Building Capacity

Resilient Design Promises Better Life Safety, And We Need It, says Alex Wilson

After participating recently in the King County Sustainable Cities Roundtable to discuss “Beyond Net Zero: Resilience, Regeneration, and Social Justice" Alex Wilson agreed to an interview for the Building Capacity Blog. Alex is a long time advocate and leader in the sustainable building movement, going back to the late 70s, when he worked as a solar advocate in New Mexico, then in New England when he was the Executive Director for NESEA (Northeast Sustainable Energy Association), and again when he founded his own company in 1985, BuildingGreen. BuildingGreen has accomplished many things, but is probably most well known for being the publisher of Environmental Building News, which this writer believes is one of the most authoritative publications out there on the subject.

After many years of being at the helm of BuildingGreen, you've chosen a new focus for your energy: the Resilient Design Institute (RDI). Why this and Why Now? I feel like I've accomplished a great deal. At the same time, when I hear what climate scientists are telling us about the risks we're facing, I don't believe we're making rapid enough progress. I'm not really advocating different design strategies; for the most part Resilient Design includes the same kinds of things we've been focusing on with sustainable building. What I am advocating is a different rationale for doing these things: life safety.

So you're chucking the "it's the right thing to do" rationale? Not totally; it is still the right thing to do, and for some in our community, that has provided sufficient motivation. But it's clear that not enough of us are motivated by that.

Isn't that selfish? It definitely puts in a self-interest framework. I'm okay with that as long as what we're doing is creating something that's better for everyone.

You mention the lack of rapid enough progress, and imply that climate change is a primary source of your concern. In addition to "moving" people who haven't been moved before, what do you think this new focus on resilience in the built environment offers? We've been working on mitigating climate change for many years, for example advocating energy efficiency building strategies that reduce carbon emissions. But being realistic about the progress we've made, even in the best case scenario, CO2 levels are going to continue rising; we’ll see a warming trend, lots of impacts due to climate change. Resilience brings in the concept of adaptation.

What is RDI's first project, and how is it going? We’re ramping up. We've organized a great team, including an advisory board of some of the leading thinkers in our field. One of our first tasks is to seek funding for our work, which is fourfold:

1) To be a clearinghouse of practical information on resilient design primarily via our website, but including a series of fact sheets and other informational materials.

2) To provide a think tank to host gatherings of key thinkers and strategists that focus on various aspects of resilience. For example, we're hoping to convene members of the insurance industry, which has an obvious and direct interest in buildings and communities that are more resilient, especially in the face of catastrophic events; or members of the utility industry to discuss "islanding" to enable decoupling in the event of a disaster; or members of the energy modeling software community to discuss the role that such software could play in predicting drift temperatures of buildings without heat or air conditioning. (Editor: Photo shows a  simple exterior hurricane shutter on a house in Florida that not only protects the window during storms, but also provides shade--which will be particularly important during power outages. Credit: Alex Wilson)

3) To advocate the integration of resilience goals into green building policies and practices, both in the course of normal construction and remodel, and in the massive rebuild (and often underutilized) opportunities that occur in the case of a disaster such as Katrina. For example, we have begun conversations with the US Green Building Council regarding LEED pilot credits addressing resilient design. We're also looking at how resilience might be reflected in the International Green Construction Code.

4) To develop a resilient community assessment methodology, and eventually use the results of those assessments to inform recommendations for the development of public policy. I'm talking today to folks in Brattleboro about the possibility of using the Town as a case study for this aspect of our work. We want to learn how to assess the vulnerability of primarily smaller towns, highlighting their resilient features, and identifying areas for improvement. We'll look at the community as a whole, but also key buildings in an emergency. For example, the hospital that is intended to provide shelter in a crisis: does it have operable windows to allow for ventilation during an extended power outage when fuel for the generator might be depleted? Many new hospitals have inoperable windows.

Are there any ways where sustainable building and resilience conflict? I think there are aspects of green building that at some level may be in opposition to resilience. For example, redundancy is an important aspect of resilience, while efficiency is more in line with green building. This is fine; we'll need to rethink some strategies. But in most cases, the sustainability and resilience are synergistic and work well together.

Does it really matter what we call it? Terminology is important. After Hurricane Katrina I spent five years promoting "passive survivability" in articles and talks. Unfortunately the term conjured up a bunker mentality and didn't get the traction I'd hoped for. Resilience has a much more positive feel to it. I did note though that after Hurricane Sandy, the topic of "passive survivability" received significant attention in stakeholder conversations hosted in New York City by the Urban Green. Perhaps the more serious term makes sense once you've been throttled by a storm, and seriously considering how to survive another disaster.

Much of resilience research and application has been focused on the ability of humans to bounce back in surprising or traumatic circumstances. How do you see this applying to buildings? A resilient building is one where you can throw anything at it, and it does okay. Cut off power, heating fuel, throw wind and rain at it, flood it -- a resilient building will hang in there.

It has grit. Exactly. Buildings in general are about providing us with shelter. A resilient building will actually do that even after an event.

