Energy Analysis -

Refreshed from a few days at the beach, I have launched into an intense week of Building Analyst Training.  Day 1 and I can only be thankful for all the time spent cruising the websites of buildingscience.com, finehomebuilding.com.  There is so much to learn,  and so much which can go wrong.  Are we learning just enough to be dangerous?

Grandma's House

Check out this video of "Grandma's House," a story of cause and effect, as both homeowner and contractor learn building science through trial and error.  This is probably not that uncommon a story - in fact - this is essentially the story of the subdivision in the midwest which had mold and rot growing behind the EIFS.  The beginning of the big EIFS battles, and awareness of the interlinking nature of a home.

Upon successful completion of this training, I would, in theory be qualified to hang up my shingle and go into business.   But so much of this knowledge is really gathered through experience.  How to gain it? I'm thinking that some time spent in the field with a good weatherization crew might give me a good start.  And maybe more hours of working through scenarios, developing a critical eye and sharing notes with other contractors.     Thinking about cause and effect, in each of the elements of air, water, and heat.

Of course, the next step is to couple this basic knowledge of building science and weatherization with energy modeling and economic analysis.  Oh, and add to that some design and code compliance, or perhaps some life cycle analysis.   But I get ahead of myself.   For this week, I will be content to gain some level of mastery over the basics of building analyst and that darn psychrometric chart...

New Functional Values replace the old Energy Hogs

We are enjoying the adventure of cooking a meal for 8 people in a tiny condominium kitchen.  It reminds my mom of the first apartment they had in New York City, immigrants fresh off the boat from Europe.  They were thankful for the opportunities, the freedom from oppression, and yes – even for the tiny kitchen.

According to recent research by the NAHB / Better Home & Garden,  home buyers have finally shifted from ever increasing square footage to increasing the per square foot value.   Though I am cautious to not extract any grandiose pronouncement of shift in appreciation,   the builders interviewed in this survey did identify that 67% of consumers are now wanting a kitchen with an everyday eating area and also a comfortable family/ gathering space.   This same survey of builders indicated great rooms and 9-foot ceilings on the main level have been adopted in lieu of the cavernous entry and cathedral ceiling great room.   In fact, the conversion of the great room to a space which is cozier and less exposed was one of the catalysts for Sarah Suzanka’s “Not So Big House” concept.    

Stapleton - the new community

An increasing number of buyers are single women, who are looking for looking for security.  This includes good outdoor lighting, and also a sense of shelter indoors.  These same genY’ers  as well as empty nesters  are looking for a community to plug into, and opportunities to interact with the neighbors.   What comes to mind are developments such as the old Stapleton Airport area, which now boasts narrow , old-fashioned streets, narrow enough to greet the neighbors from your front porch.  And the neighborhood pool, dog park, and walkable retail space.

link to interview

The old master plan model  is gone.   It seems we are coming full circle and rediscovering the pleasures of community.  The new community plan need innovations – common park area, access to commute,  use of schools as common area, and planning to satisfy demand in the future.  (interview with James Chung, Reach Advisors, interview at Pacific Coast Builders Conference 2010).

For the first time in 30 years, the average home size is shrinking.   Is this the tipping point – marking a changing of values in the American consumer?   Yesterday, our family gave thanks for the ability to share time together, over a tiny table with a tiny kitchen.

Waste or Value?

A morning's worth of collection

On the walk back from the beach today, I spotted an empty grocery bag and managed to totally fill it up just picking up tidbits of trash washed up or left by visitors. It is a bit of an exercise in awareness, noticing what non-organic materials have made their way into this stretch of nature – which not even the designation of “Wildlife Preserve” can deter. The inventory consisted of a lot of water bottle caps, the bottles themselves having presumably become part of the great plastic island floating out around Hawaii.

This is not a blog to decry the slovenly nature of humans, though there was a notable increase in cigarette butts the closer we were back to the built-up environment. No, the greater question in my mind was what do we value, and how much of what we do does not contribute to value – ie waste or “muda” in the new “lean” lingo. There was the children’s playground on the edge of the beach, which had valiantly erected a plastic fence around it to protect the rubbercoated playground floor. Of course it was wearing off and little bits of blue rubber were now growing out of the entry –like a delta. Call me a bit old-fashioned and a city kid, but I thought the beach was the playground… Does the addition of slides and a synthetic mat really add to the value of the kid’s playtime? Or does it add unnecessary maintenance and materials – waste.

So back to the inventory of my bin. Plastic water bottle caps. How difficult would it be for each of us to bring along water bottles and fill them? Just looking at the kids backpacks on campus, I would say that change has already been adopted by this next generation. The value here is staying hydrated, and disposal plastic bottles are just plain waste.

