Unintended Consequences

I was listening to NPR the other day and heard a very interesting segment on problems in the paper recycling industry. It seems that the bottom has fallen out of the market for waste paper to be recycled. The price recently fell from $150/ton to about $20/ton, making recycling very difficult from a financial perspective. The primary side effect of this is that more paper will be landfilled instead of recycled until the market comes back up. Interestingly, most of this scrap paper was going to China, filling up containers that came over filled with TV’s, Ipods, and the other consumer goods that we have been eating up for decades. China was in a position to pay a premium for the waste paper, since their ships would otherwise return empty, making their shipping costs essentially free. Now that our shopping binge is pretty much over, fewer goods are being made, reducing the number of boxes to package them in, which means that they need less paper to recycle into those very boxes. According to the LA Times, almost 100,000 Chinese plants have closed this year, putting millions of people out of work, and, indirectly, killing the US market for recycled paper.

So what is the moral here? Should we start buying foreign made consumer goods again to put people back to work and keep our old newspapers out of the landfill? Sorry, folks, I don’t have the answer, but these consequences of a global economy raise more intriguing questions. One of the primary side effects of our current financial crisis is increasing unemployment in all sectors of the economy. President Elect Obama plans to address this with a depression-era style stimulus package, investing heavily in infrastructure to create jobs, get Americans back to work, put money in their pockets, and get the economy going again. While deficit spending is complicit in what got us where we are right now, unfortunately, we will need to expand the deficit to keep from falling into a deep depression. I agree with the general consensus that the recovery will be long, slow, and painful, but the alternative is much worse. Thankfully part of the stimulus package includes investing in improving our buildings, putting people to work to make them more efficient, reducing energy use, saving money, and, ultimately helping improve our air and water quality from reduced power plant emissions. What I like about these projects is that they keep money in our local economies. When we spend money on power and fuel, we send it to multinational businesses that mine, refine, and generate power all over the world. When people are working to improve existing and build new buildings that are energy efficient, that work is happening right were we live and work. Workers buy food, clothes, and tools, go to movies, eat out, pay rent or mortgages, and invest where they live. Of course, many of the materials are purchased from other regions, but this work is labor intensive, keeping much of the investment in the local and regional economy. Once the work is complete, the occupants of these efficient buildings pay less for their energy - forever. Every dollar not spent on energy consumption can be invested or spent locally, invigorating the economy. Or they can be spent on a new TV or Ipod, requiring a Chinese factory to reopen, making more boxes from waste paper, restoring our recycled paper market, keeping last Sunday’s New York Times out of the landfill. Think about it.

Green from the start II

OK, so we talked about what not to do in designing a green house. Let’s take a more positive approach and consider what you should do.

Let’s start with the basics – design what you need and no more. During the (now mostly over) real estate boom of the past decades, it seemed like a good idea to build more and bigger. Home prices were always going up and someone would always come around and buy that behemoth for more that you paid for it. For most of us, those days are long gone. We have to live with what we buy or build, and actually consider paying down the mortgage over many years instead of selling or refinancing regularly, and I am guilty of some of that behavior myself. So, let’s think about how much space we really need. I would suggest that somewhere between 500-800 SF per person makes sense. That is much more than most other cultures are accustomed to, and if well designed, provides plenty of space to live comfortably. Take advantage of using roof volumes for living space by building 1 ½ story homes instead of two full stories with a huge unfinished attic. Don’t build a basement if you don’t need it. And if you think you need a full basement to store all your “stuff”, you probably have too much of it anyway.

Design for the site: limit excavation by working with natural contours, orienting for proper solar gain and shading, and limiting removal and damage to the existing landscape. Design for mechanical systems: group plumbing together to shorten hot water runs, saving energy and water. Leave enough space for HVAC ducts, and keep them inside the building envelope to make them more efficient. Design for your climate. If you get a lot of rain, build with larger overhangs to keep water off the building. Hot climates need reflective roofs. Almost every climate can use outdoor living space – include screens where bugs are a problem. Don’t build large decks in hot climates where they won’t be used much. Look at the indigenous architecture of your region and take the good stuff. Older houses were built the way they were for a reason – it made sense in that climate. Keep it simple, stupid. I built a house last year that, while very attractive, had over 35 different planes on the roof. This verges on insanity. It is quite possible to have a beautiful design with simple forms, based on 2’ building modules, which save materials and reduce labor costs.

Green building program guidelines and checklists are a great resource for ideas on how to make your project green from the start. They have home size guidelines and long lists of specific items that help you create more efficient homes. Incorporating the appropriate details from the beginning of the design process will keep you headed in the right direction and direct you away from doing too many stupid things. Now, if we can only get our clients to listen to us.