Is it possible for a single building to be resilient? Or does it require a certain scale for the resilience concept to be applicable -- for example a neighborhood? You raise an important point. Focusing on the building itself is important; there are a lot of aspects in building design that contribute to resilience, especially in the case of residences and public buildings that serve as emergency shelters. But an equally important contributor to a building's resilience is actually its transportation energy dependence -- which broadens the conversation to location. Looking at the community scale is very important; that's why we're hoping to develop the community assessment methodology I mentioned previously.

Nonetheless, what are some examples of resilient building features in residences? Specific features will be different depending on whether the building is a single family detached or high-rise. But generally, you want to optimize your energy efficiency to maintain reasonably comfortable temperatures even without fuel and/or electricity. In rural areas, one of the biggest challenges is the inability to pump water out of your well if your power goes out. This is where redundancy comes into play. Including a submersible hand pump that can be attached to a food-rated hose or fill buckets in the same well as your electric pump will provide water through a crisis. There are versions now that include features that prevent freezing, so the pump will work in the winter months. (Editor: Photo shows a hand pump made in Maine by Bison Pumps. This pump fits into a standard drilled well and the above-ground portion replaces the sanitary cap on the well casing. The unit can pump from a static head of up to 200 feet. Credit: Alex Wilson.)

Capturing and storing rainwater is another resilient strategy. PV also offers opportunities. The issue right now is that 95% of PV systems out there are grid-tied and will not function with the grid down. There are now inverters that allow use of PV-generated electricity during the day even during power outages. With minimal battery back-up to establish the proper waveform, such systems can be used during the day to re-charge the fridge, pump water, and so forth.

There are also design strategies that are aimed at addressing specific disasters. For example, the Miami Dade Building Code includes "storm design" adaptive strategies to provide better safety in hurricanes and major storms. These should be adopted throughout the eastern U.S. And in areas subject to wildfire (which will likely become more prevalent due to climate-change induced drought) Firewise Construction Practices should be adopted. I think the most common cause of homes burning down in wildfires are from embers blowing through the soffit vents into the attic, so incorporating ember-excluding soffit vents makes sense. In many cases the strategies can be implemented immediately, are pretty intuitive, and very affordable. But not always; super-insulating the nation's housing is far from trivial.

Schools are used a lot as emergency shelter. Any guidance on making schools resilient? For schools an important consideration is daylighting, which will reduce the energy requirements considerably, and reduce the wear and tear on emergency generators during power outages. Within 48 hours of Hurricane Sandy, most generators were no longer working; they were not designed for continuous use or they simply ran out of fuel and no more was available. (Which leads to another needed innovation -- better, more efficient generators.) (Editor: Photo shows a flood barrrier  at the New England Youth Theater. These were deployed when Hurricane Irene came through and prevented hundreds of dollars of damage. While the building was above the 100-year flood elevation, flood water came up to within an inch-and-a-half of the top. Credit: Jerry Stockman.)

Can you differentiate an adaptive design from a resilient design? We tend to use the terms  synonymously. Adaptive design recognizes long term trends that could impact life safety in the future. For example we should assume higher summer design temperatures. For buildings that are not currently in the flood areas but close by, designers should consider the potential for sea level rise. Culverts should be able to handle bigger storms. In Vermont, culverts that were rapidly overwhelmed in Hurricane Irene in 2011 have been replaced with double or triple the capacity.

Do you have any suggestions you'd like to give our readers? Three things: First, with any home addition, renovation, or window replacement project, look for opportunities to improve the building's energy performance. It will make your home, or the homes of your clients safer now and in the future—and it will save money and improve comfort. Second, get involved right away with planning boards to try to influence policies—for example, transportation policies to reduce reliance on the automobile. Pedestrian and bike friendly options are not "just" an amenity, nor just a mitigation measure to reduce carbon emissions, but can now be justified as a smart way to maintain mobility in the event of fuel shortages or outages. Third, RDI would love to hear from you. What ideas do you have to improve resilience at the building and community scale? Please let us know. (Editor: you can email Alex at the Institute's Website)

Kathleen O'Brien is Editor of Building Capacity Blog, and contributes monthly to the Daily Journal of Commerce's Green Building Blog. She has been in the sustainable development field for nearly three decades. She provides consulting on special projects for O'Brien & Company, the firm she founded over 20 years ago, and provides leadership training and mentoring through her legacy project: The Emerge Leadership Project. Her book The Northwest Green Home Primer, is popular with both professionals and the public. Kathleen also had the pleasure of working with Alex at NESEA in the mid-1980s, when solar panels were being taken OFF the white house roof, and the term "green building" had not yet been chris tened. Photo credits: Alex Wilson

Window Retrofit Dilemma – Low E or No Low E? Alistair Jackson, CSBA, LEED for Homes AP responds:

Barbara Loomis, Marketing Coordinator of Wood Harbinger would like to upgrade four, 12-year-old casement windows on the upper floor of her historic home located in Western Washington. Since the windows were installed by a previous owner before the house was placed on the Historic Register they can be replaced with "like kind." Suppliers are telling her she should buy Low-E windows. She's concerned about losing the benefit of the sun's energy and light, precious commodities in the Norhwest. What are her options? Should she surrender to Low E?

