GreenBuildIndiana

Obama Administration Issues Lighting Rules to Increase Efficiency, Funding for Green Building Technologies

Reminding us that 7% of energy use is from lighting, and that 40% of all energy use is from the buildings in which we live and work, the Obama administration issued new standards for efficiency in lighting used in commercial and residential buildings.

“We believe this will be the biggest efficiency savings from any appliance standard ever,” said Steven Nadel, executive director of the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy, an advocacy organization.

More good news: significant funds from the Recovery Act funds are to be allocated to key green building technologies.

• $346 million in stimulus funds for development and deployment of more energy smart buildings -- and the technology and equipment to support them.
• $50 million for R&D to bring high-performance products to market more quickly.
•  $100 million for Advanced Building Systems Research, to accelerate development of zero-net energy buildings.
• $53.5 for expanding and speeding formation of partnerships among organizations with large building portfolios.
• $72.5 million to expand Energy Star and for training on how to implement more energy efficient commercial building codes, and to adapt the DOE Appliance Standards to better address innovative technology.
• $70 million for municipalities, states and utilities to increase training and workforce handling efforts toward  retrofitting of existing homes and construction of new, energy-saving homes.

Particularly exciting to me is the funding provided for research into solid-state lighting. Solid-state, or LED lighting, has shown the greatest promise in cutting energy use, but its adoption has been very slow due to the cost of LED bulbs. This will really help accelarate adoption of the technology.

Image from Inhabitat.com

Low and No VOC Paints

 GIven the tight envelope of our home, the avoidance of Volatile Organic Compounds, or VOCs, becomes even more important.  Chemicals in paint, cabinets, carpets, and anything that is brought into the house can continue to emit from their source over time.  Carpet absorbs these compounds and emits them over an even' longer period. 

Paint chemistry is very mysterious, given the competition among manufacturers and their reluctance to share the ingredients of their "secret sauce".  But given that paint occupies so much of the surface of our interiors, and given that we are exposed to the chemicals in paint both during its application and during months and even years afterwards, it is important to know what's in the paint. 

Good luck: aside from the degree of VOCs in the paint, manufacturers aren't required to disclose anything on the paint can label.  Claims about VOCs are tested before the maker can tout them, however, so that becomes an important way to gauge the "greenness" of the paint.

If you want to know more about what's in your paint or any other product, you can ask for the Materials Safety Data Sheet (MSDS) but you have to take the time to write to the company to get it.  Some MSDSs are available onlilne. 

For interior primer we are using Benjamin Moore's Eco-Spec brand, which is about as close to zero VOC that you can get. We switched to Pratt & Lambert's RedSeal Porcelain paint for the interior colors, because it's not as pricey but still very low VOC.

Treehugger has a good list of affordable low and no-VOC paints.

First Green Business Networking Event: Business Incentives to Go Green

 
On Thursday I attended the first Green Business Networking event and wanted to share information.  Sadly, I have left my notes at work, so I'll just point to the Green Business Networking posting where info is summarized. Congratulations to Lena Lucas of MyHomeGreenPages for launching this important group and putting on a fantastic debut event.

There is a great deal of money coming to Indiana for weatherization.  When I find my notes I'll share as much as I can on that score.

Image Credit: Diamond Environmental

Pew Research Reports Green Jobs Grow Faster Despite Recession

The Pew Charitable Trusts has just published the first report on green energy jobs across the 50 states. The Clean Energy Economy: Repowering Jobs, Businesses and Investments Across America

"...despite a lack of sustained policy attention and investment, the emerging clean energy economy has grown considerably—extending to all 50 states, engaging a wide variety of workers and generating new industries. Between 1998 and 2007, its jobs grew at a faster rate than overall jobs. Like all other sectors, the clean energy economy has been hit by the recession, but investments in clean technology have fared far better in the past year than venture capital overall. Looking forward, the clean energy economy has tremendous potential for growth, as investments continue to flow from both the government and private sector and federal and state policy makers increasingly push for reforms that will both spur economic renewal and sustain the environment. By 2007, more than 68,200 businesses across all 50 states and the District of Columbia accounted for about 770,000 jobs that achieve the double bottom line of economic growth and environmental sustainability."

Imagine what we could do of we tried "sustained policy attention and investment".

Greywater Guerrillas Break California's Water Laws to Save Water

Two years ago I posted about the Greywater Guerrillas, at the time a little-known group challenging  California's water laws by doing illegal things like rechanneling "greywater" -- water that has been used for things like washing clothes and dishes -- for other uses, like watering the lawn.

Starting with small acts of civil disobedience, the group has developed a growing media profile that is leading the way to solutions for California's severe drought.

