wall assembly).
There is a test to determine R-Value where a sample of material is placed inside a testing chamber. This chamber has a hot plate and cold plate. The test determines how much heat goes through the material. This test does not factor into it, wind, humidity, human error, or temperature outside. These factors will greatly influence performance of the product being used with a given R-Value as well as the overall assembly of parts. Before you settle on a particular product with an R-Value you find acceptable – think through the entire assembly and climate you are placing the product.
Life Cycle Analysis is a system of reviewing the entire history of a product to account for the total impact on the environment. Also known as cradle-to-grave analysis, the process includes analysis of processing of raw materials, manufacturing process, and distribution process to bring a product to market. I also should include an account of the disposal of the product.
This analysis is especially important when selecting building materials for a sustainable structure. The embedded energy it takes to build a new building is incredibly high. A true green building design will look at ways to create a structure that will last 100+ years to offset the embedded energy it takes to create the structure. For instance, using a window that is made locally and is highly durable is much better for the environment than a window that is less money up front, but will begin to fail after only a few years and need to be replaced within 15.
This event has been postponed.