Green From the Start, Part I

Each year my business model shifts a little (or a lot), often having nothing to do with any actions that I take. Lately I have been certifying homes under several green building programs including EarthCraft House and LEED for Homes. Working with builders with a wide range of experience in green building gives me an opportunity to teach them how to make their homes more sustainable, and most of them appreciate the opportunity to learn and improve their work. One recent builder, whose client hired me to help “green up” his house, was very resistant to my suggestions, and it was a constant battle to get him to make any significant changes in his work. While that experience was annoying enough, what continues to frustrate me is getting called in too late in a project schedule. This usually means coming to the table after the plans are finished, and sometimes even after construction has started and asked to help make a project more sustainable. My internal struggle to avoid making rude comments about the plans remind me of an old definition of stress – “The feeling that overcomes you when you resist the urge to choke the crap out of some idiot who desperately deserves it”. Too often I end up working on a project that can’t be any better than fair, but if only someone had considered the implications of their design decisions, could have been a good, or even a great house.

The stupid things I see all the time: Huge expanses of unshaded west facing windows which pretty much cook the inside of the house in the afternoons. Bathrooms spread out all around the house with no consideration for how to run hot water efficiently. Obscenely complex roof and wall intersections which are almost impossible to flash effectively. No place to run HVAC ducts. And let’s not forget about the size of some of these houses. While I believe that it is important to make every house as green as possible, why are we building homes over 5,000 (and sometimes over 10,000) square feet for 3 or 4 people? There is a point where we have to stop calling these starter castles green – they just can’t be green when they have consumed enough materials to build 5-10 normal size homes. I admit that I am guilty of having made many of these stupid decisions throughout my career in construction, but I have seen the light and will not willingly do it again. Stay tuned for more rants on the subject.

Am I hallucinating or what?

I got a press release in the mail today for a new product called “Doorbrow”, including the following points:

“…a revolutionary new product…” , “…will minimize water intrusion and sun deterioration…”, “…prevents leaks between a building and its entry door, effectively eliminating water intrusion…”

OK, I was intrigued, so I checked out the website (http://www.doorbrow.com/index.html), and man was I shocked. I will reserve judgment on the aesthetics of the product (give me time), but I can’t see how it will do much of anything to keep water or sun from reaching a door. On top of that, their primary marketing photo shows this device attached directly to the stucco. Now in my book, that causes two problems. First, you are punching holes in the stucco (or siding, etc.) creating wonderful little pathways for water to get into the house. Oh, but you can caulk the holes you say! Yeah, well, we all know how well caulk works in keeping water out – about as well as a screen door. Then, on top of that, they recommend caulking the top where it hits the wall, yet another fine example of hoping that water will flow uphill. I realize that this is a common delusion of builders – I can’t count the number of times I drive by jobsites and see people putting up weather barriers and window flashing totally wrong. They miss the point that felt, housewrap, and flashing all need to layer, shingle style from top to bottom. Doorbrow expects the caulk at the top to keep out water. It might do that, IF the caulk is PERFECTLY APPLIED TO CLEAN SURFACES, and even then it probably won’t last more than a couple of weeks. I am so tired of “building professionals” who have no clue as to how to build. Water ruins buildings. We need to keep it out. It only stays out if you build it to keep it out. If the door leaks, fix the damn door, don’t put a Doorbrow on it. You are just putting whipped cream on #$%&, and it probably is not as much an improvement as the whipped cream.

Oh, and by the way, it is pretty damned ugly too. My buddy Michael has this to say about it:

“Possibly one of the most irresponsible and worthless products I have seen in a while. Not only is the product “Butt-Ugly” it serves no purpose other than to possibly compromise the durability of the home. The flashing detail in the photo is backwards (nailed to the face of the stucco… Really? Who was the brilliant guy who thought of that installation detail… oohh I know, I bet it was the guy who dreamed this ridiculous thing up!). Besides, what kind of protection does a 6” overhand give you? I going to go out on a limb and suggest.. NOTHING!”

Losing Ground

When I first ventured into the green building early in the 21st century, I was ahead of most people on the curve. Using materials and methods that were practically unheard of the industry, I was able to quickly take a leadership position in green remodeling. Over the next few years, the daily demands of running a construction business made it difficult to keep up with the industry as much as I would have liked, and now, having stopped building and renovating, I find myself falling farther behind every day. As a consultant, I still have the opportunity to work with homeowners and contractors, helping them step up their product to higher performance levels, but I still do not see as much state of the art technology as I would like.

When I see colleagues working on cutting edge projects, I find myself getting jealous, and consider getting back into building, just to stay on course and not fall further behind. Then I take a deep breath, and remember just how much the actual building process drives me nuts. I recognized a long time ago that being a contractor made me crazy most of the time. There are many things about contracting that I like, but they tend to be outweighed by the things that I don’t like, such as anxiety, loss of sleep, and a generally elevated stress level. I was always very impressed with my friends in the business who were able to leave work at work every day, simply not letting the stresses get to them 24/7. Unfortunately, I am not so lucky. Nearing the end of construction of a house I built in 2006-2007, my girlfriend looked at me and said “do you think that sometime we could talk about something other than how stressed out you are about this project”? Somewhat shocked, I thought about what she said, thanked her profusely for cluing me in, and made a concerted effort to separate my life from my work. If I take on any construction jobs in the future, I will have to keep that in mind.

