Architecture and Eco-Building

As average temperatures for our areas fluctuate by substantial degrees, finding low-impact climate control solutions for our personal spaces may seem as daunting as scaling Everest, but it’s really quite simple.

Here are 5 easy-to-employ, eco-friendly strategies to help you keep the temperature at a comfortable level while you cut air conditioning (AC) costs and pride yourself on protecting the planet…

• Keep It Out. Thick or insulated walls, shade trees, deep eaves, and window awnings are all useful for making sure that conducted heat doesn’t make it indoors. Most of the sun is going to be hitting your roof, so it is particularly important to make sure your roof is both heavily insulated and highly reflective.
  • Install a radiant barrier—an aluminized sheet fastened to the inside of your rafters as an additional heat reflector. Landscaping that shades your house in the summer is also extremely advantageous.
  • Install insulated window shades or shutters on the sunny sides of your house to keep both radiated and conducted heat from coming in your windows. Make it a daily summer habit to close both your windows and your shades in the morning and open them again at night as soon as it cools off.
  • Curtail activities that generate heat inside your house. In hot areas of the U.S. outdoor kitchens for summer use were once standard. Perhaps that idea’s time has come again. At least use a microwave instead of an oven. Use a ventilator fan to remove bathroom heat after showering, and if you must use hot appliances such as a dishwasher or a hair dryer, try to do so at night.
• Move It Through. Many hot climates have weather patterns that can be used to cool your home. Many coastal areas have a predictable onshore sea breeze. Funnel that breeze into your house, and it will flush heat out of it on the other side. Planting a hedge or a row of trees in a strategic place can help funnel cooling winds into your house. Dry climates tend to have distinct temperature drops at night. Take advantage of this by opening your lowest windows and your highest creating a convection “chimney effect” that sucks cool air into the lower part of your house from the outdoors while heat escapes up and out through the upper story. This strategy effectively cools your entire domicile. Clerestories and operable skylights are excellent for increasing this effect. Attic vents are also a basic element of convection cooling.

• Spin It ‘Round. If your natural ventilation needs a boost, use circulating fans. Ceiling fans circulate the air of an entire room, and there are fans for jobs of every size. While they work best with high ceilings, proper placement can greatly enhance the effectiveness of fans at any height.
  • Window fans should be placed on the side away from prevailing winds, and in an upper window to assist in exhausting hot air from your house.
  • Buy fans with Energy Star labels, they are about 20% more efficient than the average fan.

  Attic fans exhaust air from the very hottest and highest part of the house, providing substantial heat relief through convection. Your roof is a great place for a solar fan powered by photovoltaic cells. Because they run fastest when the sun is hottest, these fans are ideal for this application. If you live in a climate with many cloudy hot days, however, you should provide grid-powered back-up.

  A whole house fan is a workable substitute for air conditioning in most climates. Sometimes existing central heating and cooling ducts can be used along with a whole house fan. These fans need to be appropriately sized, require dedicated wiring, and usually call for an enlarged venting system in the attic. Unlike other fans they are therefore typically professionally installed. The Department of Energy’s Consumer Guide has a great overview of whole house ventilation.

• Wet It Down. In low-humidity climates it is much easier to solve the heat problem: just get wet. Evaporation is cooling, which is the principle of perspiration. Evaporative coolers, also known as swamp coolers, use this principle too. They are simple machines that cost about half as much to install as air conditioning, use a quarter of the electricity, and do not require ozone-depleting refrigerants. However, they need monthly (though easy) maintenance during peak use, and they only work well in dry climates. Swamp coolers have a small motor that pumps water from the bottom of the cooler to the top, where it falls down the sides of absorbent pads. Another motor runs a fan pulling outdoor air through the pads, cooling it 15 to 40 degrees F, and then into your home. Unlike air conditioning systems, coolers provide a constant flow of fresh outdoor air. They can be installed on roofs or on the ground floor (which makes maintenance easier). There are whole-house and room-sized coolers available. Newer, more efficient two-stage or indirect evaporative coolers incorporate a secondary heat exchanger to reduce the humidity released into the house. Read more about evaporative coolers at ToolBase Services .

• Use the Night. Where night temperatures drop substantially, nocturnal radiative cooling is particularly effective. Opening your windows at night, as mentioned above, is one component. The other requires some thermal mass in the building, such as a concrete slab floor, plaster walls, or passive solar water walls. These serve as heat sinks during the day, keeping the house cool. At night they release their heat as cool air passes over them.

[via] greenlivingideas.com

Earthship is a company that has put together a book that will tell you everything you need to know if you want to build your own house totally out of recycled materials like used tires and cans. This is also a house that can function almost 100% off the grid.

