by Charles Hendricks | Dec 15, 2014 | Building Science, Green Building, green term defined, Indoor Air Quality
The 4 C’s: You have to be able to effectively convey the information from design to construction in a Clear, Concise, Correct, and Complete method.
Air Infiltration: The uncontrolled inward air leakage through cracks and holes in the building envelope and around windows and doors of a building caused by the pressure effects of wind and/or the effect of differences in the indoor and outdoor air density.
Biophilic Design: premise that we can learn from nature to create better buildings and build better buildings by connecting to nature
Blower Door Test: used to determine total air leakage of a home’s thermal envelope.
Building Automation System: technology that can be used to control the heating and cooling systems in a building. It can also be used to control lights on a room by room basis or a fixture by fixture basis. It can also be used to monitor security systems and even entertainment systems.
Cohousing: type of development where residents collaborate together on the design of their own neighborhood
Composting: practice of mixing organic waste that can biodegrade quickly to create a planting medium called compost
Conservation: act of preserving, guarding, or protecting the resources we have available on this planet
Construction Waste: materials at a job site that cannot be easily used on that site
Dark Sky (Light Pollution): excessive, misdirected, or glaring artificial light
Dehumidifier: piece of equipment that reduces the level of humidity in the air
Detached Garage: garage not directly connected to your home
Elf: 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
Embodied Energy: total amount of energy required to produce a product
Encapsulated Crawl Space: sealed space that has a vapor barrier on the walls and floor
Geothermal Heat Pump: heating and cooling system that transfers heat to and from the ground through a loop to condition the air inside of your home or business.
High Efficiency Water Heater: High efficiency water heating can save you a considerable amount of energy each day. There are several systems used to efficiently heat water for usage inside a building. The most common is either an on-demand water heater or a heat pump water heater.
Indoor Environmental Quality: the air that you breathe, the type of light, the sounds, and the comfort you feel.
Infrared (thermographic) camera: allows you to see radiation or temperature differential on a surface making it visible light.
Integrated Design: Integrated design builds a team to walk the project from concept through construction
Life Cycle Analysis: system of reviewing the entire history of a product to account for the total impact on the environment
Off-the-grid: An off-the-grid system operates without reliance on a public utility.
Permeability: measure of the diffusion of water vapor through a material
Rainwater Harvesting: collection of water for reuse before it reaches the aquifer
Renewable Energy Certificates (RECs): environmental attributes of your green power that are sold separately from the electrons that makes up the electricity.
Recycled Content: process that takes a waste material and converts it to a new product, thus reducing the consumption of raw materials, potentially reducing energy usage, and diverts materials from a landfill
R-Value: measure of the reduction of heat transfer across a defined path
Solar Reflectance Index: measure of the constructed surface’s ability to stay cool in the sun by reflecting solar radiation and emitting thermal radiation
Stack Effect: movement of air into and out of buildings, driven by air pressure, temperature differential, and moisture
Stormwater: water that comes from precipitation (rain, snow, sleet…) and does not soak into the ground
Sustainability: Development that meets the needs of present generations without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.
Vegetated Roof: partially or completely covered roof with vegetation over a waterproof membrane
Water Conservation: takes into account activities to manage fresh water resources, protect the water environment, and to meet current and future demand for fresh water.
Zero Energy Ready Home: This program, once called Challenge Home, focuses on conservation strategies to reduce energy load and prepping the home for solar PV panels.
by Charles Hendricks | Nov 28, 2014 | architecture, Green Building, green term defined, Indoor Air Quality
While some are fighting over a $100 saving on a television, there are better deals to be found on this Friday and really everyday.
Energy Efficient appliances – When replacing appliances look for the energy star logo. Replacing a 1980’s model refrigerator with an energy star labeled appliance can save you $100 a year. Since these appliances can last 15+ years, a total savings of $1,500.
Water Efficient Fixtures – Installing water sense shower heads, efficient faucets, and native landscaping can cut your annual water bills by more than $100 a year. Since these fixtures will last 20+ years, a total savings of $2,000.