Right now, I am toying with the idea of building myself a new house. I am worried about the impact it will have on my personal life and excited about the possibilities of pushing the envelope of green building. I am looking at alternative wall structures like Durisol and Hebel block, considering passive solar options (which could be a challenge with all the old growth trees on my intown lot), and mulling over in my mind how to design and build the most efficient house I possibly can. Chances are I will eventually go ahead with this project, but inertia is a strong force to overcome. I’ll have to see how the economy turns out over the next year or so before I commit to taking on more debt. Then again, if my work starts to slow down, I am going to have to find something to do with my time, since I live my work, and generally really enjoy it, I have never developed any hobbies to keep me busy. I’ll keep you posted.

I've Been Out-Curmudgeoned

Not that I'm surprised about this, I don't claim to have cornered the market on cranky behavior, but I just read an article by Joe Lstiburek (It's The Energy Stupid) that, in addition to being an excellent critique of much of green building today, is just plain hilarious. This is the first quote that got my attention, and I agree completely:
"So what’s with all these “green” programs providing “points” for “durability” and “indoor air quality”? I mean it’s pretty pathetic if we have to reward architects and engineers when they provide details and specifications that should be basic to fundamental practice. If you design and install a controlled ventilation system that meets Standard 62 you get points. You get more points if you keep the rain out and design the building to dry if it gets wet. And you get still more points if the occupants are actually comfortable. Aren’t these code requirements? Shouldn’t these be “the standard of care”? "
I like this concept. I have always said that most of building green is just doing things right, like keeping the water out, installing HVAC systems to meet the code, etc. The fact that we get "points" in green programs for doing these things is slightly (if not completely) insane. I am reminded of an article I read somewhere a while back about how young adults are so used to constant praise that many of them don't work effectively without it. This stems from kids sports leagues where every kid gets a trophy every season -just for showing up and playing. We are now treating green builders like 6 year old soccer players. Just for showing up and not doing things wrong, they get a green building certificate - before anyone knows if the building even works the way it's supposed to. The way Joe addressed this in his article made me laugh out loud:
"And enough with the awards before a building is built and the performance is verified. Award plaques should come with removable screws. Show me the utility bills. Compare the building to a building of similar size and similar occupancy in a similar climate. And if you don’t show any savings—shut up. You can’t be “green” if you don’t save any energy. "
I can honestly say that parts of this article were over my head, but most if it is spot on, and I really appreciate iconoclasts who say what they believe, particularly if they are right and can back it up.
Too bad I didn't come up with this myself, but I am inspired to be more of a curmudgeon and take people to task when they deserve it. And besides, I hope Joe reads this since I spilled some wine on him at dinner a few weeks ago, maybe he'll forgive me.

The Worst Thing About Greenbuild

This is a rather minor complaint, and probably one which I should not be making at all, given the environmental implications of the objects under discussion, but I was sorely dissappointed with the quality of the "SWAG" available at Greenbuild this year. People who know me well acknowledge my rather bizarre hobby of collecting little foam give aways, or "SWAG" aka "stuff we all get" (See my collection above). All I could find at Greenbuild was one lousy little football, a common design that I already have from other vendors. Where are the unique ones like the Port a John, the lighthouse, or, possibly my favorite, the Big Ass Fans donkey? When I was in the construction business, we had enormous amounts of swag (although, sadly, no little foam thingies). Tote bags, night lights, magnets, travel mugs, coffee, mugs, you name it - it was a way of life for us (or maybe just for me). So I have little patience for businesses that don't have creative marketing items. I returned home from Greenbuild dejected, with nothing to show for my efforts crawling the show floor except a fistful of jump drives and one little football. Where has the creativity gone?