The windows in question include one window that faces a few degrees East of South East, two windows that face a few degrees South of South West, and a fourth window that faces North East. For this purpose we'll focus on the southeast/southwest facing windows, all of which are shaded from the summer sun through much of the day by two mature, deciduous trees.

The answer is yes, Barbara, yes to Low-E in your circumstances, but not the one the vendors are trying to sell you. In the end, that means the best, and most logical choice for your windows will cost you more than the standard Low-E package.

It is a quirk of market dynamics and politics that has resulted in the common misunderstanding that a “Low-E” window keeps the house heat in and the solar heat out. Window distributors and installers prefer to offer the same window packages from the Mexican border to the 49th parallel. Since most of the construction activity in that territory in recent years has been in areas where air conditioning is common, windows distributors have tended to focus on Insulated Glazing Units (IGU)s with low U-factor and low Solar Heat Gain Coefficient (SHGC). (For those who crave the details, see "technical details," below.) Unfortunately, that's not the best combination for a heating dominated climate like ours in the Pacific Northwest.

In the wake of the recent “economic softening,” a group of politicians compounded this problem (in the language of tax credits that were part of the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act) by requiring that windows that qualified for credit must meet the 30/30 rule; that is, they must have both U-factor and SHGC values below 0.30. The result has been that window marketers have even less incentive to mass-market windows with a SHGC above 0.30. A smart business decision, perhaps, but not good for energy efficiency.

But high SHGC windows can be found! Major glass suppliers, including Pilkington, Cardinal, PPG,  and Guardian, all offer Low-E glass that has a high SHGC. Pilkington for example, claim that double glazed windows using their Energy Advantage  Low-E glass can provide whole window u-factor below 0.30 and whole window SHGC of 0.50 or above.

These - U-0.30, SHGC-0.50 - are good numbers to use as a performance specification for this window replacement.

(Be sure to check that the U-factor and SHGC are listed as “whole window,’ not “center of glass.” The former is the type of data that will be listed on the NFRC label (National Fenestration Rating Council – NFRC) on the windows. The latter only addresses the glass performance, not the frame, and will tend to give lower u-factors and higher SHGCs, so can be deceptive.)

Unfortunately, from most window suppliers, this glazing specification will be a custom order – meaning more time and cost.  At risk of being unpatriotic, it might be worth looking to Canada for an off-the-shelf Low-E/High SHGC window. Our neighbors to the North seem to have cold climate glazing performance figured out.

If a custom window is the answer, at least it will also allow Loomis to select a window design that is more consistent with the style of her home. Good luck!

 

Technical details for those who want them: Heat energy passes through windows in two primary ways.

• Thermal conduction: Glass is a good conductor of heat so if air one side of a pane of glass is warm and the other side is cold, heat will flow by conduction from warm to cold. In energy efficient windows, this characteristic of glass is generally addressed by using two or three layers of glass, separated by a gas- and moisture-tight spacer at the edge and a void filled with inert gas that is a poor thermal conductor. This is what we call double- or triple-glazing but is more technically known as an Insulated Glazing Unit or IGU. Thermal conduction is expressed as a U-factor between 1 and 0 – a low U-value means less thermal conduction. U-value is the inverse of the more common R-value (resistance to thermal transfer) used for insulation. So if you divide 1 by the U-value of a window (or other material), you get its R-value, and vice versa.
• Thermal Radiation: Glass also allows heat to pass through it via infrared radiation, simply illustrated by sitting in a window seat on a sunny day, feeling the warmth of the sun through the glass. We want that warmth to come in during the heating season, but perhaps not during the summer when it might overheat the house. This radiation effect also works in reverse. In the heating season (Fall, Winter, Spring) heat from the warm surfaces (including your skin) inside of your house escapes through the windows as infrared radiation to the cold surfaces outside your house. This affect is addressed by coating the glass or installing thin films between the panes of glass that are made from materials that have low emissivity – hence Low-E. These materials are designed to reduce the amount of long-wave length infrared radiation that can pass through the glass, while allowing the shorter wave-lengths of visible light to pass.  A window’s ability to allow or prevent solar radiation from passing through is expressed as a Solar Heat Gain Coefficient or SHGC between 1 and 0 – the more radiation that can pass, the higher the number.

Low-E Terminology: The fact is that Low-E coatings don’t just reflect heat in one direction. They tend to have an effect on the rate of thermal transfer in both directions, though the extent of this effect varies with the type of coating used (research Pyrolitic and Sputtered coatings for more information). It also depends which surface of the glass the Low-E coating is located on. Typically, this has been limited to the protected surfaces facing into the cavity between the panes, but some treatments are hard enough to withstand being located on the outer surfaces, creating more performance options. It is quite possible to create an IGU that reduces thermal transfer by conduction – a low U-value - but allows solar radiation to pass – a high SHGC. For those interested in even more detail, there’s a great resource at the Efficient Windows Collaborative.