I read this on their website and I think it says it all:

“We must realize that we, the users of the vessel (the home), are part of the vessel. This is much the same as we, the users of the Earth, are part of the earth. The Earthship is a participant in the prevailing systems of planet earth. It causes no conflict, no stress, no depletion, and no trauma to the planet earth.

Just as the human body is a result of the various systems that support it - (circulatory systems, nervous systems, respiratory systems, etc…) so must the Earthship be a product of the systems that support it. In view of this, we have made the Earthship systems both understandable and available to the common everyday human. Systems are generally 25 percent of the construction cost of a home, providing little to no utility bills every month.”

Read everything you need to know by visiting their website.

[via] www.earthship.net

If you live close to Lexington, Virginia, thinking about building a new house, and this time you want it to be more enviorimental friendly both for you and your surroundings, then this is your chance.

GreenWay is a new community where you can have your own garden space to grow your own food. The houses are made with all green materials and they are all super energy efficient. The GreenWay’s Environmental Protection Vision is to preserve and enhance wildlife habitat while providing a beautiful environment for residents.

[via] www.greenwaynews.com

Beginning next week, the popular 8.5 ft. cube developed by Richard Horder will be available in the states. The structure designed in Munich, Germany exhibits sleeker, more practical design than prefab competitors. Horden calls the micro-compact home his “instrument for living.” Unlike other houses, the model implements the use of LED lighting throughout and is able to run on under 60 watts. Also, Horder intends to reduce the m-ch’s ecological impact even further with future updates, claiming that newer versions of the structure will be powered by PV cells and a small wind generator to cut back on CO2 emissions and emit around 20 times less carbon than other homes on the market.

Obviously, the biggest dilemma (and one disregarded by virtually all small-home designers) will be a lack of space for storage and–let’s face it–normal day to day living. But for dwellers already accustomed to tiny-apartment living, or those looking to downgrade to an eco-friendly, fully functional home, the m-ch seems to stand alone as one of the few practical choices on the prefab market.

By Kevin Wilder BGM

[via] Metropolismag.com

Los Angeles, known for its choking smog and fuel-burning gridlock, is poised to adopt one of the toughest green building ordinances in the nation.

Two City Council committees voted this spring to require that all major commercial and residential developments slash projected energy and water use and reduce the overall environmental footprint placing the city on the cutting edge of an international movement to address the global warming effects of buildings.

Under the ordinance privately built projects over 50,000 square feet, of which there are roughly 200 constructed annually, must meet a “standard of sustainability” by incorporating a checklist of green practices into their building plans.

The checklist includes a choice of such items as low-flow toilets, paints with low emissions, use of recycled materials, efficient irrigation, solar panels, and use of natural light.

The average green building, according to studies, saves 36% in energy, 40% in water, and cuts greenhouse gas emissions by 40% and solid waste by 70%.

Thanks to more than a year of negotiations and meetings between city officials and citizens’ groups the proposed ordinance has garnered unusually broad support .

Along with the Los Angeles Business Council, the American Institute of Architects, several building trade unions, and groups such as Global Green and the Green LA Coalition it is endorsed by some of the area’s biggest developers.

“When you do something this big, it can be quite scary,” City Council President Eric Garcetti said. “But this has been an inclusive process. It will lead to a healthier city and a healthier planet.”

Garcetti expects the full council to adopt the standards unanimously within a month.

Nationwide, buildings account for 71% of electricity consumption, 12% of potable water used and 40% of the greenhouse gas emissions that scientists say are heating the planet to dangerous levels.

Known as the Leadership in Energy and Environment Design, or LEED, the council’s proposed green checklist was developed by the U.S. Green Building Council, a Washington-based nonprofit group.

It is rapidly becoming a national baseline standard. More than 120 localities have adopted green building rules for public construction. Twelve cities including Boston, Washington, and San Francisco have extended the rules to the private sector.

Under L.A.’s ordinance, which would take effect six months after City Council adoption, developers who build to an even higher standard, so-called LEED Silver, would get expedited permits.

The incentive has generated great interest among some developers.

“Building green is good for business, building green is good for developers, and building green is good for the city of Los Angeles,” Brad Cox, chairman of the Los Angeles Business Council, testified before the council committees Friday.

Cox, managing partner of the local office of Trammell Crow, one of the nation’s largest developers, said his company is building six Los Angeles projects designed to meet more stringent green standards than the city proposes.

However, Holly Shroeder, chief executive of the Los Angeles and Ventura chapter of the Building Industry Assn., which represents mainly residential builders, suggested that the city develop its own rules rather than relying on an outside standard such as LEED. “This is a pretty significant change in how we build in the city, at a time when the private sector doesn’t need more mandates,” she said.