Trailer Park Trash Goes Green

I had the privilege of watching modular homes being built in a factory recently, then watched them being installed on the job site, and I must say, I am pretty impressed. These are two homes that when complete will be LEED certified, as well as meeting the requirements for EarthCraft House and the new NAHB Green Building Program. Modular homes, also known as Systems Built, are a far cry from the old “mobile home” that was rolled to the site and finished with an aluminum skirt and a couple of pink flamingos for good measure. While each component is roughly the size of a mobile home, they are assembled on site into medium to large homes that to all but the most knowledgeable visitor look no different from a stick built home. While the details vary among manufacturers and specific models, the basic idea is the same: Homes are built in sections, finished between 50% and 70% inside and out, shipped to the job, installed on a foundation, and completed in the field. The homes I saw came out framed, insulated, wired, plumbed, drywalled, interior doors and most of the trim installed, and primed, ready for the finish coat of paint. In the field they install drywall to cover the joints between boxes, install flooring, roofing, siding, and a few other details and the house is done. I understand the costs to be similar to site built, but the construction schedule is compressed by ½ to 2/3, reducing carrying costs, and the quality control is very good due to the fact that most of the work is done in a factory setting with no weather or temperature issues to deal with. I have to admit that I was skeptical, and I think that there is certainly room for improvement in the process, but overall, this system has won me over. I would seriously consider building a modular home for myself.
Builder: New World Home

Long time, no blog

I’ve been out of the loop lately, but will be more diligent about keeping current. Just got back from Greenbuild Expo in Boston the US Green Building Council’s annual conference. I haven’t been to this one in a few years, mostly because until now they have paid little attention to the residential market, so I found little of interest for me there. This year marks a big change at the USGBC with the official release of the LEED for Homes program and the ReGreen remodeling guidelines. This year featured a full day devoted exclusively to home builders and renovators, and it was very well attended. There were both keynote speeches and educational sessions, as well as a reception and full access to the exhibit hall. Interestingly, in the middle of probably the worst housing market (and overall economy) in generations, the mood was surprisingly upbeat. I heard few of the concerns that are frequent in builder and remodeler circles about work slowing down. This seems to reinforce my unscientific research that green builders and remodelers are faring better than those that aren’t. I don’t mean to suggest that green professionals are immune to a slowdown, just that those who have staked their claim in this market have already established a point of differentiation by being green, giving them an advantage in a crowded, shrinking market.

More stuff about buildings and food

As I was putting some jelly on bread the other day, I got to thinking about how we get our food. Industrial farms use petroleum based fertilizer, harvest their crops with either huge machinery or often exploited migrant workers, process and store the food in refrigerated containers, ship it across the country to distribution centers, then it is trucked to stores to which we drive our cars (sometimes many miles away) to buy this “fresh” food. Even if what we are buying would naturally grow in our local environment, usually it is produced somewhere else and shipped to us. In most places, fresh, local food is hard to find except in local farmer’s markets. When in season, we are often lucky enough to get fruits and vegetables that actually taste like what they are supposed to. But we get so used to eating them all the time that we continue to buy them when they are out of season, usually bearing only a vague resemblance to the in-season product. Personally I am not a big tomato eater, but I certainly wouldn’t bother with those pale red balls available in the winter. I definitely avoid overpaying for tasteless berries in the off season, even though I miss them. We should be eating more naturally “processed” foods- jellies, nut butters, canned tomatoes, beans, etc. when they are not in season instead of paying too much for bad imitations that have been shipped half way around the world to our supermarkets. Hopefully these foods will someday be grown locally in large enough supplies so we can all taste them when they are perfectly fresh, then eat them out of jars and cans in the off season, or just remember how they tasted until they reappear next year. We want the real thing, but we just can’t get it, so we settle for a pale imitation of the fruit we remember.

How does this relate to buildings, and in particular, building green? Think back to how buildings were built in generations and millennia past – passive solar cave dwellings in the southwestern US that stay cool in the blistering sun and warm over cold nights; southern bungalows with wide porches to shade from the summer sun, open hallways for ventilation, and high ceilings to keep the living areas cooler. Examples of appropriate regional architecture can be found everywhere, but building professionals have ignored them for years, recreating English castles in the bayou, Mediterranean villas in the north, Cape Cods in the Pacific Northwest, and the list goes on. We build homes with flat roofs and no overhangs where there are torrential rains, practically guaranteeing building failure. We take homes out of their natural environment, ship them (theoretically) across the country to another climate and, poof, they start underperforming, just like the out of season fruit shipped across the country. Think of these incorrectly located buildings like out of season strawberries – they are pale imitations of buildings. We need to get back to the basics by working to keep both our food and our buildings in their natural environments. We will be happier and healthier as a result.

Green or Wrong

Build it green or build it wrong. Yep, I said it. Green is right. If you don’t build green, you are doing at least some of your work wrong. Not all of it, but certainly some of it. If you are building everything the right way, then you are probably building green, or very close. I am totally over the nay-sayers who don’t believe that you can seal a crawlspace or build a house very tight. I gave a presentation on Green Building last year in Michigan and there were two old-school builders who consistently argued with me, insisting that they could never do the things I was suggesting - all of which were fairly standard high performance building techniques. During this exchange, another builder stood up and asked the group if their business was slow. Almost the entire room raised their hands, agreeing that business was off. The builder said that he built green, did most of the things I was talking about, and he had a one year backlog of work. After hearing that, the two old codgers left the room and let me get back to my presentation. Unfortunately for them, they could not deal with the idea of so much change and had to move to the denial stage. My sincere hope is that they are the minority in the industry. Practicing building professionals need to make the transition to green building sooner rather than later. If they don't, they need consider getting out of the business. Maybe look at selling used cars.

