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Historic Structures Deserve VIP Treatment
September 25, 2012
Restoration of historic buildings is tricky business. Among other challenges, preservation concerns severely limit façade alterations.
Restoration often includes deep energy retrofits which generally increase the thermal resistance (R-value) of the envelope. For existing structures adding insulation to the exterior is generally preferred over the interior as adding insulation from the inside will reduce its floor area. But for historic structures this approach is self-defeating.
Vacuum insulation has been used widely in non-building applications like refrigerators, thermos containers, and thermal doors. Its use in building envelope insulation is fairly new and still in R&D. Vacuum Insulated Panels (VIPs) are composed of two stainless steel plates which sandwich a core of vacuum and fumed silica.
VOCs paint an ugly picture
September 11, 2012
Who doesn’t love the smell of fresh paint? But, as so often seems the case, the good things in life are bad for us.
Green buildings transcend their structure and actually produce a positive effect on the health and comfort of their occupants. A key factor which determines this is the type of architectural coatings (paints, sealers etc.) and how many volatile organic compounds (VOCs) they contain. Alas, these toxins are responsible for that wonderful fresh paint aroma.
Convective Heat Loss, a sneaky villian
August 14, 2012
Strategies to increase building energy efficiency typically focus on increased efficiency of the HVAC system and increased thermal resistance of the envelope and fenestration. An oft- overlooked, but vital, path to efficiency is reduction of air-leakage.
Heat transfer in buildings occurs in three forms: conduction, convection and radiation. Of these, conduction and convection transfer most of the heat. Conduction occurs when one body transfers its heat to another with which it is in contact–in this case, the transfer between interior and exterior air. Convection occurs when a heated body physically transports itself to another location. In this case air physically moving through leaks in the wall. Thermal insulation prevents conduction but does little to prevent convective heat losses.
How do you like them Apples?
July 12, 2012
Apple recently announced it will not certify its products with EPEAT. EPEAT is a non-profit organization that certifies “environmentally preferable products”. It is also a program that is backed by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
EPEAT would affect Apple’s sales to some governments and educational institutions which require EPEAT certification as a prerequisite for purchase. But how does this affect Apple? According to the blog Apple and EPEAT: What it means the sale of Apple computers to government and educational institutions is a tiny fraction of Apple’s total sales. The real market lies in the consumer market which demands products like their ultra-thin MacBook Pro. According to a Wall Street Journal blog Apple Removes Green Electronics Certification From Products, this laptop design requires the battery to be glued to the case, making disassembly and recycling difficult. This causes the computer to fall behind EPACTS stringent recycling requirements.
LEED Eats its Young
May 30, 2012
LEED 2012 is just around the corner and, as expected, accessibility will plummet. According to a recent blog LEED 2012: Too much change? , by Allison Beer McKenzie many who were previously committed to LEED have decided to abandon it if the proposed changes are implemented.
What really are the proposed changes? Among the many, here are some I found to be most impractical:
The number of prerequisites will increase from 9 to 15.
SERF ‘s policy is that all of our points are fully fungible. Our applicants select which sections they desire to pursue and which ones make little practical sense to them. Prerequisites also make it practically impossible to perform a compliance evaluation post construction. LEED must now (more than ever) be on the agenda right from the conceptual phase of the project, hence increasing design costs.
Paying (and paying) for the LEED Label
May 8, 2012
As mentioned in past blogs, the burdensome cost of LEED certification–measured in both time and money–lies in consultant fees and documentation. A very reliable study commissioned by the US General Services Administration (GSA) proves the point.
The GSA is an independent federal agency responsible for the construction, operation, and maintenance of federal facilities, including courthouses, office buildings, land ports of entry, and research facilities.
GSA commissioned this report to identify the incremental cost of LEED certification for two buildings: A new mid-rise federal Courthouse and a mid-rise federal office building modernization. The report analyzed both the incremental construction costs as well as soft costs–i.e. LEED-based documentation and consultation fees.
Prescriptive Approach to Energy Efficiency–a Cost Effective Alternative
April 11, 2012
Energy efficiency the most important factor defining a High Performance Building. There are two paths to increase a building’s energy efficiency in relation to a “brown building”. You could use a performance-based approach in which a baseline energy consumption is established and the building is designed to reduce energy consumption below that baseline.
Alternatively, you could use a prescriptive approach to attain compliance under which the building is designed to meet the requirements of an existing prescriptive standard. Typical examples of such standards are ASHRAE 90.1 and the International Energy Conservation Code (IECC).
Practical Environmental Stewardship
March 9, 2012
While rummaging through a pile of green building literature, looking for material to write my first blog around SERF’ s mission of Practical Environmental Stewardship ™, I learned of 330 North Wabash’s recent SERF certification. 330 N. Wabash is the last American design of Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and is one of Chicago’s finest architectural gems. The owner/manager’s commitment to this goal makes this vital structure an exemplary model of SERF’s mission.
The level of intrusive retrofit that can be performed to green a historic and iconic structure is severely limited. Renovation of any nature must be performed without altering any of its historic features. The management could be forgiven if they didn’t attempt a green renovation given the complexity involved, but they did! Innovation on their part revealed the existence of several affordable, high impact and low intrusive greening strategies.
Get on your way to green.