And Tom Gilmore, a downtown developer, said the LEED standard did not give enough credit in its checklist to buildings located near mass transit.

L.A.’s program, however, is likely to evolve under a new Green Team of city agencies set up under the ordinance, according to Claire Bowin of the city’s planning office. The team would hold public meetings every month to work out kinks and examine proposals. “This is a baby step for some, but a huge leap for others,” said Bowin. “We recognize that. The Green Team will remove barriers to innovation.”

For some the new standard doesn’t go far enough. Jane Paul of Green LA Coalition suggested that the city lower the threshold to 25,000 square feet to incorporate medium-sized buildings in the program in the next two years.

And Ken Lewis, president of the architectural firm AC Martin Partners, advocated raising the baseline “to LEED Silver as the minimum.”

Lewis whose firm has designed projects for the city, local universities, and private developers said that five years ago it was more costly to build to green standards. “Today, we find no additional project cost to achieve the city’s [proposed] baseline standard,” he said.

The new standard will go a long way toward meeting the city’s pledge to reduce its carbon footprint to 35% below 1990 levels by 2030. Two-thirds of the buildings in the city will have been built between now and mid-century.

Pasadena, Santa Monica, Long Beach, and West Hollywood have adopted mandatory green building standards. Los Angeles would be the largest city in the nation to do so.

By margot.roosevelt@ latimes.com

[via] articles.latimes.com

Being earth-friendly doesn’t always have to require going solar or growing all your own food. There are plenty of easy ways to make a big difference.

When it comes to the environment, being a good global citizen starts at your doorstep. From recycling to using alternative cleaning materials, minor changes at home can add up to real benefits for the planet, not to mention your own health and happiness.

It may be a cliché, but the best way to be Earth-friendly is to cut down on what you consume and recycle whenever you can. According to the National Institutes of Health the U.S. generates about 208 million tons of municipal solid waste each year. That’s more than 4 pounds per person per day. Every little bit helps; recycling just one glass bottle saves enough electricity to light a 100-watt bulb for four hours.

Here are 10 more easy ways to green your home:

1. Green up your appliances. Getting rid of that old refrigerator in the garage could save you as much as $150 a year according to the Environmental Protection Agency. Appliance use comprises about 18% of a typical home’s total energy bill with the fridge being one of the biggest energy hogs. If any of your appliances is more than 10 years old the EPA suggests replacing them with energy-efficient models that bear their “Energy Star” logo. Energy Star-qualified appliances use 10%-50% less energy and water than standard models. According to the Energy Star site, if just one in 10 homes used energy-efficient appliances, it would be equivalent to planting 1.7 million new acres of trees.

Also, consider what you put in that energy-efficient refrigerator. Pesticides, transportation and packaging are all things to consider when stocking up. Buying local cuts down on the fossil fuels burned to get the food to you while organic foods are produced without potentially harmful pesticides and fertilizers.

2. Watch the temp. Almost half a home’s energy consumption is due to heating and cooling.

* Turn down the thermostat in cold weather and keep it higher in warm weather. Each degree below 68°F (20°C) during colder weather saves 3%-5% more heating energy, while keeping your thermostat at 78°F in warmer weather will save you energy and money. A programmable thermostat will make these temperature changes for you automatically.

* Clean your furnace’s air filter monthly during heavy usage.

* Consider a new furnace. Today’s furnaces are about 25% more efficient than they were in the 1980s (And don’t forget to check out furnaces carrying the Energy Star label).

* To keep your cool in warmer weather, shade your east and west windows and delay heat-generating activities such as dish washing until evening.

* Use ceiling fans instead of air conditioners. Light clothing in summer is typically comfortable between 72°F and 78°F. But moving air feels cooler, so a slow-moving fan easily can extend the comfort range to 82°F, according to “Consumer Guide to Home Energy Savings” by Alex Wilson.

3. Save water. The Web site “Water — Use it Wisely,” created by a group of Arizona cities, lists 100 simple ways to save water. We’ll share just a few here:

* Put an aerator on all household faucets and cut your annual water consumption by 50%.

* Install a low-flow toilet. They use only 1.6 gallons per flush, compared to 3.5 gallons per flush for pre-1994 models. If you have an older model, adjust your float valve to admit less water into the toilet’s tank.

Of course, you don’t need products to save water. Behavioral changes also add up quickly: using a broom instead of the garden hose to clean your driveway can save 80 gallons of water and turning the water off when you brush your teeth will save 4.5 gallons each time.