What is Really Green?

I recently read an incredible book, The Omnivore’s Dilemma, by Michael Pollan. He writes about the food industry - industrialized farming, huge cattle feedlots, how corn is a prevalent ingredient in almost everything we consume, and other delightful subjects. It is enough to make you stop eating altogether. One subject he addresses is the idea of organic food. While its origins go back to JJ Rodale’s magazine Organic Gardening and Farming, first published in the 1940’s, the organic movement began to take off in the 1970’s fueled by an idealistic generation looking for change. We have recently seen an incredible resurgence in interest in organic food, but, interestingly, much of the food labeled organic is now produced on enormous factory farms rather than by the independent, local farmers that we see displayed in the pastoral pictures on the walls of Whole Foods. This is not to say that organic food is not better than regular food, but the requirements for "official" organic certification are costly enough that many small, natural, sustainable farmers are unable to have their food certified to meet the legal standards of “organic”.

That was a rather long way of getting to my point, which is, how are we to define “green” buildings? There is in the range of 100 different green building programs in operation today. These are run by utilities, HBA’s, cities, states, counties, non-profit and for-profit organizations, and the US government. They all have different, though similar, criteria, and varying levels of testing, from none to extensive, to certify a project as “green”. So where does that leave us? Like the natural farmers, there are likely contractors out there who are building green homes that meet or exceed the highest levels in the industry, but because they may not have the ability or money to certify through an official green building program, they may not get the recognition they deserve. On the other hand, there are some programs that have a low entry level and require no independent verification of the work, thereby allowing homes to be labeled “green” that may not even meet the building and energy code, and certainly do not perform as well as other unlabeled homes.

I don’t have an answer to this, although we may see one, or many, forthcoming in the next few years as green building programs start the big shake out and various governments start providing incentives and requirements for buildings to be built and remodeled green. Stay tuned – it will be a fun ride.

This post was originally published on www.housingzone.com

Walking Tall

Made it until Saturday before I drove again, and the only reason I did get in my car was to drive out to the local bike trail and do a long training ride. I plan to go close to another week without driving. The last week was interesting, took mass transit several times, bicycled to some stores, walked more. Feeling better, sleeping better, and maybe even losing some weight. The reason this is working is because the weather is great. I will have trouble avoiding my car when the temperature and humidity are both in the 90's in the summer and during our occassional cold winter days.
In any case, it is an interesting experiment, one I will do my best to keep up with.

Weird man walking (and riding) redux

Out of the blue, partially inspired by the insane gas crisis in Atlanta, I decided to see how long I could go without driving. Today is Wednesday, and the last time I was in my car was Saturday. Granted, I work out of my house, so it isn’t as difficult as it is for many, but I have made some big changes in the way I operate to accomplish this.

Sunday I rode about 3 miles to do some shopping, then rode to play Ultimate (my last gasp at retaining what little youth I have left)– the ride there was fine, the ride back less so. Monday I worked out of my home office all day, then rode about 8 miles to a meeting, and back home afterwards. I slept well. Tuesday I took MARTA, the local mass transit system, to a doctor’s appointment. A short (1/2 Mile) walk to the train station, read the paper on the ride, then about 2 blocks to the office. Nice weather, and it only took me about a half hour longer than if I had driven, and the cost was about the same as what I would have paid for parking. Later that day, another 3 mile (6 round trip) bike ride for some shopping, and walked to a local watering hole for a drink with a friend after dinner. Wednesday morning, I rode a few miles to a yoga class (man, am I a stereotype or what?), then back home. Went downtown by train to a meeting, then rode my bike to the local organic farmer’s market for some vegetables for dinner. Tomorrow, I plan to do another bike ride to go buy a new refrigerator – Energy Star tax holiday in Georgia – and no, I won’t take it home on the bicycle. Later that night, I am really excited, I am going to see my idol, Lewis Black, in concert. Need to figure out the arrangements, but I will either ride or take MARTA to a friend’s house. I have dinner plans Friday night with friends, they are figuring out how to accomodate my new religion. My plan is to not use my car for at least a week. Stay tuned.

More Certification and Designation Headaches

OK, so I’ve whined enough about the individual designations. Let’s talk about where the rubber meets the road – the buildings themselves. There are almost 100 local and regional green building programs out there with a wide range of requirements to get a building certified as green. Some have very stringent requirements including 3rd party testing of each house, others are a simple as the builder filling out a checklist and self certifying. I tend to prefer the former, where someone other than the builder is responsible for making sure the work is done right. In addition to that, some programs require that you test only a certain percentage of projects, assuming (usually incorrectly) that if you do some of your projects right, they will all be right. I like the idea of testing every project every time to make sure that they are as high performance as expected.

