Nine Green Home Projects to Do Today

By Preston Koerner

Eric Corey Freed, architect and principal of Organic Architect, has a new book in stores this month -- Green$ense for the Home -- and Allison Arieff was able to pry a list out of Freed of simple green home projects for renters and homeowners. This is the low-hanging fruit, to use the proverbial phrase, but that doesn't mean there's no impact or benefit. To paraphrase Freed’s responses to Arieff, here are the nine green projects:

1. Change Your Light Bulbs.

Give or take regional differences and preferences, lighting accounts for more than 10% of residential energy use, so swap incandescent lighting for CFLs and LEDs for considerable lighting energy savings.

2. Cause Toilets to Use Less Water.

Water is the next big constrained resource, so even if you’re not changing out your old toilet, use retrofits and other tank tricks to use less water.

3. Use Less Shower Water.

When you shower, you’re using not just water but energy to heat the water. Cutting back on idle moments is one thing, but using a good, pressurized, low-flow shower head will cut water and energy waste, too.

4. Control Vampire Loads.

When equipment is plugged in, it’s probably drawing energy, so use smart strips, power strips, or manual unplugging to cut back on energy draws while equipment is not in use.

5. Install a Programmable Thermostat.

A properly programmed thermostat can save somewhere between 20-30% on annual heating and cooling bills. You can help this process by dressing accordingly, depending on the settings and time of year.

6. Insulate Your Hot Water Heater.

Wrap your tank-type water heater with insulation to minimize costs associated with having to keep water hot in the tank.

7. Weatherize Your Windows.

Seal cracks and leaks around doors and windows with a low- or no-VOC caulk. This can lead to savings from minimizing the heating and cooling losses.

8. Use a Clothesline.

Using a clothesline may be prohibited in certain residential areas, but using one of these can help save the energy required to power an electric or gas dryer.

9. Compost and Recycle Trash.

Recycling and composting leads to less waste in our land fills, but it also generates stock for recycled content products and fertile gardening soil.

Read more detailed information on each of these nine green home projects from Good.

Source: http://www.worldgreen.org/components/com_feedpost/feedpost.php?url=http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/jetson_green/~3/AR0h8iB5AKI/nine-easy-green-home-projects.html&site=World%20Green%C2%AE%20-%20Sustainability%20Social%20Network

Will Solar, Wind and New Tech Pave the Way for a DC Renaissance?

High Voltage Direct Current (HVDC) lines offer a big opportunity for developers.

The permitting, siting and financing obstacles to the building of new transmission lines in the face of NIMBY (Not In My Backyard) and BANANA (Build Absolutely Nothing Anywhere Near Anything) activists are familiar. But Aftab Khan, Vice President and General Manager of U.S. Grid Systems for multinational engineering giant ABB, sees a new game afoot.

Khan has watched the old game since starting at ABB 18 years ago. “A lot of what we would do for utility customers or transmission companies was to evaluate what the best solutions were for them,” Khan said, “both AC and DC.”

The late nineteenth-century War of Currents pitted George Westinghouse and alternating current (AC) against Thomas Edison and direct current (DC). Because electricity was then primarily delivered over short distances to consumers from nearby power plants, Westinghouse and AC won.

But DC is the key to the new game. “Power on a DC line is completely controlled. If you say, ‘I want to bring power from point A to point B and I want exactly this many megawatts on that line,” Khan said, “the power goes.” Theoretically, he added, AC lines can do the same. But in an AC system, “you don’t have the ability to manage the power flow from point A to point B directly.”

The new game is possible because transmission systems around the world are adding renewables. Vast renewable resources -- be they North Sea and Texas winds or Saharan and Mohave solar -- are being developed far from population centers and transmission systems. “You have a lot of wind capacity in the Midwest and into Texas, and you have a lot of load going out to the West and to the East,” Khan noted. “DC makes perfect sense. Point A to point B, send X number of megawatts that way. It achieves exactly what you need to do.”

