General « Noel's Green (make that SUSTAINABLE) Blog

Winston Churchill had it right

I am concerned about a terrible Lack of Confidence in our economy and society: We must keep our heads high and continue to strive. The terrible danger is fear. Fear is paralyzing.

I have spent many hours this month getting criticized and rejected for trying to get ‘er done. In [...]

Coordinating differing disciplines: Commitment and accountability?

A repeat/revisiting of The DEC 16, 2007 Blog entry. This one bears repeating because in this difficult economy, it is important to keep a perspective on the teamwork necessary to execute and implement a building.

Building design and construction requires cooperation between a dozen or more actors.
Design-Build-Operate Network Diagram

There is an architect designing the overall building. Another firm may do the mechanical, electrical, and plumbing design. Another firm does the civil design and still another firm does the structural.

5 design disciplines by 5 different designers.

Each one working on a separate set of documents.

Theoretically in synch.

Continue reading Coordinating differing disciplines: Commitment and accountability?

Hearing aids are way over priced.

I have been paying too much all my life for hearing aids. The pair I bought in 2007 through a licensed dispenser in Pennsylvania cost me $3600. I had suspected and now I know that the quality of the electronics inside these hearing aids isn’t much better than the components in your [...]

The explicable

“Imagine the Creator as a stand up comedian – and at once the world becomes explicable.”

-H. L. [...]

LEED Certified residence

Here is an exciting example of green design filled with good ideas.

This LEED certified home in Arlington is also an beautiful example of how a lower carbon footprint looks and how utility bills can be lowered to almost nothing.

Is it ironic that the house is listed for $1.175 million but the utilities [...]

Crawl Spaces and Moisture – lets get them separated

I have been seeing more and more use of a dramatically different but simple solution to the age old
problem of how to best construct a crawl space. Years ago, I decided that they were evil,
but I seem to end up with them in so many buildings that I work on. There are better solutions, especially as we learn how new high performance homes are being constructed.

This week I am faced with proposing a solution to a flooded crawlspace in a 40 year old 2000 sq. foot home a friend wants to rehab.

One problem is the high water table immediately around the house. The backfill soil surrounding the house apparently had a high water retention. And also the rainfall recently has been incredible.

Here is a foot of water in the crawlspace we have to deal with.

Flooded Crawl space

We have to pump it, that’s a fact we cannot change. We need to eject the water a far away as we can get it.

I’d like to always promote best practices, so I prefer the crawlspace be retrofitted with a sump pit and pump, (after its cleaned and remediated, of course).
moderncrawlspace
I’d like a durable, flexible waterproof liner attached to the floor and walls, permanently sealed foundation wall vents, and, if at all possible, insulated walls with 1.5″ thick polyisocyanurate board (just short of R-10 as recommended by the US DOE ). But I am not sure we can do that on foundation walls that have sitting in this much water. The recommendations seem to apply better to new homes more than to retrofit like this. (Folding the vapor barrier into existing joints is not possible, but we can look for alternatives and be creative about that detail.)

Continue reading Crawl Spaces and Moisture – lets get them separated

Web sites for searching real estate listings

Recently, I have been using a slew of various web sites to research real estate listings. Most real estate web sites sport tools such as active maps that activate displays on a list on same page. There are two kinds of these.

1. Mouseover links on the map highlight individual properties on an “active [...]

So-called commercial building energy experts confuse the issue

Misinformation again. Its enough to make you want to take up arms.

Some real estate and energy efficiency professionals have called into question the credibility of a study paid for by NAIOP, the Commercial Real Estate Development Association, on the economics of high energy performance in commercial offices. The study focussed on [...]

Saving Time to Design Green Building Systems

I like BIM software. I admit it, I think it is very cool to be able to design directly in a virtual 3 dimensional environment.

I also care deeply about high building performance. I hate poor performance. I have worked all my career to make good designs as energy [...]

Change has Come to America

A new American president was sworn in today. Thank you Mr. Obama, for taking the job.
May your leadership find only the greatest success!
We have a lot of work to do, but we are ready, willing and [...]