4. Clean green. Stop buying household cleaners that are potentially toxic to both you and the environment. In his book, “The Safe Shopper’s Bible,” David Steinman suggests reading labels for specific eco-friendly ingredients that also perform effectively. These include grain alcohol instead of toxic butyl cellosolve, commonly found in carpet cleaner and some window cleaners as a solvent; coconut or other plant oils rather than petroleum in detergents; and plant-oil disinfectants such as eucalyptus, rosemary or sage rather than triclosan, an antifungal agent found in soaps and deodorant. Or skip buying altogether and make your own cleaning products. Use simple ingredients such as plain soap, water, baking soda (sodium bicarbonate), vinegar, washing soda (sodium carbonate), lemon juice and borax, and save money at the same time. Check out these books by Annie Bertold-Bond for cleaning recipes: “Clean and Green” and “Better Basics for the Home.”

5. Let there be energy-efficient light. Compact Fluorescent Light bulbs (CFLs) use 66% less energy than a standard incandescent bulb and last up to 10 times longer. Replacing a 100-watt incandescent bulb with a 32-watt CFL can save $30 in energy costs over the life of the bulb.

6. Save a tree, use less paper. You can buy “tree-free” 100% post-consumer recycled paper for everything from greeting cards to toilet paper. Paper with a high post-consumer waste content uses less virgin pulp and keeps more waste paper out of landfills.

* Remove yourself from junk mail lists. Each person will receive almost 560 pieces of junk mail this year, which adds up nationally to 4.5 million tons, according to the Native Forest Network. About 44% of all junk mail is thrown in the trash, unopened and unread, and ends up in a landfill. To stem the flow into your own home, contact the Direct Marketing Association’s Mail Preference Service at P.O. Box 643, Carmel, NY 10512, or download the online form. Opt out of credit card or insurance offers at OptOutPrescreen.com or by calling 888-567-8688, a single automated phone line maintained by the major credit bureaus.

* Buy unbleached paper. Many paper products, including some made from recycled fibers, are bleached with chlorine. The bleaching process can create harmful byproducts, including dioxins, which accumulate in our air, water and soil over time.

Finally, here’s a third answer to the old “paper or plastic” question: No thanks. Carry your own cloth bags to the store to avoid using store bags.

7. Want hardwood floors? Opt for bamboo. Bamboo is considered an environmentally friendly flooring material due to its high yield and the relatively fast rate at which it replenishes itself. It takes just four to six years for bamboo to mature, compared to 50-100 years for typical hardwoods. Just be sure to look for sources that use formaldehyde-free glues.

8. Reduce plastics, reduce global warming. Each year, Americans throw away some 100 billion polyethylene plastic bags–from grocery and trash bags to those ultra-convenient sandwich bags. Unfortunately, plastics are made from petroleum–the processing and burning of which is considered one of the main contributors to global warming according to the EPA. In addition, sending plastics to the landfill also increases greenhouse gases. Reduce, re-use, and recycle your plastics for one of the best ways to combat global warming.

9. Use healthier paint. Conventional paints contain solvents, toxic metals, and volatile organic compounds (VOCs) that can cause smog, ozone pollution, and indoor air quality problems with negative health effects, according to the EPA. These unhealthy ingredients are released into the air while you’re painting, while the paint dries and even after the paints are completely dry. Opt instead for zero- or low-VOC paint, made by most major paint manufacturers today.

10. Garden green. First, use compost instead of synthetic fertilizers. Compost provides a full complement of soil organisms and the balance of nutrients needed to maintain the soil’s well-being without the chemicals of synthetic fertilizers. And healthy soil minimizes weeds and is key to producing healthy plants, which in turn can prevent many pest problems from developing to begin with.

* Use native plants as much as possible. Native plants have adapted over time to the local environment and support native animals. They also use less water and require less of your attention.

* Focus on perennials. Gardening with plants that live for more than one year means you don’t have to pay for new plants every year; it also saves the resources used commercially to grow annuals.

* Stop using chemical pesticides. American households use 80 million pounds of pesticides each year, according to the EPA. These toxic chemicals escape gardens and concentrate in the environment, posing threats to animals and people, especially children. A better alternative is to try a variety of organic and physical pest control methods, such as using diatomaceous earth to kill insects, pouring boiling water on weeds or using beer to bait slugs. You can find more non-chemical pest control tips at the National Audubon Society’s site.

Finally, consider using an old-fashioned push mower. The only energy expended is yours.

Today, fossil fuels (oil, coal, natural gas) are still used to generate most of our energy-both at power plants and in automobiles. Consumption continues even though resources are limited.