Alistair Jackson, CSBA is a Principal at O’Brien & Company. He was involved in the development of the original LEED for Homes Pilot Rating System and is, among other things, the Quality Assurance Designee (QAD) for O’Brien & Company’s role as LEED for Homes Provider. He is a strong advocate for market-led innovation and market transformation towards sustainability. He is also a father of two – and impatient for change towards a better future.

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Gut Rehab: Groll Residence Turns 1918 Home from “Leaky” to Green

Green Gut Rehab Serves as Building Science Laboratory for Guild’s 2011 Green Home Tour: Interview with Colleen Groll, CSBA, LEED AP Homes, Energy Star Verifier and Performance Tester

Colleen Groll, Residential Services Manager and Senior Project Associate at O’Brien & Company, is in the process of finishing up a gut rehab in attempt to convert a leaky 1918 “fixer” into an energy-efficient, comfortable, and healthy home with optimized functionality.

Editor: What were you hoping to accomplish with your remodel? Colleen: Generally I was hoping to modernize an architecturally traditional shell, so it feels and functions more like 2011. My sustainable building goals were mainly around energy efficiency and indoor air quality. I was hoping to achieve LEED for Homes Platinum, but now I’ll be happy with Gold.

So you’ve had to rethink your LEED goals? Yes. We had major challenges working with existing 2x4 construction, lots of structural issues we had to address. Gut rehabs tend to expand exponentially as you open up the walls, and I ran up against the limits of my budget trying to get the home structurally sound and ready for earthquakes. We basically had to rebuild the house.

LEED Gold is pretty good, though! What have you been able to do to earn your spot in the Guild’s Green Tour? Green building features are incorporated throughout, including: double 2x4 walls for super insulation; high performance “heat mirror” windows; diligent air sealing; high-efficiency boiler for domestic hot water and radiant heating; heat recovery ventilation; water-efficient low flow fixtures; metal roof for future rainwater collection; and numerous salvaged materials such as flooring, cabinetry, doors.

We’re also offering a Building Science Laboratory to those touring the house. O’Brien & Company will have a team of Green Raters and Green Building Consultants on hand as we perform a Blower Door Test on the house four times each day (check the website for the schedule). We’ll also have an InfraRed (IR) camera on hand to demonstrate various diagnostic tools and techniques. We’ll be sealing up the last leaky areas during the tour. The ultimate question everyone asks is how much the project cost you.

Care to share? Sure, I’ve spent $167 a square foot.

 

What practical tips would you offer to someone trying the same thing, or others wanting to help others try the same thing?

• Do lots of up front research on green strategies to see what fits your situation.
• Have a great contractor with green building experience if possible, or at least one that is enthusiastic about the process.
• Plan on working hard on air sealing, the unsung hero of energy efficiency. I call it: spray, caulk, foam, then pray and repeat.
• Be prepared to recalibrate your goals. In a gut rehab, a lot of your budget may have to go, like mine did, on things like getting your shear walls, foundations, and house to foundation connections up to snuff.
• Prioritize. You can’t have it all. I wanted a functional, modern building that was energy efficient, healthy, and comfortable. Aesthetics are very important to me, but the green/energy efficiency goals came first.

Colleen’s project is one of 27 featured on the 2011 Northwest EcoBuilding Guild Tour this April 16th and 17th, and one of two associated with O’Brien & Company. The second is Bastyr University Housing, a LEED Gold project featured earlier this year in the Building Capacity Blog. For more info on how to build or remodel a home in the Cascadia region (southern British Columbia to Northern California) check out The Northwest Green Home Primer , which will be available for sale to visitors at Colleen’s project and at A Mighty House, another home on the tour.

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Relationships + Expertise = Successful Adoption of Hawaii- and Trade-Specific Green Building Curriculum. Interview with Karen Nakamura, CEO BIA-Hawaii

In partnership with the Building Industry Association (BIA) of Hawaii, O'Brien & Company has developed a green building training curriculum for the State. The content includes green building fundamentals for pre-apprentices and apprentices, green building practices for general contractors, and journey worker technical modules with in-depth information on trade-specific green building techniques. The final product is a set of flexible teaching materials including videos, activities and lesson plans that will be used by construction academies, colleges, unions and other trade and educational organizations to upskill incumbent workers and to prepare entry level workers for green building jobs. The project was funded through a grant from the Department of Labor and Industrial Relations’ Employment Training Fund.

Editor: You invested a lot in this project in terms of staff time and energy…why was it so important to your organization? KAREN: The Building Industry Association of Hawaii has been representing the interests of the building industry and its associates for over 50 years. It’s become pretty apparent that when our economy recovers, builders who don’t offer green building services won’t be offering any services. For builders who doubt this, I take them by the hand at our “Remodel it Right, Remodel it Green” Show to see the long lines of people waiting to talk to companies that sell green products and services. The general public is aware and interested. Yet, I would estimate that 90 percent of our industry members do not know what it means to build green.

In addition, this isn’t just about getting business, it’s about providing quality construction. As it says in our mission statement, we take a leadership role to “enhance the quality of life for the people of Hawaii.” It is critically important that we get everyone educated. This lull in our economy is the perfect time for us to focus on making sure that contractors, and the trades who work for them, know what they are doing. When we were performing an initial needs assessment in preparation for applying for the Department of Labor Grant, we identified several situations where a more informed labor base would have avoided missed opportunities, or even significant mistakes. We found projects where the radiant barriers were being installed inside side out. Not good.