Air Sealing – Getting your home air tight not only improves comfort, but also reduces your monthly energy bills. This can result in savings of more than $120 a year. Since a home built for a lifetime can last, well a lifetime, lets say 30 years – this can result in savings of $3,600.
Insulation – You can always add a second blanket to your bed in the cold weather, but what about adding a second blanket to your home. Insulating the attic and crawl space can improve energy efficiency by more than 50%. Based on the average monthly electric bills in our area being $110 per month, this can result in annual savings of $660 or a 30 years savings of $19,800.
Efficient Lighting – The savings for lighting can be substantial depending on the amount you leave the bulbs burning. Selecting LED bulbs can reduce energy used by $50 annually. Since these bulbs will last on average 15+ years, this could result in $750 in savings.
So instead of looking for those minor black Friday savings of a couple of hundred dollars in savings, look at energy-efficiency savings that could result in $25,000+ in savings.
by Charles Hendricks | Nov 14, 2014 | architecture, Building Science, Harrisonburg Architect, Indoor Air Quality
Technology is changing faster than anyone can keep up with these days in the construction industry. Companies are printing houses, growing insulation, and painting on solar panels. So of all these new innovations, are any of them actually on the market, affordable, and able to actually make your life better? Earlier this week I wrote about some cool new products that have come to the residential home market. To check them out go here. Here are some more that I think may be solutions that help.
A web enabled slow cooker would certainly help in my life. I am sometimes entrusted with remembering to turn up / off / or down the slow cooker when I get home from work. There is a 50/50 chance that this action will be remembered before I hear my wife’s car in the driveway. So here is a solution that can solve all of her problems, simply pull out your phone and do it yourself. With a touch of your phone you can adjust cooking time, temperature, and turn this device on or off. It still does not actually put the ingredients into the pot – but I am sure that is also in the works in the future.
Have you ever worried about a water leak in your home destroying your floors, drywall, carpet, wood floors? Well, here is a solution for you. The Wally Home will send you a message if it detects water using existing wiring and wi-fi in your home to help predict the unpredictable. It also will report the humidity and temperature in your home to help protect indoor-air-quality. Unfortunately, it does not stop the leak, only gives you warning that there is a problem, so you still may have to fix some damage around the house.
So simple, why did I not think of that? This humidity control is simple and straight forward – it turns on your ventilation system when humidity gets too high in a space. So no more reminding the kids to turn on the bath fan, this Leviton solution takes care of your problems. Now if only it would remind the kids to wash behind their ears!
Ever forget to charge your phone? What if the counter at your favorite coffee shop could charge your phone? Well, you don’t have to go out to charge your phone anymore, your kitchen counter can now be a phone charger using a DuPont Corian Countertops. There are no cords involved and the counter looks normal – only difference you can have a phone that is all charged up.
by Charles Hendricks | Nov 7, 2014 | architecture, Building Science, Harrisonburg Architect, Indoor Air Quality
As the season turns to colder weather, comfort issues can impact your daily life. A draft coming down an outside wall or around a window is a common issue for homes in our area. There are also areas in the home that you might overlook that impact comfort like attic access, electrical outlets, kitchen cabinets, tubs on outside walls, and basements / crawl spaces.
Sealing up the leaks in your home will increase your comfort all year, but most notably during the colder months. Finding the leaks and stopping them is a relatively easy thing to do in most cases but not all. In existing homes using caulk at key points, weather-stripping around doors, gaskets at electrical outlets, and foam insulation in the attic and basement / crawl space can get the job done. The harder leaks to stop come from missing insulation inside of walls, insulation installed incorrectly inside of walls, leaky HVAC ducts, and leaks behind tubs and kitchen cabinets.
Take these simple steps to reduce your energy bills, increase comfort, and improve indoor air quality.
1. Insulate around wall and ceiling penetrations – recessed lights, electrical outlets, medicine cabinets, and light switches.
