by Charles Hendricks | Dec 21, 2015 | Building Science, Green Building, green term defined, Indoor Air Quality
Green Terms Defined Summary 2015
2012 International Energy Conservation Code: Minimum energy code standards adopted by the Commonwealth of Virginia
Air Changes per Hour (ACH): the measure how many times the air within a defined space is replaced.
ASHRAE 90.1: a standard in the US that provides minimum requirements for energy-efficient designs for buildings except for low-rise residential buildings.
Carbon Footprint: a measure of the impact our activities have on the environment in terms of the amount of greenhouse gases we produce.
Carbon Neutral Building: the process of taking into account measuring, reducing, and offsetting carbon energy used by the building.
Cellulose Insulation: a low-thermal-conductivity material use to reduce heat loss and gain from a building.
Ceramic tile: made from clay that has been permanently hardened by heat, often having a decorative glaze.
Commissioning: verification and documentation that a building and the systems used are designed, installed, tested, operated, and maintained to meet the project requirements set by the building owner.
Conduction: the flow of heat through an object by transferring heat from one molecule to another. Think frying pan on a stove or wood stud that touches the inside drywall and the outside wall sheathing.
Convection: refers to the transfer of heat by a moving fluid. Thing warm air rising and cool air sinking in a room. Convection loops circulate near walls. During the heating season, warm air is cooled by exterior walls and falls towards the floor, creating a convection loop. Convective loops can also happen within framing cavities if the insulation doesn’t completely fill the space.
Edible landscaping: the practical integration of food plants within your landscape for the purposes of decorating as well as producing food.
Erosion: the removal of soil and rock by water from one location to another.
ERV or Energy Recovery Ventilator: part of a balanced ventilation system that transfers water vapor and heat from one airstream to another.
Flashing: a strip of impervious material used to stop water from penetrating the junction of a wall or roof with another surface.
Fly Ash: a fine, glass like powder recovered from the coal-burning process for the production of electricity.
Formaldehyde: A gas used widely in production of adhesives, plastics, preservatives, and fabric treatments and commonly emitted by indoor materials that are made with its compounds.
Grasslands Conservation Carbon Offsets: similar to forestry, native grasses and other vegetation provide a natural source of greenhouse gas (GHG) absorption and sequestration.
Historic Building: a structure that has historic, architectural, or cultural significance.
Humidistat: an electronic device that measures the relative humidity in a space.
HVAC: Heating, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning system in your home or business.
Infrared Thermography, thermal imaging, or thermal video: a type of infrared imaging used for determining air leakage in energy audits.
Insulated concrete form (ICF): a wall building system made of reinforced concrete and most commonly rigid thermal insulation.
Insulating Curtains: Thermal curtains have a lining that resists temperature change and are heavy enough to stop air flow.
Interior design: the art or process of designing the interior of a room or building.
Karst Topography: an area of irregular limestone in which erosion has produced fisures, sinkholes, underground streams and caverns.
Lifetime Home: A design approach that encompasses specific design features that ensure that a new house or apartment will meet the current and future needs of most households.
Light Shelf: a horizontal overhanging element located above the eye-level and typically having a highly reflective upper surface.
Linoleum: a resilient flooring product that was developed in the 1800’s. It consists of cork flour, linseed oil, oak dust, and jute.
Natural Ventilation: the process of supplying and removing air by natural means from building spaces by using windows, doors, solar chimneys, and non-powered ventilators.
Net Metering: a method of crediting consumers for the electricity that is generated on their home or business in excess of the total electricity that they have used.
No-Step Entry or zero-step entry: a flush entry from the driveway or garage into your home.
Pervious Concrete: concrete that allows water to move through the material into a storage area under the pavement.
Radiation: flow of heat from a warm source through space in waves of infrared or visible light energy. Think sunlight through a window.
Renovation: the act of repurposing / updating / remodeling of a building.
Resilient Design: the capacity of a design to adapt to changing conditions and to maintain or regain functionality and vitality in the face of stress or disturbance.
Single-stream recycling: a process or system where all paper, plastics, metals, cardboard, glass, and trash goes into the same can and is sorted by the facility into separate commodities.
Solatube: a tubular daylighting system
Specifications: define the requirements regarding materials, products, installation and quality aspects pertaining to the execution of the work and contract.
Thermal Bridge: where heat occurs across more conductive components in an otherwise well-insulated material, resulting in disproportionately significant heat loss.
Tiny House: home designed to be less than 1,000 sf
Vampire Load: the power consumed by electronics and appliances while they are technically switched off or in standby mode.
Vapor Barrier: a barrier that reduces the rate that water vapor can move through a material.
Wastewater: water from bathtubs, shower drains, sinks, washing machines, and dishwashers is considered grey water.
WaterSense: a label program created by the Environmental Protection Agency for consumers to easily identify water efficient products.
Weatherization: the practice of using cost-effective strategies to modify a building to decrease energy usage and increase comfort.
Window: Casement or Double-Hung glass opening in a wall system.
by Charles Hendricks | Dec 14, 2015 | green term defined
A vapor barrier is a barrier that reduces the rate that water vapor can move through a material. There is discussion in the industry if a true vapor barrier is even possible. This has led to the use of the term Vapor Retarder. Vapor retarders limits moisture from passing through a materials and have three classes of permeability. Vapor Retarders per the building code have a permeability of less than 10, less than 1, or less than .1 perm.
There are three categories of vapor retarding materials: Impermeable, Semi-Permeable, and Permeable. Impermeable materials include things such as plastic sheets, vinyl wall coverings, plywood, extruded polystyrene, and oil-based paints. Semi-Permiable materials included expanded polystyrene and latex paints. Most other materials are Permeable including fiberglass insulation, open cell spray foam, drywall, and stucco.
In our mixed-humid climate, we want to avoid using impermeable materials in our wall and roof systems. Allowing walls to dry in both directions is critical to the long-term durability of your structure. To further protect your home, you must have a proper ventilation system that is controlling humidity inside your structure.
Read more from our Green Term Defined series:
Energy audit
Energy Use Intensity (EUI)
by Charles Hendricks | Dec 7, 2015 | green term defined, Indoor Air Quality
Natural Ventilation is the process of supplying and removing air by natural means from building spaces by using windows, doors, solar chimneys, and non-powered ventilators.
solar chimney
Most of us spend about 90% of our time inside of a building. As a result, the indoor air quality is critical to our health, productivity, and comfort. Scientific studies clearly show that buildings with proper fresh air ventilation improves productivity and health for occupants. If designed right, proper natural ventilation can be used to increase comfort and reduce energy bills.
Read more from our Green Term Defined series here:
Green Term Defined: HVAC (Heating, Ventilation, Air Conditioning System)
Green Term Defined: Energy Audit
by Charles Hendricks | Nov 30, 2015 | Commercial Architect, green term defined
ASHRAE 90.1 is a standard in the US that provides minimum requirements for energy-efficient designs for buildings except for low-rise residential buildings. The standard was first created in 1975. It has since been updated on a regular basis in 2004, 2007, 2010, and 2013.
There are two paths for compliance with ASHRAE 90.1, both the prescriptive path and performance path. The prescriptive path requires all building components to meet a minimum set of standards specified in ASHRAE 90.1. The Prescriptive path includes requirements for building envelope, HVAC, domestic hot water, power, lighting, and other equipment. The performance path shows compliance using a building modeling program to illustrate that the design uses less energy than the baseline building built to ASHRAE 90.1’s specifications.
Read more from our Green Term Defined series here:
Green Term Defined: Energy Audit
Green Term Defined: Vapor Barrier
Green Term Defined: Natural Ventilation