So this is about helping your BIA membership? Actually it’s about helping the entire industry to be better technically informed and about the benefit this means for our community. In addition to being offered through formal training programs, the materials are available on-line, free to anyone who wants them. We have nearly 300 contractor members, but there are 11,000 contractors in our State. This represents a tremendous opportunity to improve our industry’s ability to deliver high quality, cutting edge green buildings. Contractors, members or not, will be able to access the green building fundamentals overview, and follow that up with the General Contractors module.

You mention two of the modules: green building fundamentals and general contractors. What are the others? There are three others: Carpenters, Masons, and Operating Engineers & Laborers.

Can you share more about the formal training programs? Absolutely! Probably the most exciting outcome of this project is the fact that the materials are being enthusiastically integrated into existing programs. Frankly, I was worried about acceptance by the Construction Academies in our high school system – our primary pre-apprenticeship programs. It turned out I didn’t have to worry. When we piloted the Green Building Fundamentals materials at our local Construction Academy, they totally embraced it, and looked immediately for ways to incorporate green concepts into their hands-on projects. Now it’s been adopted by construction academy in high schools throughout the state. Community Colleges are also integrating the modules into their classes on campus. Unions are using them as part of their apprenticeship and continuing education programs.

 What explains this level of acceptance? First, we had the right people at the table, and we were able to do that because we have long time relationships upon which we built new ones. This doesn’t happen overnight. We have built a positive relationship with key labor groups over the last several years through producing effective worker training programs, and by inviting unions in to recruit apprentices from these programs.

In addition, several of our members who are already involved with and committed to green building programs were able to bring in additional union, apprenticeship, and pre-apprenticeship program participation, as well as support from suppliers, specialty contractors, and manufacturers. We were able to partner with the laborers, the masons, the carpenters unions, and with contractors signatory to the operating engineers union. This project took our influence to an entirely new level.

  Over 75 organizations (including businesses, trade organizations, educational institutions, and non-profits) participated in putting these materials together, through focus groups to help design them and content reviews to refine them, and by providing photos, illustrations, and narrators for the videos.

Having the right people collaborating, meant we had access to practical, local expertise. We like to say this program was “Made in Hawaii.” We also know when to ask for help. We couldn’t have done this without green building curriculum development experts like O’Brien & Company. (Editor: Thank you, Karen!). I’m serious, if we had collaboration and buy-in without that kind of expertise we would have nothing; if we had the expertise but no buy-in the result would be the same. You need both.

Karen Nakamura has been the Executive Director of the Building Industries Association--Hawaii for close to two decades and has successfully led a family-owned and multi-generational contracting business in Honolulu. In Hawaii, she is known as someone who "gets things done!" The Building Capacity Blog is edited by Kathleen O'Brien, Founder and President of O'Brien & Company, and long-time advocate for local green building programs, and for green job creation. She was featured in the film Green Building: Jobs for the Future.

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How do you optimize a forced-air system to maintain a green home? Alistair Jackson, LEED AP for Homes Rater Responds: Part 3: HEAT SOURCE & CONTROLS

If not installed or maintained properly, forced-air heating and cooling systems can perform poorly, creating air quality problems and unnecessary expense. To optimize a forced-air system, you need to design or refine it to prevent leaks and pressure imbalances, protect it properly during construction (or make sure the ductwork is clean and sound), and use the right filter.

The performance spec of the heat (or cooling) source is also important, but it is critical to address the distribution system first before investing in better furnace and air handler performance. This article is the THIRD of four focused on optimizing forced-air systems on the topics of Distribution, Filtration, Heat Source (and Controls), and Ventilation.

The most effective upgrades to the heat source in a forced air system are typically: 1) Improve the thermal envelope of the home; and 2) Seal and insulate the ductwork. Once those things are done, investments in improving the furnace or heat pump are likely to be returned to the homeowner rather than being lost. If you’ve dealt with those, then consider the following.

CONTROLS

The simplest way to improve performance of an existing system is to add a programmable thermostat, if it doesn’t already have one. EPA claims you can reduce energy consumption by 5% to 15% with a properly programmed thermostat. But there’s the rub. Just installing it doesn’t help; it has to be properly programmed. Make sure it’s set up and the homeowner knows how to use and reprogram it. Heat pumps need a heat pump thermostat. In cold climates, many say it doesn’t pay to set back the night time temperature with a heat pump system, because the system will switch to electric strip heat during the early morning warm up cycle. However, the better heat pump thermostats include algorithms in their programming to lock out or minimize the use of strip heat at such times, which can significantly reduce overall energy consumption.

Zoning can be an energy-saving upgrade. This can be achieved in a forced air system by including motorized dampers to control air flow to each zone, controlled by multiple thermostats connected to a system controller that operates the heat source and air-handler. Once again, it is important to have a reasonably air-tight, thermally efficient building envelope before you think about this upgrade, or it may lead to unanticipated comfort and control issues. Zoning can be difficult to retrofit depending on the duct design and accessibility. Since turning off a zone reduces the effective size of the system it can result in too much back pressure which may damage the air handler. For this reason, zoned systems generally use oversized ductwork, though there are other ways to address this.