An important focus for everyone should include the reduction of energy consumption and the reliance on fossil fuels.

By Ann Archer [via] realestate.msn.com

Affordable, Sustainable Housing: Well many people still think of eco-housing and affordability as contradictory terms. But Habitat for Humanity is trying to change that equation through its efforts to build housing for low-income families.

The houses are GREEN because they are constructed from renewable building materials. They are HEALTHY because they use non-toxic products in the interior design. They are ENERGY EFFICIENT because they use the sun to create electricity used by the homeowner for energy saving appliances and lighting. They are AFFORDABLE because they are sold to a selected family for the cost of construction on a no-interest loan, the exterior of the house requires little maintenance, and the utility expense is more than 50% lower than average.

See the full story here www.habitatriverside.org/

Poles are sorted, straightened, sanded, cleaned and treated. They are graded by length, diameter, and strength. The vacuum pressure treatment facility uses ecologically friendly borate preservatives. Poles are treated with non-toxic, earth friendly, anti-mold fungicide.

Finishing coats are water based acrylic with no VOCs. More about bamboo pole treatment.

Skilled carpenters fabricate building panels and parts. Bamboo poles are assembled into house panels for the walls and roof. Cut bamboo strips are laminated together for siding. House floors, walls, ceilings, roof, porch, railings, closets, cabinets, doors, beds and trim are all made from bamboo. More about bamboo panel production.

Each house is constructed, then disassembled and shipped. These custom made houses can be octagonal, square, rectangular or a combination of shapes. Each house is disassembled, panels are given finishing coats, then packed into containers and shipped to Hawaii, USA mainland and other countries. More about assembly, finish, shipping.

[via] www.bambooliving.com/vietfactory.html

It seems like just when we all decide to go green that food gets really expensive and like even McDonalds is putting fewer French fries in the little red carton and I don’t know about you but my annual pay raises aren’t what they used to be so I think:  “How green do I have to go before I really start seeing some kind of return?” And when I think “return” I’m thinking how much more do I have to spend to go green versus how much environment I save by being green and then it occurs to me: “Maybe I could actually save money by going green. But how?”  I pondered.

“What can I do to be politically correct and green?”  After a trip to my library I realized:  “Green is a blend of yellow and blue.”  Then after some more pondering I realized that the yellow and blue thing were kind of a side-track and what I really need to think about is not so much a color but more about how humans can maximize their existence while minimizing the deleterious effects upon our global environment. For instance, the cost for a barrel of oil has gotten really expensive.  It is now a popular fad to act real ecological except for the SUV/truck thing.  Of course we all need the 0.0%-financed, large vehicle capable of climbing mountain terrain loaded full with camping and pet equipment, iPods, DVD players, cell phones, coolers of groceries/beverages, and comfortable seating for six.  And since we need this giant truck anyway we might as well drive around alone in the big hulk daily running little errands while mechanically equipped for an African safari… because this is America man!

Well it’s trendy again…green is in the air…and, well…everyone just can’t wait to start being more efficient and sustainable.  The last time I saw popular attitudes this green was the 1976 Clean Up America campaign.  It wasn’t green green, like we think of today. Today there are many shades of green. It was more like “let’s just clean up all the trash.” The country had become so dirty they had a crying Indian (Native American) on TV as a public service announcement. It was the country’s bicentennial and we were dishonoring our founding fathers by letting the place get so trashed. There were all of those red, white and blue stickers showing a hand with a string tied to one finger…”Keep America Clean.”  The message was like, “tie a string to your finger to remember not only should you not litter but maybe you could bend your lazy ass over every once in a while and pick up some piece of trash and then you would be patriotic enough to be able to fully enjoy this country on its freaking bicentennial birthday, you pathetic, long-haired, brown plaid-wearing, hippy drug freak with your loud music. It was all about the American flag and you know…cleaning up the damn place!  Twenty two years later things aren’t much different.  The big oil companies are mounting big PR campaigns against the public perceptions of ill-gotten gains and everyone is exploring how to stop using so much gasoline. It’s just a different shade of green.

Photo by Bill Bryan at www.joedoeatl.com

KitHAUS is a pre-fabricated panel system which can be assembled on-site in a few days without heavy equipment. Its portability supports off-grid living. The pitched roof model shown below, the K1, is 289 square feet. The IBC (international building code) has completed its testing on kitHAUS. After IBC approval is received most municipalities will allow kitHAUS installations.

The K4 is 187 square feet and sells for $39,500.

Smaller kitHAUS models like the K3 can be installed now because this size is exempt from building codes in most municipalities. The K3 is 117 square feet and is priced at $29,500.

[via] www.kithaus.com