Green Building Elements

Like this post? Subscribe to our RSS feed and stay up to date.

Author’s note: the following article on home heating is the first in an eight-part series. The series specifically targets climate found in the San Francisco Bay Area, but has applicability elsewhere.

According to the U.S. Department of Energy, heating and cooling amounts to 46% of all energy consumed by our homes. Water heating uses another 14%. In coastal California, where extreme heat is rare and winters are mild, a properly sited, well designed passive solar home can generate its own heat and hot water, and do without air conditioning.

Historically, few homes are so well sited or built. Since our area has more heating days than cooling days, most homeowners need a heating system. What few know is that many indoor air quality problems can be by-products of forced air heating, ventilation and air-conditioning (HVAC) systems installed in their homes. Read the rest of this entry »

Relaxation!
Fashion!
Celebrity!
Botox!
Booze!
Interiors!
Green!

Yes, most of this list refers to the Brit series Ab Fab but if Eddy and Patsy turned in their smokes and cocktails for organic and sustainable munchies then they too would be excited for the opening of the Epi Center MedSpa, the first LEED certified MedSpa in the country. (Another LEED spa exists in D.C. but it isn’t a MedSpa). So, because fictional characters from a long ago Brit TV series couldn’t check out this just opened San Fran based spa, I decided that I had to do it. Read the rest of this entry »

On Tuesday, April 22, the Sundance Channel will present as part of their The Green series “The Greening of Southie,” a documentary on the construction of Boston’s first green residential building, the Macallan, which is seeking a LEED gold rating. If the idea of watching a documentary on the construction of a condo building doesn’t sound too exciting to you, I cannot recommend this film enough to anyone who is or wants to be a part of green building. It presents the challenges and excitement of building green with equal measures of idealism and cynicism, juxtaposing the suits who see the project as ideas and paper with the laborers who actually have to put the building together. As the project grows, the two come closer to understanding the other side.

Fittingly, the film begins with a group of incredulous workers in hard hats listening to a project manager describe what a green building is. It turns out he doesn’t exactly know himself. “What does it give you?,” “what’s the point?” they ask. “I can’t answer that exactly,” he responds. But the skeptical laborers make jokes, dismissing the whole idea. After the manager explains that the condos will have “double flush” toilets, one man jokes, “I use that a lot - that system. One never seems to do the job.” Read the rest of this entry »

Green roof manufacturers incorporate sustainable products beyond the greenery.

If it looks green, smells green and feels green, it must be green. Right? The answer, it turns out, is more of a maybe. It is common knowledge that green technology has large positive environmental impacts: large-scale energy savings, run-off reduction and heat reduction among their chief assets. But as green builders continue to define the standards and guidelines for sustainable construction practices, different levels of earth friendly products continue to circulate the market. Green roofs in particular are taking a harder look at the sustainability of their component materials.

Make it last
Brad Budde of Conwed Plastics, Minneapolis, Minn., believes the future development of sustainable green roof products lies in the hands of builders. He suggests that as companies continue to understand the commercial concerns regarding the application of sustainable and earth friendly products that the market as a whole will become more educated about their applications, benefits and uses.

His company is a leader of earth friendly, compostible packaging materials as an alternative to traditional plastic bags, as well as biodegradable plastics that don’t leave the harmful, long lasting resins of other industry plastics. “It’s a really great product that solves some of the disposal concerns for traditional plastic products,” he says. Read the rest of this entry »

Building with Awareness is an interesting package loaded with information. It is a DVD with an accompanying book (or a book that comes with a DVD included, depending upon how you look at it). The two nicely complement one another in a fairly unique way. The story contained in the DVD documents the construction of the author’s own small (800 sq. ft.) home built in Albuquerque, NM. The book goes into more detail about the solutions and approaches that are taken in the construction of this home. Together, it is a very instructive combination which showcases a number of sustainable construction methods used in this project.

The book does not try to be all things to all people. It documents a specific project and shows how specific procedures were used in it. Everything, from preparing the subgrade and the foundations, to installing the roofing and finishing the walls, is covered. The extensive nature of the coverage is useful not only in demonstrating how to execute the various parts of the construction, but also how the parts work together and complement one another.