Beyond the local and regional programs, we now have several national options. Energy Star has been around the longest. Until recently, it only covered energy efficiency, although they are in the process of expanding to include indoor air quality and water savings, bringing them more in line with other green programs. LEED for Homes, a program of the US Green Building Council, is probably the highest profile program. It is available for new homes and total gut renovation projects, and has some very stringent, if obtuse requirements that will tend to limit it to builders who can deal with the administrative complexities. This year, NAHB released their new National Green Building Program (doesn’t that name just roll off your tongue?). Created specifically to give builders an alternative to LEED for Homes, it is a program that is both stringent and more manageable at the same time. At the lower end, it leaves the option for self certification, but at the higher end it does require the 3rd party verification that every program should have. This program will eventually have a remodeling component, but it currently only addresses new homes. Time will tell which program, if any, takes control of the market and becomes “the” standard out there.

Thus far, programs that certify residential remodeling are limited to a few local areas such as Atlanta, Minneapolis, and Scottsdale AZ, (my apologies to any that I have missed). USGBC developed an interesting set of guidelines for remodeling (full disclosure – I was one of the co-authors), but they are not planning on certifying renovation projects anytime soon. Home Performance with Energy Star is another option for renovators to learn about green remodeling and provide certification for their projects.

I haven’t made up my mind where I stand on these programs. I like the idea of local programs which address regional climate conditions and building conventions. I also like the idea of a national standard and brand for green building.

Conclusions? Who knows where this will end up and which program will end up on top? There are many options out there, all I can say is take advantage of them, learn about green building and remodeling and get your projects individually tested and certified. Having spent most of the last 8 years working on this, I can tell you it will be worth the trouble.

This post was originally published on www.housingzone.com

Green designations and certifications

I’m going to go out on a limb here and complain about what NARI and NAHB are doing with their green professional designations. Hopefully I won’t make too many enemies, but I think this deserves some serious discussion. NAHB has a 2 day green building course which leads to obtaining the CGP (Certified Green Professional) designation. NARI has a 12 week long web seminar (once a week), that leads to their GCP (Green Certified Professional) designation. Talk about confusing, just shoot me now. I was involved, at varying levels, with both the training and the criteria for the designations, and, not uncharacteristically, I was the fly in the ointment in many discussions about how to make them more, rather than less, rigorous. I attempted to require extensive experience and a history of having completed projects that were certified by a third party in order to obtain these designations, but those requirements were not included.

I have been concerned for a long time that there are too many people out there calling themselves green builders and remodelers who are not really doing truly “green” projects. It concerns me even more that, now that these designations are becoming more common, that consumers will see them as “certification” that the work that these professionals do will be green. It may or may not, but in any case, the average consumer will not have any way of knowing unless they are extremely well educated in the subject. Don’t get me wrong, I am very excited that the training is available, and lots of professionals are taking advantage of it to expand their knowledge. I am just very wary of expanded “greenwashing” that we will likely be seeing as the suddenly trendy green movement explodes in the market. Green building is not always easy, and it is very possible that a professional with a designation will not have all the experience they need to make the right set of decisions, creating more problems than had they not even tried to build green.

Stay tuned for more on this subject….

Getting in Hot Water

As homes become more and more efficient, we need to look for new frontiers in energy and resource conservation. One of the next ones on the horizon is water heating. We have many great options for heating water efficiently including tankless heaters, super high efficiency tank units, geothermal, and solar. They all have their pros and cons, depending on the particular project. One thing that they all have in common is that none of them are effective when connected to a poorly designed hot water distribution system. I have heard stories of homeowners replacing their old tank water heater with a new tankless unit, only to be upset that the hot water didn’t arrive at their faucet instantly, and incorrectly blaming it on the new heater. The tankless heater was working perfectly, heating water only when needed, but the problem arises when that nice hot water needs to travel seventy or eighty feet to the fixtures, wasting water which runs down the drain waiting for the hot water to arrive, and wasting any energy used to heat water that remains in the pipes and cools off. We need to reconsider how we move hot water around the house using structured plumbing systems, on demand hot water pumps, and just plain common sense when designing our homes. We put too little thought into our house design, sticking bathrooms all over the place when placing them in close proximity to a water heater would save energy and water with little or no effort.