HEAT SOURCES

What if it is in the budget to think about upgrading the heat source? I’m only going to address a few big picture issues here, since this is a huge topic with a lot of great resources available on the web and elsewhere.

First - Make sure the person who designs the HVAC system does a proper room-by-room load calculation, using a reputable tool (ask for ACCA Manual J or equivalent) the actual design specs for the home (floor, wall and ceiling insulation values, glazing area and u-factors, envelope infiltration rates). This way, the heat source will be properly sized for the house and sufficient heat will be delivered to each room. If the loads are significantly different from the original system design, the ductwork may also be oversized and may require some redesign, too.

Second – If you have the option, locate the heat source and all the distribution ductwork inside the conditioned space, eliminating almost all the heat loss to the outside. This can be challenging in smaller homes or retrofit situations, but it can be done. If you are retaining the existing ductwork, this likely means relocating the thermal and pressure envelope to enclose the mechanical space and should only be done if you are using a closed combustion appliance.

Third - Consider a multi-stage heat source (gas furnace or high-efficiency electric heat pump). Since a heating system is designed to provide enough heat to keep the home comfortable on the coldest day of the year, it spends most of the heating season running at less than full capacity, which is generally less efficient. In a combustion system (furnace), this means the burner/gas valve has more than one heating level, so it can modulate how much gas is burned according to the amount of heat that is needed. A dual stage furnace might have a peak capacity of 60 kBTUh and a first-stage capacity of 30kBTUh. In a house with a peak heating load (the heat required to keep the inside of the house comfortable on the theoretical coldest day of the year) of 24 kBTUh (not uncommon for a typical, quality-built 3- or 4 bedroom house), such a furnace might NEVER use the full 60 kBTUh capacity.

In a heat-pump system, performance depends on the outdoor compressor unit’s ability to extract heat from the outside air – the colder the outside air, the harder it is to get heat from it. So on the cold days when more heat is needed inside, there is less heat available outside. In older heat pump systems, this situation triggers the “Emergency Heat” source, electric resistance heat strips in the heat exchanger. This is expensive and inefficient. There are a few cold climate forced air heat pumps that use multiple, staged compressors to address this. They seem to perform well but availability and technical support is currently limited and these systems do need specialist attention. To address this, some HVAC installers recommend hybrid systems with a heat pump AND a combustion furnace – the furnace replaces the electric emergency heat with a more efficient gas combustion supply. This is more efficient, but it adds a lot of cost and equipment up front.

The latest in heat pump technology features multi-stage or variable speed compressors. With this technology, heat pumps can deliver satisfactory heating performance even at outdoor temperatures well below freezing. The heat-extracting capacity of the outdoor units is matched to the outdoor temperature and the need for heat indoors, so that the system runs at its most efficient whatever the conditions. 

While this technology is commonly available in Ductless Mini-split heat pumps, which are a great solution for smaller homes with small heating and cooling loads (typically less than 1-ton per unit), it is not available in ducted forced air systems – at least not yet. In a smaller home with a thermally efficient envelope, however, abandoning the forced air system altogether and installing one or two ductless mini-split heat pumps may yield great, energy efficient and comfortable results. But that’s for another column.(Just to whet your appetite, we understand that several mini-split heat pumps, most notably the Fujitsu Halcyon system pictured in the photo, perform quite well in our Northwest climate).  We are waiting with baited breath to get the results from a two-winter study of heat pump technology being conducted by the Northwest Energy Efficiency Alliance.  For a great overview of heat pumps, check out Green Building Advisor.

Fourth – Use a variable speed fan. The air handler – the fan that moves air around the building – provides another opportunity to improve performance. Most air handler fans are single-speed units – they blow at the same speed whenever they are switched on, using the same amount of electricity. Variable speed fans (which typically use Variable Frequency Drives or VFDs, or Electrically Commutated Motors or ECMs) are an optional upgrade, often standard in higher-efficiency furnace packages. When a house is at a steady temperature, it takes relatively little heated air to keep it comfortable. A variable speed fan will run at a much lower speed in these conditions – reducing energy consumption and noise. (See my fourth and last installment of this series on Ventilation, next week).

FUEL TYPE

Climate – In moderate heating climates, where it rarely stays much below freezing, and in cooling dominated climates, electric air-to-air heat pumps are a good choice. In cold climates, a combustion-based heat source is generally preferred - natural gas if it is available, propane or fuel oil if it is not. But be aware that oil and propane prices fluctuate significantly with supply and demand, sometimes making them more expensive than electricity in the heating season. If gas is not available, and the budget allows, it might be worth considering a ground-source heat pump. Very high efficiencies are achievable but unless you are dealing with large heating and/or cooling loads, the simple payback on such a system will be very long. Other benefits, such as quietness and reduced carbon footprint may be important to the homeowner (see fuel source).