Semiconductors and advances in electronics have also paved the way for high-voltage DC transmission.

ABB built the first 200-mile, 100-kilovolt, 20-megawatt DC line in Sweden in the 1950s. There are now, Khan said, more than 145 working or pending HVDC projects worldwide (and HVDC line manufacturer ABB is involved in more than 70 of those projects). Few are located in the U.S. -- so far.

Meanwhile, others such as Valdius DC Power Systems and Nextek Power Systems are devising equipment that convert AC power to DC for use in data centers or buildings. How popular is the concept? Nextek recently hosted delegations from China, Singapore and Japan, said Lian Downey, director of digital applications for the company. With DC coming straight from HDVC lines, efficiency would be increased even more.

"We are living in a DC world. Everything that uses electricity internally users DC power," she said.

China built a 1,200-megawatt capacity DC project in the late 1980s to deliver remote hydroelectric power to burgeoning urban populations. Earlier this year, ABB and Chinese partners “completed and commissioned” an 800-kilovolt, 6,400-megawatt capacity line in China. The country has really pushed the technology, Khan said. “They’re building more and more of these HVDC lines to access more and more of their remote generation resources.” As a result, Chinese transmission developers have joined ABB, Siemens and Alstom Grid as the most important handlers of HVDC transmission.

The cumbersome U.S. transmission development process allows for more stakeholder input, Khan noted, and the thrashing out of issues such as whether new transmission might be a vehicle for more fossil fuel generation (Khan believes it will not). But delays leave remote renewable resources stranded. The new game, Khan thinks, can resolve the conundrum.

“What Texas is doing, they’re investing 5 billion dollars or so in transmission infrastructure that goes out to where the wind potential is,” Khan said. “The logic is that if the wires are there, then a wind developer will say ‘OK, now I can build a wind farm and get it connected and sell the power.’”

But the Texas solution of pre-identifying Competitive Renewable Energy Zones (CREZs) into which new transmission can be built may not work elsewhere. Texas’ own big population centers consume its wind-generated electricity. Midwestern winds need to be delivered across many state and regional regulatory borders. That’s where the new game comes in.

Two-line HVDC transmission systems are less expensive than three-line AC systems and incur fewer instances of line loss to resistance. There is, however, an added expense due to the need for power converter equipment. Over longer distances, however, the benefits outweigh the costs. “It’s such a complex calculation,” Khan said, but “if you’re going over a couple of hundred miles, you should consider DC.”

Another advantage of HVDC lines, significantly simplifying the siting process, is they can be built underground or underwater over distances with little line loss, whereas “with AC lines, you don’t get much out of the other end” if you use these kind of non-traditional sites.

HVDC systems are now being proposed and initiated by entrepreneurial transmission developers such as Clean Light Energy Partners, Transmission Developers, TransWest Express, and a Google-led consortium, Khan said. “They’re wanting to develop long-haul transmission lines,” despite the necessity of “crossing multiple state lines and multiple jurisdictions,” whereas “there isn’t any existing transmission company that would ever want to do that.”

With the market advantages of HVDC, developers “can actually build a business case around it. Because they have complete control of power on that line, they can sign up wind developers on one end” and “they can sign up a utility on the other end to buy the power.”

Players in the new game have -- for now -- won a major blessing from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). “Traditional transmission is cost-based,” Khan explained. FERC is giving the new transmission entrepreneurs “the right to negotiate rates on their line.”

Khan sees the new game as “really exciting, and something they don’t do in China.” Though controversial and not without hurdles, he said, “DC has opened up an opportunity that wouldn’t have existed otherwise.”

By: HERMAN K. TRABISH: DECEMBER 6, 2010
Source: http://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/will-solar-wind-and-new-tech-pave-the-way-for-a-dc-renaissance/

Energy Efficient Homes Are The Stars Of The Future

Energy Star homes save homeowners hundreds of dollars annually on their energy bills and help to protect the environment.
By Ronnie Citron-Fink

Are you in the market for a new home? If you are, you are not alone. Millions of new homes are built every year. The National Association of Home Builders estimates, 1.8 million homes are constructed each year. How will all of the materials needed to build and sustain these new homes accommodate our dwindling and limited natural resources?