This post was originally published on www.housingzone.com

Watch Out for Vampires

Not the Dracula type, the household ones we all have. Vampires are all the little (and some big) electronics that are always in the on position. Just look around your house at night and you will see all the little lights that are on – clocks, cable TV boxes, DVD players, stereos, TV’s charges, appliances, and the list goes on. While houses have become more efficient over the years, the extra electrical load has offset most if not all of the energy savings from efficiency. Manufacturers are currently redesigning chargers for cell phones and other devices to cut down on their standby power usage when not charging, which is a start. Unplugging many of these when not in use helps to cut down on electricity usage. Using a power strip that you can turn off is a low tech way to accomplish this. It is possible to use remote control switching to turn off selected equipment automatically when you leave the house. Unfortunately, programming is often lost and clocks are reset, so many of these products can’t be turned on and off regularly without great inconvenience. What we need is for manufacturers to redesign their products so they use less, or preferably no power when we aren’t using them. We may have to suffer a little by waiting a minute or two for the TV to turn on, but in the long run, changes like these will allow us to enjoy our luxurious lifestyles longer than not making them.

This post was originally published on www.housingzone.com

Water

Parts of the country are seeing truly historic drought conditions. Water supplies are dwindling in the south, yet truly effective conservation measures are avoided like the plague. In Georgia they actually relaxed water restrictions on the same day a court decision came down denying the city of Atlanta the rights to water from the only significant lake in the area. Great governing! One local county just started requiring the replacement of inefficient plumbing fixtures with low flow units when homes are sold. This is a good start, but will barely scratch the surface of the problem.

In most of the country, the generation of electricity requires the use of fresh water. One study determined that 39% of our fresh water is used for power plants. So one of the best long term solutions to water shortages is to use less electricity. That means making homes more efficient and using fewer and more efficient appliances and lights. If we are smart, the current real estate crisis will lead us towards more reasonably sized and efficient homes, ultimately reducing our need for power, leaving more water to drink in the long term. We can survive without power – sweating is rarely fatal, and there are always more jackets and blankets to keep us warm, but we can’t live without water.

This post was originally published on www.housingzone.com

Get a Load of This!

Today’s subject has little, if anything, to do with green, but it is definitely curmudgeonly. I walked into Home Depot the other day and to my surprise (well only somewhat, as I had heard about this and was looking for it), I spy a flyer for their custom bath remodeling services. The interesting thing about the flyer is that the bath photograph was not a remodeling project. Why do I know, you ask? Well, because it is a bathroom in a new house I built in 2007. Not only is it not a remodeling project, it had nothing to do with Home Depot. Now, I don’t think there was any malicious intent in their using this photo. They probably got it from one of the manufacturers who provided products for the house. It ended up in their marketing department, or an outside agency, where someone putting together an ad, looking for a nice bathroom shot, ran across it and popped it. About a million printings later, and viola, I am famous in my anonymity, serving the purposes of the big orange box.

I don’t have any ill feelings towards them, as a matter of fact, I kind of appreciate finding something new to complain about. I was running out of ideas, and BOOM!, one lands in my lap. Hopefully they will learn the errors of their ways and change the photo. I would like to get credit for the work, but the chance of that is somewhere between zero and non existent, so I won’t hold my breath. In the meantime, I will just keep whining about it and sharing it with friends and foes alike.

This post was originally published on www.housingzone.com

Don't Drink From the Fire Hose

For many contractors, making the change to green can be challenging. There is so much to learn, changes in materials, procedures, and often it requires doing things that are completely different than you are used to. I have seen talented, experienced professionals walk away from green remodeling because the energy to make the change was just too great. Their problem is that they think they have to do everything at once, but they are wrong – you can go green in steps. In fact, you pretty much have to do it in steps. Trying to do everything at once is like drinking from a firehose – you will die before you quench your thirst. Learn about green, figure out what changes you can manageably handle on your first project, make those changes your standards, adding more on future projects. Try the drinking fountain instead of the fire hose, it’s easier and more satisfying.

This post was originally published on www.housingzone.com

Code is Only a D-

I can’t take credit for this line, it comes from Mark LaLiberte, a leader in building science. The fact that it isn’t original doesn’t make it any less valuable. Over the years, lots of remodelers talk about building “to the code”, as though they had a choice. If you don’t build “to the code” you are breaking the law. This is critically important in the case of the energy code. Most states have excellent energy codes that require contractors to build and renovate high performance homes. The problem is that most of those codes are not enforced. This allows us to create poorly performing buildings that waste energy and increase costs for the owners for years to come. Understand your energy code, then build better than it. We shouldn’t be proud of our D- work. Go for an A+!

This post was originally published on www.housingzone.com

The Green is Dead! Long Live the Green!

Not really, green is on the rise, but the name we seem to be stuck with isn’t a very good one. It is a very vague description, open to interpretation, confusion, deception, and abuse. Green is the name we are stuck with, at least for a while, but we need to be thinking about what we are doing with our homes that make them “green”, and figure out how to label it clearly with limited room for variation. To some, green means using natural materials. Others see it as super efficient homes. Many non-professionals instantly think of solar power when they think of green homes. It is like the blind men and the elephant. Green is whatever a particular person thinks it is at that particular time. There are some excellent programs that help to quantify what are green homes and renovations, but they are only a start. The challenge for builders and remodelers is to understand what makes their projects healthy, durable, efficient, and healthy, and incorporate those into all their projects, making them as “green” as possible.