Fuel Source - If your homeowner is concerned about carbon emissions and your electricity comes from gas, oil or coal, an electric-based heating system is probably not the greenest choice. Because of distribution inefficiencies in the electricity grid, you get less than half the energy value of the source fuel delivered to your house as electricity. Better to burn that fuel in a high efficiency appliance in the house and get 90%+ of the fuel value. A heat pump is much more efficient than electric resistance heating, but only the most efficient air-to-air heat pumps for forced air systems offer enough efficiency to offset the grid energy losses (look for HSPF of 9.5 and above, or a COP of 2.5 or better). In the Pacific Northwest, we are less carbon-dependent because of the large portion of hydroelectric power in our grid energy. Also, in the area west of the Cascades and Coast Ranges, we have mild climates, making heat pumps a great choice. In all cases, if you choose an electric system, consider a green power purchase to effectively neutralize those carbon emissions

Alistair Jackson, LEED AP, CSBA is Principal in Charge of O’Brien & Company’s Residential Technical Services, and is a LEED for Homes Rater, LEED for Homes Faculty, Energy Star Verifier and Performance Tester, ARSCA Accredited Professional, and Built Green Verifier. He is a regular contributor to the Building Capacity Blog, and was a major contributor to the Northwest Green Home Primer on the subject of home operating systems and the energy picture. He is a regular

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Creating Effective Energy Efficiency& Conservation Strategies in Your Community: Getting Started (part 1 of 2)

Creating Effective Energy Efficiency& Conservation Strategies in Your Community: Getting Started

EECS & Strategic Energy Plans: What are they?

Many government municipalities around the country have taken advantage of Energy Efficiency and Conservation (EEC) Strategy Block Grant money authorized by the National Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 to fund strategies that reduce energy use and fossil fuel emissions, and improve energy efficiency in transportation, building, and other sectors as appropriate. For many cities, counties, and states, the funding represents an opportunity to act on commitments to respond to climate change, to identify and capture operational savings now and in the future as a measure of fiscal prudence, and to assist citizens in doing the same.

The Block Grant covers developing and implementing an EEC Strategy, which may include everything from conducting audits, developing financial incentive programs, analyzing and updating codes and enforcement, and implementing public education, among others.  Although the EEC Strategies we’ve seen thus far range in scope and detail, they generally include some form of action or implementation plan. Often this involves project descriptions with budgets and projected results associated with those budgets (such as energy savings, job creation, emissions reductions). The latter justification is used to prioritize and disburse remaining Block Grant monies.

Budgets for implementation can run to the millions. Las Vegas, Nevada’s Implementation Plan  announced in July of 2009 represented a proposed investment of nearly $28 million, including the planning element, and including items such as solar covered parking structures, a solar powered waste water treatment facility, facility and exterior lighting retrofits, financing and incentive programs, upgrading its green building program, and outreach. Charlotte, South Carolina has a more modest budget, roughly $6.5 million. Again, this investment is proposed for a number of different activities, primarily retrofits improving energy efficiency of existing facilities and incorporating renewable technologies. Like several of the EEC Strategies, the Charlotte Strategy proposes that some of this funding be used to staff a position to coordinate implementation.

A couple of good examples of EEC Strategy documents we’ve seen are those developed by Loudon County, Virginia and Topeka, Kansas.

In addition to EEC Strategies, we are also seeing a growing number of “Energy Plans” at the city, county, and state level. Not surprisingly, these are often allied with a concurrent commitment to addressing Climate Change. The City of San Diego’s “Energy Strategy for a Sustainable Future” is a good example of a stand-alone document. Burlington, Vermont’s Energy Plan is a section of the City’s 2006 Municipal Development Plan. King County, Washington, has an Energy Plan that it continues to update as it internalizes ongoing analyses of its operations and transportation energy efficiency measures and impacts.

An outline for an ideal strategic process for developing a community energy plan is provided by the Department of Energy (DOE) in its publication “Community Greening: How to Develop a Strategic Energy Plan.” Like most community strategic planning, the DOE outline proposes a stakeholder process, visioning and goal setting exercises, benchmarking existing conditions, identifying programs to fund as well as ways to fund them, prioritizing those programs, and memorializing all of this in a written document, which is then subject to review and ratification.

What’s Right for Your Community?

Embarking on an EEC Strategy will entail a unique process guided by the champions and leaders within your community, and influenced by resources available for the process. Although the Department of Energy process outline (discussed above) should work for most communities, the devil is in the details. It is our experience in community planning that a one-size-fits-all approach will not succeed. Each plan should be tailored to reflect the goals and interest of the stakeholders and be directly related to city and utility planning efforts. Begin by asking three high-level questions: 

• What planning efforts are already in place that would support an EEC Strategy such as comprehensive and code update cycles, greenhouse gas emissions planning, or community master planning?
• Where is the leadership and strongest support for efficiency and conservation within the community: the building and design sector, policy makers, public? 
• What federal, state or county technical assistance and funding is available to assist with strategic energy planning in your community?

Where to next?