Why build energy efficient sustainable homes?

First, we have a moral obligation to make conscious ecological decisions about construction and consumption. Designing sustainable homes will protect the environment for future generations by changing to more energy efficient practices today. Along with securing a safe future, being more efficient and living lighter on the land helps reserve life-supporting systems - plant life and animals.

What is Energy Star?

Energy Star is a voluntary partnership between the Environmental Protection Agency, the Department of Energy and more than 9,000 organizations, including more than 2,500 of the nation's home builders. In essence, the Energy Star is the EPA government-backed symbol for energy efficiency. It identifies new homes, commercial buildings and more than 40 types of products that are energy efficient.

Products that can earn the Energy Star rating include appliances, lighting, home office equipment, consumer electronics, and heating and cooling equipment.

What are Energy Star qualified homes?

Homes that earn the Energy Star rating are significantly more efficient than standard homes. The Energy Star Homes that adhere to the new guidelines (below) make them at least 20% more efficient. An Energy Star home can save homeowners hundreds of dollars annually on their energy bills and help to protect the environment.

Key elements of the new guidelines for Energy Star qualified homes include:


A Complete Thermal Enclosure System: Comprehensive air sealing, properly insulated assemblies and high-performance windows enhance comfort, improve durability and reduce utility bills.

Quality Installed Complete Heating and Cooling Systems: High-efficiency heating and cooling systems engineered to deliver more comfort, moisture control and quiet operation, and equipped with fresh-air ventilation to improve air quality.

A Complete Water Management System: Because Energy Star homes offer a tightly sealed and insulated building envelope, a comprehensive package of flashing, moisture barriers, and heavy-duty membrane details is critical to help keep water from roofs, walls, and foundations for improved durability and indoor air quality.

Efficient Lighting and Appliances: Look for Energy Star qualified lighting, appliances and fans that can help to further reduce monthly utility bills and provide high-quality performance.

Third-Party Verification: Energy Star qualified homes require verification by independent Home Energy Raters who conduct a comprehensive series of detailed inspections and use specialized diagnostic equipment to test system performance

Source: http://planetgreen.discovery.com/home-garden/energy-efficient-homes-future.html

Empire State Building goes green, one window at a time

By Rick Hampson, USA TODAY

NEW YORK — You want to ask him: How many do you break?

That's because Anthony Concepcion does windows — lots of windows.

He's working at the Empire State Building. As part of an effort to become certifiably green, the office tower is removing, retrofitting and replacing each of its 6,514 double-hung, dual-pane windows. That's 26,056 panes of glass.

PHOTOS: Empire State Building goes green

"It's a lot of glass," says Concepcion, 39, work crew supervisor for the contractor, Serious Materials of Sunnyvale, Calif. "It's all part of going green."

The building, for four decades the world's tallest and still the tallest in New York, is spending $13 million on windows, insulation and other upgrades to cut energy use by 38% and save about $4.4 million a year.

Never has a structure so old and so tall gone so green. "It's the most recognizable building energy retrofit in the world," says Arah Schuur, director of a conservation program at former president Bill Clinton's foundation

If you can retrofit the Empire State Building, you can retrofit anything, says Kevin Surace, president of Serious Materials.

The building has earned a score of 90 (out of 100) from the Environmental Protection Agency's "Energy Star" program. That means a building constructed at a size (102 stories), a time (1930) and a pace (about 14 months) not known for energy efficiency now ranks in the top 10th of commercial office buildings.

Tony Malkin heads the company that runs the tower. He says the goal, in addition to cutting costs and making the building more attractive to green-minded tenants, is to give other office building owners a model.

The Clinton Climate Initiative, created by the former president's foundation, says buildings can account for three-quarters of greenhouse gas emissions in urban areas. But, Malkin says, "we're not talking about 'doing the right thing.' … Extra energy efficiency makes you money."