This post was originally published on www.housingzone.com

Weird Man Walking

The Atlanta metro area, where I live, has the longest commute in the country (http://www.cobbrides.com/pdfs/Atlantans%20crank%20up%20commute%20times.pdf), has the 12th highest rate of pedestrian casualties (http://www.peds.org/theissue.htm), and only a fair mass transit system. Friends think it is weird that I walk and take public transportation, even though I only do it occasionally. I once took a 2 mile walk and had a friend stop me and ask if I was OK. I recently started taking mass transit to meet friends at movies to avoid driving during rush house and just give myself break. My friends were astonished – particularly since I drive a hybrid and get almost 50 mpg. Since I live in a relatively pedestrian friendly neighborhood, I regularly walk to the cleaners, the bank, the drug store, and various bars and restaurants. Every once in a while I bike somewhere, but being a big guy, I sweat a lot and can’t do that if I need to look respectable when I get there.

Unfortunately, the transit system is limited and typically takes longer than driving, so I usually drive to business meetings (although I do walk to some that are very close by). Since I don’t commute to work, (unless you call the walk from my bedroom to my breakfast room/office a commute), I drive less than most people.

So what’s my point? Well, I’m not really sure, but this whole idea that if you do anything different than most people you are seen as weird is starting to trouble me. How this relates to green building, at least in my opinion, is that too many homeowners expect that they don’t have to think about anything in their homes. We keep our windows sealed up tight and heat and air condition our homes even when the weather is nice, just because we are too lazy to turn off the thermostat and open some windows. Even worse, I know people who leave the AC running with doors and windows open. Others like to turn the heat up in the winter and sleep with the windows open. Lately I have been thinking about how to interconnect our HVAC systems with alarm sensors to turn them off when windows and doors are open. I like the idea, but while it is available in some high end home control systems, it is still too complicated and expensive for the average house. So this leads me to the thought that, why are we so lazy that we can’t just flip a switch and open some windows. Are we that useless? It reminds me of what happens to the humans in the movie Wall-E – if you haven’t seen it, go. Everyone is totally catered to and has become so bloated and lazy that they can’t even stand up anymore.

Enough whining for today. I’m going to act weird by opening my windows and taking a walk now.

This post was originally published on www.housingzone.com

Pervious Paving Really Works!

Pervious paving, or porous concrete is a great way to control storm water. It allows rainwater to drain into the ground instead of running off your property into the storm sewers. It helps keep rivers cleaner and replenish aquifers. Not convinced? check out this demonstration - on the left side, the pervious material soaks up all the, uh, liquid, while the right side puddles up.

Lipstick on a Pig

This is a re-post from early this year, long before the presidential race got caught up in this cute phrase:

That is what you get when you do green remodeling in the wrong order. The right order is making you are remodeling green from the beginning – air sealing and insulation, moisture control, and high quality HVAC systems for starters BEFORE you select the pretty “green” materials like bamboo floors, recycled tile and the like. If your project is leaky and inefficient, wasting energy and water, and is not durable, then no matter how many green materials you install, it will never be a green home, it will just be a pig that you put lipstick on.

While there are some materials that are really toxic and dangerous, they are really few and far between. Most available building materials can fit into a green renovation project, provided the project is truly green, and they are used properly.

If you want to remodel green, learn the basics by taking classes and getting good advice on your first projects. Make sure that the building is planned to be efficient and durable, then start looking at green products to include in the job.

This post was originally published on www.housingzone.com

Green Starts with BS - Redux

I have just temporarily relocated my blog to this location and will be reposting old entries as well as adding new ones regularly. I look forward to your comments.

Building Science, that is. Building science is the concept of the “house as a system” – every part of a house affects the other to make a complete, efficient, and well operating machine. For too long contractors have not taken a hard look at all the systems in a house and how they relate to one another. The framers do their thing, the HVAC sub does his (or hers), then the insulators to theirs, the house gets finished, and when its done, the owner complains of drafts, hot spots, humidity, mold, and, eventually, rotting siding and windows. Homes are incredibly complicated structures that need to be looked at very carefully to make sure they operate properly. We need to keep water out, heat in (or out, depending on the season), dehumidify when it is humid, keep the moisture in when it is dry, and, generally, make sure that the house is detailed correctly for local climate. High quality building science training is the key component of green remodeling. Make some time in your busy schedule to take a class or two to learn more about how homes work – you will be a better contractor for it.Links:
EEBA Houses that Work Training
Home Performance with Energy Star
NAHB Green Building for Building Professionals
NARI Green Remodeling Training
REGreen Guidelines

This post was originally published on www.housingzone.com