However, while it shows how these methods and materials were used, it does not go into such sufficient detail that it should be taken as a how-to or a do-it-yourself guide, at least, not without some additional information. The book does contain reference points that show where in the DVD they are discussing a particular material, technique or decision. This allows the reader to readily turn to the video presentation and match it with the information presented in the book. Reading about a type of construction and then seeing how it is demonstrated is a useful conjunction of two different forms of presentation. Read the rest of this entry »

Here in the Bay Area, it’s not just Berkeley who’s showing Green Big Brother mentality. Green home building will be required from all new homes built in the unincorporated region of San Mateo County. The county supes this week voted to add sweeping green regulations to green construction requirements to take effect later this year.

The new regulations will cover homes and industrial projects. The Green commercial and industrial buildings can pass under the LEED system while residential properties can be gauged under Build it Green’s “Green Point Rated” system. Green Point Rated, a residential, Green rating system created by the Berkeley-based non profit, uses various point categories to achieve certification. For example, installing a range of Energy Star appliances is worth nine points and using low VOC paints and wood-coatings can garner six points. Homeowners can combine various point categories, as long as they add up to the magic 50 point total.

To be fair, this program does have its costs. Homeowners will have to pay a specialized green building inspector to verify their project for the county which will set them back about $800 to $1000, and for commercial owners it will cost from $2500 to $3500. Applicants will also be required to post a $5,000 bond prior to receiving a building permit, which will be released when the 50 points are verified.

Although I like this program, it does have shortcomings, however, such as not affording homeowners the incentive to obtain more than 50 points. Many people find the same issues with LEED rating system. People may think, “Why should I try for 60 points if it’s just going to cost more?” Home and commercial building owners may try for more points without considering the up-front cost, but it wouldn’t be a bad scenario if the County of San Mateo offered further incentives for higher points.

For the past several years, the U.S. Department of Energy has been promoting the development of Zero Energy Homes (ZEHs). The DOE has put forth efforts that range from funding studies and partnering with private contractors to providing free building energy analysis software. By some estimates, over 2000 Zero Energy Homes have been built. Beginning this year, the DOE is making even more funding available to support the development of energy efficient technologies which can be applied to ZEHs.

Shirey Contracting, an Issaquah, WA-based construction firm specializing in custom residential homes as well as commercial facilities, plans to begin construction of its “Zero Energy Idea House” in Bellevue this month. Situated on Bass Cove and incorporating modern design elements, the 1700 sq. ft. house is intended to be a demonstration project. It will showcase products and systems that can move a home toward complete energy independence. Read the rest of this entry »

Increasing numbers of home builders and home remodeling programs across the country are embracing green building and sustainable design. Some programs are specifically focused on green building while others are including it as a part of the wider event program. In either case, these events can be an excellent (though sometimes overwhelming) source of information for home owners as well as building professionals.

In communities like Plano, Texas and Santa Monica, California events are sponsored by the local government and are free and open to the public. Other events, like the US Green Building Council’s Greenbuild, are aimed towards building professionals.  A green building conference can be a place where homeowners and building managers can learn more about particular technologies and how they might be useful for their particular circumstances.

We have started collecting a list of these programs in the Calendar of Green Building Events (which can be found in the sidebar to the right) here on the Green Building Elements page. We are trying to make this as useful a resource as possible, and welcome announcements about any related green building event (see our About page for more information about contacting us) for inclusion on this list.  We aren’t going to write about every press release for every event, but hopefully, as the list grows, more and more of you will be able to find local events available to you.

Image source: Environmental Design + Construction Magazine 

Radiant heating is an efficient and comfortable method for heating. Instead of heating air and blowing it into spaces to mix with the cooler air and increase the temperature, radiant heating directly heats everything around it. When you stand in direct sunlight and feel the heat on you, that is radiant heating. Household radiant heating uses hot water, either from a water heater or from a boiler, to convey heat throughout the house. Some older homes used hot water or steam and radiators, which provided both a direct radiant heating source in the room, as well as indirect heating of the air passing the radiator and circulating into the room by convection. Newer radiant systems turn the entire floor into a radiant heating surface, providing even radiant heat throughout the house.

Read the rest of this entry »

I’m not a huge fan of paper magazines. They’re hard to recycle in my area (they’re no good for sheet mulching), and generally I want more in-depth discussion of a particular subject than a monthly can spare.

But I might make an exception for one that is new to me, GreenBuilder. I’m impressed. Not only by the coverage, which actually explains concepts for an ordinary thinking person instead of that annoying bizspeak that many industry mags fall into, the vocabulary that doesn’t inform you at all. Read the rest of this entry »