Once you've pondered these questions, we anticipate a hunger for more information. Fortunately, resources abound for local governments seeking assistance with strategic energy planning, removing regulatory obstacles, and developing policies and standards in support of energy efficiency and renewables. A few of our favorites follow. In the meantime, good luck! Whether your motivation is operational savings, civic duty, or environmental protection -- or all of the above -- an EEC Strategy is a worthwhile venture. While it is most certainly an opportunity to save energy, it is also an excellent an non-partisan way to build community -- in itself a transformative gesture.

Resources:

US Dept. of Energy
Community Greening: How to Develop a Strategic Energy Plan www.nrel.gov/applying_technologies/pdfs/community_greening.pdf

US EPA
Sustainable Design and Green Building Toolkit for Local Governments www.epa.gov/region4/recycle/green-building-toolkit.pdf

Rocky Mountain Land Use Institute
Sustainable Community Development Code and Reform Initiative: http://law.du.edu/index.php/rmlui/sustainable-community-development-code-and-reform-initiative

US EPA
Essential Smart Growth Fixes for Urban and Suburban Zoning Codes: www.epa.gov/smartgrowth/essential_fixes.htm

Cascadia Green Building Council
Codes and Regulatory Research Publications
http://cascadiagbc.org/resources/research

Kathleen O'Brien is President of O'Brien & Company, a nationally respected green building consultancy founded in 1991. She is currently Principal-in-Charge for the firms planning, policy and programmatic work (including the Ellensburg project), and has been instrumental in the development of multiple sustainability strategies for government, non-profit, and private sector organizations. She served as an officer on the Cascadia Board of Directors in its early years and has been recognized by the organization as a Cascadia Fellow, a lifetime honorific. She is Editor of Building Capacity Blog.

Katie Spataro is Cascadia’s Research Director for Codes and Standards. Katie’s efforts to assist local governments with identifying obstacles and seeking pathways to support more sustainable development practices has assisted in the creation of policies, programs and code-related curriculum around the region. Katie heads up Cascadia’s Research Department which provides groundbreaking research and technical consulting services to help to further the adoption and understanding of the Living Building Challenge and other high performance policies, programs and standards.

Editors Note: More in depth treatment of the topic is in the fall issue of Cascadia Green Building Councils publication, Trim Tab here: http://viewer.zmags.com/publication/95a19dea#/95a19dea/1  

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What's a Blogathon, and Further More What's an EcoCribz? Two Ideas Good Enough to "Borrow" for your outreach campaigns.

I wasn't sure what I was getting into when I agreed to participate in a blogathon last week to promote EcoCribz and other new products offered by King County's Green Tools program. I arrived at the designated time and spot to find several other green building afficionados sitting around a room wall papered with regional and national green building links, blogs, e-zines and websites using their social media wits and networks to spread the word.

A computer was set up for me, complete with an open internet browser, an open word document providing me with the details (links and such) about the tools we were promoting. Food and drink and great funky music. Nice company. Id' been asked to contribute 15 minutes on-line time; but it was so much fun, I stayed an hour. Five stars.

The blogathon was timed to launch King County's new Eco-Cool Remodel Tool, where you can view the current EcoCribz video, as well as web pages on specific remodeling projects. You'll find information on the typical kitchen and bath remodel, of course, but also on other projects like upgrading your laundry room, garage, yard, even the crawlspace. The latter are often attempted by homeowners, but generally not considered "sexy" enough to be covered in remodeling how-tos, even DIY resources. At least not in one place.

The site features a virtual house "layered" with virtual rooms and spaces. It's a kick. You click on a part of the area you want to remodel and get just enough information to whet your appetite for the more detailed web-page, which includes lots of ideas and great resources.

So what's with EcoCribz? If you've seen MTV Cribs, it's like that with a green twist. While we were doing our social media assignment, the debut video of EcoCribz played in the background. I noticed with pleasure that it featured my long time friend Jon Alexander, green remodeling pioneer (and owner of Sunshine Construction), showing off a project to EcoCribz host and King County Green Tools Staff Patti Southard. I can't wait to see who's on next!

Although many of the resources featured on the website are based in Puget Sound (that's in Seattle folks), much of the green remodeling guidance is highly transferable. And of course the idea of using a blogathon to get the word out is one you can steal with impunity.

If your interest is transforming the market through green building education, checking out the Green Tools website is a must. Even if you've been there before, go back. In addition to the Eco-Tool Remodel Tool and EcoCribz, King County has launched a new green building blog hosted by Patti Southard. Green Tools exemplifies the best in public education. It's dynamic, fun, and substantive. For locals, providing this link is all that's necessary to expand your public education program. For all others, use the website as a model.

Building Capacity Blog is edited by Kathleen O'Brien, new to blogathons, but old to green building. Sometimes called the Queen of Green, she founded O'Brien & Company in 1991, before green building was fashionable. With her entry into the world of blogs, twitter, and blogathons, she has discovered the hip-side of her calling. Photos feature the 1:30 pm slot of the day-long blogathon including yours truly, as well as Bob Jakubik of Olsen Kundig, Kinley Deller, Patti Southard, and Doug Williams of King County, and Anna Petrocco of Colehour + Cohen.  Colehour + Cohen organized the blogathon.

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