The Empire State Building project has aroused interest among other high-rise owners, Schuur says, "but nothing far enough along to mention." Malkin says projects like his soon will be announced.

Ahead of Chicago tower

A year ago, the Willis (formerly Sears) Tower in Chicago announced plans to replace its 16,000 single-pane windows and put solar panels, windmills and gardens on the roof, all to help reduce electricity use by a whopping 80%. Kate Murphy, spokeswoman for the building, says finances have pushed back the project.

Malkin, whose Empire State Building energy retrofit is about half finished, is dismissive of his rival in conservation, saying, "It's important to distinguish announcements from actions."

The new windows, which have 2.5 to four times more insulation, are not really new. They are fashioned mostly from existing components by Concepcion's crew of 35. Working in two shifts, the crew assembles 75 to 80 windows a day in a noisy workroom on the fifth floor.

Each night, workers remove scores of windows from their frames on the building's office floors. They wheel them to the workroom, where the glass panes are detached from their sashes, pulled apart and carefully cleaned.

A sheath of transparent insulation film is laid between the panes, which are resealed and placed for an hour in a 205-degree oven to shrink the film in place.

Next, a mixture of inert gases is pumped into the space between the panes for insulation. Finally, the panes are put back in the original sashes and remounted in the office floor frames from which they were removed the previous night.

Surace, the Serious president, says he's never heard of a big building choosing to reuse, rather than replace, so much window glass — 96%. Malkin says he's saving about $2,300 per window and avoiding the environmental impact of trucking new windows from the factory and old ones to recycling.

Changes go unnoticed

Because the windows are removed after office hours and installed before most office workers return the next morning, one of the most ambitious projects in Empire State Building history is occurring without the knowledge of most of its occupants.

The morning after the 32nd-floor offices of Skanska USA, a unit of the Swedish construction giant, had its windows swapped, "people didn't have a clue anything had been changed," says Deborah Ippolito, a senior manager. "You couldn't tell by looking at them."

Skanska, which occupies the entire floor, is the kind of big, environmentally conscious tenant Malkin wants to attract with the energy retrofit and an overall $550 million renovation.

Famous as it is, the Empire State Building never has enjoyed real cachet as a business address. Tenancy was so low during its early Depression years that it was derided as the "Empty State Building" and supported largely by visitors' observatory fees. Ever since World War II, it's had relatively small tenants paying relatively small rents.

Malkin wants to rent larger blocks of space to more prestigious tenants at higher rents. A study by CoStar Groupfound that in the first quarter of 2009, green-certified buildings had fewer vacancies than other comparable buildings and that such buildings have commanded higher rents for several years.

Green windows — actually, the sashes and frames are all painted the same city-landmarked shade of red — are part of that strategy at the Empire State Building.

Which leads back to Anthony Concepcion and the issue of breakage. Normally jovial, he grimaces a bit at the question. "Some days, none. Other times, up to three," he says. "It averages out to about one a day."

Getting Started with Green: Alternative Energy

So you've already traded driving for biking on short trips, started eating less meat and more local vegetables, and are consistently buying carbon offsets to counteract your plane trips. Ready for a bigger green challenge? Try switching to alternative energy at home. Instead of depending solely on the electric grid, you can harness solar energy, wind power, hydropower, or even geothermal energy to keep your home warm in the winter, cool in the summer, and buzzing with electricity.

Read on for a sampling of tips, or click on over to our guide for How to Go Green: Alternative Energy on Planet Green for the full story.

It sounds like a daunting process, but making the transition to alternative energy doesn?t have to be painful. The easiest way to simplify is to start cutting back on your energy use right now, since using less means you?ll be responsible for providing less (and trust us: come the rainy season, you and your solar panels will be grateful for that)

Don't Overthink It

If you can power your whole house with alternative energy, great! But if money, government permits, time, or climate are getting in the way, then start smaller. Try powering just one room-like a bedroom, where a reading lamp and tiny television may be all you need?with solar, wind, or hydropower. If even that is too much, invest in a small solar charger for your laptop, iPod, or cell phone-for the ultimate in easy alternative energy, shell out for a tote bag that charges the electronics inside it while you carry it.