Total Waste for Complete ICF House

What about the construction site? What is the equivalent of disposal water bottles, or rubbercoated mats? A dumpster dive will easily determine the waste. But so will clock hours of workers sitting around waiting for the missing materials, or the boss to show up. Or planting temperate climate landscaping in a desert environment, or large expanses of low R glass in the path of direct high solar gain (in the south), or exposed to cold winds (in the north). This is all waste, which does not contribute to anybody’s value. One builder showed us how  you could plan and build in a way to have only one garbage bag of waste for the entire exterior structural component. The rest of the material was all value.

Thanksgiving is coming up. What are your values in your life, your job, your planet? Can we trim the waste and devote more energy to these values? Now that would something we could all be thankful for.

ENERGY STAR or Dancing with the Stars?

As the cut was made to the semi-finals, a dancer who earned the top score and was praised for her technique, her dedication to improvement, and to consistent delivery did not make the final cut. Why? Because in addition to the voice of the experts, Dancing with the Stars relies on public input, so the underdog who has consistently been at the bottom of the leader board was once again voted in – thanks to strong political party affiliation.

This is the way America works. ANSI standards and I-Codes are strongly influenced by public input. For example, on the NAHB Green Build Standard, I participated on the Energy Task Force. I had expected to just be a minor player, safeguarding the positioning of ICFs and concrete construction. But there was only one representative from any of the National Energy Labs, none from university research departments, and mostly other product manufacturers associations. With all due respect, who were we to be deciding on public standards? I spent much of those 6 months in gathering information from Energy Star (also not present), RESNET, state energy experts and others in order to provide a responsible public service.

In the process of some research I am doing on the history of energy efficiency in the US, I came across documents issued by NAHB Research Center dating from early 70’ – with essentially the same information as is promoted today - seal the leaks, insulate to the max, and capture solar heat and power. But this information was quickly buried in the succeeding decades of excess. Contractors claimed it wasn’t economically feasible to add energy efficiency and have been the most outspoken critics of improved energy efficiency standards today. Notice how few states have updated their codes from the IRC and IECC 2006 to 2009. State home builders associations and NAHB are fighting the increased expectations. And the elected officials succumb to the pressure.

But this recession has shown us some different economics. Many contractors have been forced to close their doors. But the remaining ones have had to tighten up their business processes, cull out the “fat” in the form of wasted materials, wasted time, rework, change orders. At a recent conference, several of the larger contracting companies admitted that they are running a much “leaner” organization, in the true sense of the word – not just dumping multiple jobs on a worker. They have learned to work smarter, more efficiently, remove the competitive aspect and work together.

So - the money for energy efficiency was there in the 80’s and 90’s, and the technical knowledge has been available since at least the 70’s. But America is more concerned about individual input than about the common good. The construction method we got was by popular vote. And in the meantime, other countries have danced circles around out in terms of energy efficient construction. Look at Denmark, who took the lessons of the 70’s to improve energy efficiency in construction and gain independence for energy production - a goal which they have almost achieved.

Thank goodness for Sam Rashkin, who with just a handful of people, has managed to develop the ENERGY STAR program for builders, and keep this country somewhat on track. But it is about time we put some support to the program. America has proven the experiment that the open market does NOT provide the best solution for the greater good. But we have the technical knowledge, a country full of resourceful people - but we need to be pushed.

So let’s get the politics out of Dancing with the Stars, ANSI Standards and Code Issues. Time to put some teeth behind a 50% energy goal, create the demand for a market tipping point for energy efficient products. Are we content to follow as a random collection of individuals, or are we going to work towards a common good and become leaders?

Tale of Two Schools - Energy Efficiency?

It took me a while to figure out why I was so upset after a site visit yesterday to construction site. The building was an elementary school, and the visit was part of a Women in Construction program I had set up - specifically because the site project manager is a woman who has made her way up through the trades. All that was good. What was boggling my mind was total lack of energy efficiency.

Apparently, there had been some discussion of attaining a LEED Certified level, but that got cut from the budget. So the only insulation in the walls will be an XPS board under the architectural brick or EIFS (synthetic stucco). Oh – and some insulation in the ceiling, though there were only minimally raised heel trusses, and it didn’t sound like any detailing to connect the foam board with the ceiling insulation.

But this was NOT a budget school. Arched windows, inlay of world and Virginia maps in the floor, a wavy corregated metal ceiling. The PM candidly admitted that energy efficiency had been cut out of the budget? Does this even meet code? What is the energy code in Virginia?