This weekend the group was featured in an NPR story about a washing machine part that allows spin cycle water to be channeled to the garden.

This is just the first step in the process of addressing the question: Why are we still using drinking water to wash our clothes and dump on our plants, lawns, and cars?  Visit the American Rainwater Catchment Systems Association website to see how we can harvest rainwater for these uses.

Image Credit: Rainwater Catchment Systems Association

DA Solar --- Good Source of Alternative Energy Products and Resources

Doug Arrison, owner of DA Solar, sent me an email the other day and called attention to his website, which is a great mix of online retail and information resource.  Check it out for alternative energy products for Home, Office, School, Camping and Auto, plus a good selection of books on alternative energy. 

Image Credit: DA Solar

Switch to LED Lighting Could Decrease Greenhouse Gas Emissions by 50 per cent in 20 Years

LED (light emitting diode) lights, till now mostly used only on baseball diamond scoreboards and your cellphone, are now being installed by forward thinking cities like Ann Arbor, MI, and electricity hogs like Buckingham Palace, according to an article in the New York Times today.

Though CFLs (compact fluorescent lights) have been the most efficient source of lighting in recent years, it is clear that they are only a bridge technology. Advantages of LEDs include:

• LEDs turn on quickly and are able to be dimmed
• LEDs require no special disposal and are non-toxic
• They are also twice as efficient as CFLs
• LEDs last such a long time that disposal is not an issue

"Studies suggest that a complete conversion to the lights could decrease carbon dioxide emissions from electric power use for lighting by up to 50 percent in just over 20 years; in the United States, lighting accounts for about 6 percent of all energy use. A recent report by McKinsey & Company cited conversion to LED lighting as potentially the most cost effective of a number of simple approaches to tackling global warming using existing technology."

The barrier to introduction has been cost, but that is rapidly coming down. And, considering that LEDs are semi-permanent "fit and forget" fixtures, they are becoming more rapidly introduced than had been predicted.  President Obama's stimulus plan is providing incentives that will increase the pace.

Interview with Michelle Kaufmann, Creator of the Glidehouse

Don't have time for a long post, but wanted to make sure you don't miss the Treehugger Interview with Michelle Kaufmann and her assessment of the Green Prefab industry.  we've been impressed by her work ever since we saw a model of the Glidehouse in the National Building Museum exhibit a few years ago.   Image Credit: Treehugger

The Greening of Southie

 The Greening of Southie is a documentary about the building of Boston's first LEED-certified residential building, the union workers who built it, and the learning process that all of the participants went through.  Suspicious at first, the construction workers begin to feel pride in creating a new type of building that will use less water, less energy, and re-energize the community.  The movie has been screened in cities around the U.S.  It doesn't shrink from the conflicts posed by building a new green condo building, in a working-class community where many of the residents can't afford to live there.

Which begs the question: when will we start to apply green building practices to affordable housing.

See an excerpt here.

"It presents the challenges and excitement of building green with equal measures of idealism and cynicism, juxtaposing the suits who see the project as ideas and paper with the laborers who actually have to put the building together. As the project grows, the two come closer to understanding the other side." Joel Bittle, GreenBuildingElements.com

From the same filmmakers who created King Corn, a portrait of America's vast system of corn subsidies and agribusiness lobbyists, and the obese and unhealthy populace it has helped to create. 

Our "Radically Energy Efficient" Home Gets Nice Local Press

Thanks to Mike Leonard and Jeremy Hogan -- and to the Bloomington Herald-Times, for the great feature story on our energy-efficient house today in the Sunday paper.

"The home that David and Carol Gulyas are building is based on many of the cutting-edge concepts in green construction and energy conservation, and while it most closely approximates concepts employed in the German passive home, there are differences.

'The German model really emphasizes being airtight, and while that’s a fundamental concept in this house, too, we have a different attitude about quality of life,' Gulyas said. 'In Bloomington, we like to open the windows and let the air in. Feel a breeze. So we’ve incorporated systems to accommodate that as well.'" --Mike Leonard, Bloomington Herald-Times, May 17, 2009.

Systems and features that will make the house so radical include:

• Energy modeling and design by Marko Spiegel and CTI
• Cool, heat reflecting metal roof finish
• 12-inch thick SIP walls and roof from Porter SIPS in Michigan
• Triple-pane Loewen windows
• Ten inches of insulation under the floor slab
• Energy Recovery Ventilator

Plus some not-so-radical features such as excellent construction quality provided by Chris Sturbaum's Golden Hands Construction crew, and outstanding interior design and construction management provided by David Gulyas (full disclosure, the latter is my husband).