2. Plug up the leaks – attic access, doors and windows, crawl space, and basement
3. Foam the gaps – band board is a huge area of leakage
4. Inspect dirty insulation in the attic and make sure there is not an air path coming into your home.
5. Install storm windows
6. Make sure your fireplace flue it closed tightly when not in use.
7. Install seals / sweeps at the base of all exterior doors
8. Get an energy audit to verify you corrected all the issues.
by Charles Hendricks | Sep 22, 2014 | architecture, Building Science, Green Building, green term defined, Harrisonburg Architect, Indoor Air Quality
It all started so innocently, we became a car based society and wanted to protect our investments. So we went from parking our cars in a driveway to parking them in the carriage house at the end of the driveway. Then came the carport – an attached to your home open air structure that protected the car from rain and snow. Then someone, probably an architect, said, lets build walls around this structure and make it part of the house. That is where our troubles started.
Yes, the attached garage is a convenience that most people in our area enjoy on cold and wet days, but there are problems lurking. It is impossible to completely separate them from your living spaces. This leads to indoor-air-quality issues in your home. As wind blows against your garage door, the space become pressurized pushing fumes and chemicals into your house. After all, where do you keep all those pesticides, gas cans, old paints if not in your attached garage?
So what is the solution? A detached garage not directly connected to your home. It can be connected via a covered walkway or screen porch. This detached structure is completely separated from your living space protecting your indoor-air-quality. Interesting that the google web definition is a garage not attached to a home, usually found in older homes. We have found that many of our clients want a healthy home. To create this you have to make the thermal envelope very tight which makes the indoor-air-quality contaminant prevention even more important.
by Charles Hendricks | Sep 8, 2014 | architecture, Building Science, green term defined, Indoor Air Quality
The average American spends a large amount of their time indoors in our current society (according to an EPA survey, 90% of our time is inside). This makes the Indoor Environmental Quality of your built environment critical. This is the air that you breathe, the type of light, the sounds, and the comfort you feel.
Indoor air quality is impacted by carbon monoxide, radon, VOC’s, particulates, mold, bacteria, and smoke. I just had a meeting in my office this week where those visiting came in just as the lawyer upstairs went out with his pipe lit and no respect for others. If your HVAC system is not designed to provide ventilation all the products and their associated chemicals you bring into your space off-gas and have nowhere to go. In turn your lungs become the filter for these chemicals.
The type of lighting you use for a space is critical for your comfort. It does not matter is you use LED or incandescent, using it in the correct way is more important for comfort. Of course, bringing in natural daylight into a space has been shown in many studies to be the best for your health. This may not apply depending on the task you are performing – ever try to see a computer screen that faces a window? Of course you can create appropriate lighting in spaces through design.
In our office it seems that headphones are the way to go, but I remember back when I started we simply played a radio in the background. The level and type of noise in a space can have a huge impact on your environmental quality. Living near a heavily used road, airport, or nightclub impacts how your able to rest and recharge. I know I rarely go to the restaurant across the street from my office because the music is always so loud – yes I realize that this makes me old. You can control the noise in a space through design.
The 4 C’s: You have to be able to effectively convey the information from design to construction in a Clear, Concise, Correct, and Complete method.
Air Infiltration: The uncontrolled inward air leakage through cracks and holes in the building envelope and around windows and doors of a building caused by the pressure effects of wind and/or the effect of differences in the indoor and outdoor air density.
Building Automation System: technology that can be used to control the heating and cooling systems in a building. It can also be used to control lights on a room by room basis or a fixture by fixture basis. It can also be used to monitor security systems and even entertainment systems.
Detached Garage: garage not directly connected to your home
Geothermal Heat Pump: heating and cooling system that transfers heat to and from the ground through a loop to condition the air inside of your home or business.
High Efficiency Water Heater: High efficiency water heating can save you a considerable amount of energy each day. There are several systems used to efficiently heat water for usage inside a building. The most common is either an on-demand water heater or a heat pump water heater.
Infrared (thermographic) camera: allows you to see radiation or temperature differential on a surface making it visible light.
Integrated Design: Integrated design builds a team to walk the project from concept through construction
Renewable Energy Certificates (RECs): environmental attributes of your green power that are sold separately from the electrons that makes up the electricity.
Zero Energy Ready Home: This program, once called Challenge Home, focuses on conservation strategies to reduce energy load and prepping the home for solar PV panels.