Ask for Help

Before you get started with solar panels, windmills, and ground source heat pumps, take a minute to call your local electric company: more than 750 of those in the U.S. offer renewable energy to current consumers. You'll pay a little more to offset the cost of tapping the alternative power, though-as much as 5 cents per kilowatt hour in Sacramento or as little as .8 cents per kilowatt hour in Oregon. The Green Power Networks chart from the Department of Energy can help you figure out the price in your area.

Plan Ahead

If you're in the process of buying a new home-or even better, building one-then you're in the perfect position for planning ahead to maximize your alternative energy use. Look for property that will let you harness wind power by offering plenty of open space or hydropower by including running water near the house. Check the town's permit guidelines to make sure you can install solar panels and, if you?re building, look at the placement of your home, the layout of the windows and doors, and the insulation: all of these can help you harness natural solar power without lifting a finger once you've moved in.

For more tips, information, and inspiration on using alternative energy, check out Planet Green's How to Go Green: Alternative Energy guide, and, while you're at it, have a peek at How to Go Green: Electricity and the rest of the guides for How to Go Green.

Source: http://planetgreen.discovery.com/tech-transport/alternative-energy-guide3.html

Green Building Certifications on the Rise

Green Building Certifications on the Rise

Business Wire

via NewsEdge Corporation

"Green building techniques are increasingly becoming the standard within the architecture and construction industries," says research analyst Eric Bloom. "There are three major drivers behind green building certifications: environmental responsibility, reducing operating expenses through energy efficiency, and regulatory requirements that mandate energy efficiency and certifications."

Bloom adds that by 2020, about 80% of green-certified building space will be in the commercial building sector, up from 73% today. Within the commercial segment, the majority of green certifications will go to existing buildings as opposed to new construction. In contrast, most of the focus in the residential market is on green certification of new properties.

In addition to the well-known Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) program in the United States and the Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method (BREEAM) program in the United Kingdom, there are more than 20 established green building councils around the world, with more than 40 other national-scale groups seeking similar status in the next few years. While LEED and BREEAM will continue to dominate the North American and European green building markets, respectively, Pike Research anticipates that newly developed programs in China and India will represent about 30% of all certified green new construction by 2020.

Pike Research's study, "Green Building Certification Programs", analyzes the current market and regulatory conditions related to green building certification programs and provides forecasts for the growth of this industry. The report includes an in-depth examination of green building drivers, barriers, and likely shifts in the underlying construction market. It also features profiles of major industry players including commercial real estate companies, trade associations, and green building councils as well as detailed descriptions of dozens of green building certification programs in operation around the world. An Executive Summary of the report is available for free download on the firm's website.

Pike Research is a market research and consulting firm that provides in-depth analysis of global clean technology markets. The company's research methodology combines supply-side industry analysis, end-user primary research and demand assessment, and deep examination of technology trends to provide a comprehensive view of the Smart Energy, Clean Transportation, Clean Industry, Corporate Sustainability, and Building Efficiency sectors.

Source: Pike Research

Welcome

Welcome to the EcodeOnline.com Blog.

Although construction has slowed down dramatically, green building continues to be a hot topic among developers, contractors, and the general public. Many are now coming to understand the great advantages of green building in the short and long term. We are also beginning to see many trends among organizations, communities, and both local and national government.

According to an article from The Oregonian there are several trends that may help shape green building in 2010:

• The smart grid and connected home
• Energy label for home and office buildings
• Building information modeling (BIM) software
• Financial community buying into green building
• "Rightsizing" of homes
• Eco districts
• Water conservation
• Carbon calculation
• Net zero buildings
• Sustainable building education

We will be discussing each point in the following weeks to better explain how can these points influence on green building.