According to the Status of State Energy Codes, Virginia follows the 2006 IECC, and State owned or funded buildings shall be designed and constructed consistent with energy performance standards as stringent as LEED Silver or Green Globes 2. And the local building department enforces the requirements. The major flaw in this is that the LEED Silver is not an energy benchmark. One can get LEED Silver with only the minimum energy points.  Of course, that is entirely moot for this school - since it follows none of these energy guidelines.

See Live WebCam of Construction

This is the second school built this year in this county in the same manner. And yet, just up the road in Charlottesville, the St. Anns Belfield school was built to a high performance standard, using ICF for all exterior walls. Yes, that is a private school – so perhaps funding was a different issue. But over in Kentucky, all schools are built to Energy Star, many with ICFs, with contractors competing to deliver the highest energy efficient envelope.

The moral of this tale is that Energy Efficiency does NOT happen through legislation. It happens when you have an educated and informed public, when professionals learn (and have the opportunity to learn) the skills needed to delivery durable, high performance buildings.

The legacy left in Blacksburg will be a school with increasing high utility bills which will cut into their operating costs for the kids programs. In Kentucky and Charlottesville, they are secured against future energy price increases, secure against power outages, can put future funds towards students, AND have provided a good example to the rest of the commercial construction industry.

And more  important, dear readers,  I woke up this morning realizing that we can no longer just stand by and read/write about this.  What is our circle of influence?  Who can we talk to? Our PM Angie worked within her area of authority of QC on the HVAC crew.  Despite the fact that the HVAC didn't meet the commissioning requirements on the previous job, which cost them plenty in ceiling tear down to locate the leaks, they are so far still unwilling to do a CFM test prior to completion.  So instead, she strictly enforces the QC on the mastic of the ductwork.  

This needs to be a ground swell of awareness.   How can we even think to build this way - and still face ourselves in the mirror and know this is the world we are leaving behind.  We ARE the construction industry - each and every one of us.  What are we doing to bring about the change so desperately needed?

Ready Made Funeral Homes

The comment came up in a discussion about the growing percentage of starter castles which have sprouted “for sale” signs on their manicured lawns. The market is shifting to smaller square footage, more efficient use of space (ie – skip the billiard room), energy efficiency and access to mass transit. Especially those built in gated communities with minimum square foot requirements, even if they are sized to be a lovely small inn, the location is not ideal – and this may not pass the CCR… So now they sit empty.

What does history teach us? All the great mini-mansions built through Midwest towns in the great industrial era are now located in the old parts of town, which could be the worst part of town, or the best – depending on the downtown rehabilitation efforts. So do the Rockefellers still live there? No – but Rockefeller Mortuary might, or their dentists, or lawyers. Adaptive re-use at its best.

This is unlikely to happen with our current behemoths. Except for a handful of misplaced constructions, like the house in a photo above - which is on a busy street in Dallas, complete with a bus stop at it's front door - large homes tend to be in isolated neighborhoods with more large homes. Probably not zoned for any type of light commercial, apartments, or other multi-use applications. Tearing them down and splitting lots is equally unlikely – until the neighborhood deterioration has hit a tipping point of no return.

Salvage? Not much available in new construction, though I did buy the “left-overs” from one such project – and got enough stones, bricks, pavers and slate roof tile for my entire garage.

Though our economy is expected to see full recovery by 2015, my guess is that those burned once will be happy to have downsized, and the upwardly mobile are not willing to tie up their funds in high priced real-estate. But rather than despairing or putting on blinder of faith (or ill-spent vents of fury the “the government”), the situation calls for neighborhood collaboration. Identifying boundaries of acceptable change, planning for the future. This might be identifying opportunities for mixed use, centers of commerce and surrounding areas of acceptable higher density uses. It might be better to accept the mortuary and keep the neighborhood alive.

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LEED 2012 - a bit of perspective

The comment period for LEED 2012 is now open, check out the Environmental Building News for a synopsis of updates. It got me to thinking about an even I did in 2002 – where I was still ever-so-tentatively daring to voice the “e” word in public. In fact, even 2 years later, when I earned my LEED AP designation, debating the wisdom of announcing this on my business card.

How times have changed. Now, I wish my job had indeed been called “Environmental Manager” or “Queen of Green” or somesuch - it would help me get through HR screeners who are trained to look for shades of green. And so we have arrived… or have we?

One of the companies I had lauded in 2002 was Swinerton Builders, very avant-garde with their “green” division in San Francisco. According to their website, over 25% of their staff is now LEED AP. But I dug through the press releases, the project profiles, did a word search for “energy efficiency….” Barely a mention. So – no real progress there.

What about LEED? Well, the minimum energy performance of 10% improvement over a baseline is maintained in the new draft, but it references ASHRAE 90.1-2010 - which is which is estimated to be about 25% more stringent than the 2007 version referenced by LEED 2009. By comparison, the new IECC 2012 is 30% better than the ASHRAE 90.1-2004. If you follow that mathematical spaghetti, this means that the new LEED minimum is the same as the IECC minimum. I.e. minimum LEED is to meet energy code. Gee – I’m underwhelmed.

At least the Optimize Energy Performance credit recognizes improvements up to 70%, vs. the topping out at 48% which was under LEED 2009. So – nice for those who make the effort. On another good note, the credit focus is on requiring project teams to use the energy modeling process to influence design—rather than using models only to check compliance after the fact. Teams would have to establish an energy performance target no later than the schematic design phase, and, for the simulation option, use the energy modeling process to inform their design. Projects would have to analyze a minimum of nine efficiency measures during the design process and account for the results in design decision-making. I’m curious to read the fine print on this one, as there is a shortage of training and trained energy modelers. Will it be enough for someone to run Green Building studio on a Revit model?

So – how far have we come? We are talking about “the environment” in polite company. Energy efficiency is almost on both sides of the political fence. Builders are still fighting it tooth and nail, but we are inching forward. And in the meantime, Canada, Europe, Australia, Japan are running circles around the US. As I said back in 2002 - the train has left the (Amtrak) station - only it seems to be making a lot more noise than progress at this point. Time to get our eye firmly on the goal and get moving.

Who's Driving the Bus?

The advantage of being in an academic setting is the opportunity for thinking. The key words here are opportunity and thinking. And the most meaningful of all is the opportunity to think about thinking. Explain..

Our industry is part of the manufacturing world in that we make things. Our actions are focused on getting activities done. Procuring and installing materials. Even in the courses we have here at university, we generally talk about doing things – either transferring knowledge of the status quo of building – or occasionally talking about a new material. We rarely take the opportunity to think about the why. Indeed, the 5 whys? Digging ever deeper to find true reasons. Why do we build things in the order we do? Why does our information flow the way it does?

For example, in the old world, an architect initiated the process through a paper / pencil drawing - starting with the exterior design and a floor plan. Thus, design and space allocation were the drivers. For the most part, they still are – with whatever special conditions were set by the job. But what if we starting thinking about our way of thinking. What if you were building in San Francisco, in a tight space with very high seismic conditions, could you not identify this as the key constraint in the building and start with the structural? Or what if your goal was a net-zero, would you not want to start with the passive solar/wind opportunities, the supplementary HVAC options, and then create the envelope around these spaces? BIM allows us to do this.

At a construction conference on Wednesday, the discussion kept returning to the need for people who can work collaboratively, who can leverage each other’s skills for a better product, who can think. People who can, and are willing to take the opportunity to think, to seek out the right questions, to dig under the surface for answers to the core issues. We need these people in the driver’s seat.

2012 IECC energy levels 30% above 2006

Code and government officials meeting in Charlotte, North Carolina voted to improve the 2012 International Energy Conservation Code (IECC) standard by 30% beyond the 2006 IECC as called for by Architecture 2030, and by a large coalition including the U.S. Department of Energy, the U.S. Conference of Mayors, the National Association of State Energy Officials, congressional officials and the broad-based Energy Efficient Codes Coalition (EECC) of which Architecture 2030 is a member.

Cheers from the audience. This is indeed good news. “This is the first step on our way to carbon neutral buildings by 2030,” said Edward Mazria, CEO of Architecture 2030. “The next steps include timely state and local government adoption of the new code and improving the IECC code standard by 50% beyond 2006 IECC in 2015.”

And therein lies the rub. Not all states adopt the IECC statewide, nor do they necessarily adopt the newest version when it is released. For example, legislators in my own great state of Utah has voted to the adoption of the 2009 IECC. So much for the latest state marketing phrase: Utah, elevated. NOT when it comes to energy efficiency. Also, the adoptions could be by jurisdiction, at the mercy of the local building officials. The map of state adoption used to be easy to find on the ICC website, but is now a bit buried. Intentional? http://www.iccsafe.org/gr/Pages/adoptions.aspx

This is not to spell doom and gloom, but as a reminder that if we want to push higher energy efficiency standards, we need to work directly with our city and state building officials to give them our feedback. Otherwise, they will respond to the pushback of the building trades (yes – the industry itself is the greatest hindrance). It is also important to reject efforts to allow for HVAC equipment trade-offs, as has been available through the Rescheck / Comcheck compliance tools. We need to improve our building envelopes - end of story.

So - adopt the 2030 Challenge targets and put pressure to move to the 60% below the regional average site energy use for each building type, in order to keep global warming under one degree centigrade (°C) above today's level.