Practical Eco

Proximity Hotel in Greensboro: a LEED Platinum

The Proximity Hotel in Greensboro is an inspired and inspiring building. They earned a LEED Platinum rating, and is the only hotel to hold a Platinum level so far. I came across this video from National Geographic Intelligent Traveler, I couldn't resist posting it.

The Proximity uses 36.5% less energy than conventional hotels. They then supply 60% of their hot water through solar panels. And they have the first Regenerative Drive Otis elevator in North America. The list of green and sustainable features is simply awesome. Which is what you'd expect from a Gold or Platinum rated building. Check out their site here for the full list of sustainable and green features of the build.

Key behaviors to maintaining a green and healthy home

Most people don't give much thought to how their behavior can impact the sustainability, health or energy efficiency of their homes. I was speaking with someone last night who I know to be a pretty green minded person and he was a bit surprised by some of the ideas I'm going to highlight here.  Granted he's not a building scientist or a builder but it showed me that it's time to shine a light on this subject.

There are two inter-related issues, health and energy efficiency. And much of it has to do with water or moisture - which is the number one energy of your home.

Health-wise the key points are:
1. Use extractor fans in kitchens and bathrooms. Particularly here in the South, these fans are there to remove moisture from the home - not just smells. Taking a shower? Use the fan! Boiling water? Use the fan! Humidity, particularly in the warm months, can lead to mold and mildew which is a serious health hazard. And it will increase the load on your air conditioner, so this is also an energy issue.
2. Be sure to get rid of any moisture quickly. This includes practices like wiping up spills immediately, drying yourself in the bath or shower to keep the water where it can run down a drain and using a squeegee to get water droplets off of shower walls and into the tub where they can run down the drain.

3. Maintain your HVAC return filters. Clean or replace them regularly to ensure you are breathing clean air in the home.

4. Remove your shoes in the house. This simple practice can really reduce the amount of dirt and dust in your home. This will not only keep your home cleaner for longer but is altogether healthier.

Energy-wise the key points are:
1. Maintain your HVAC return filters. Clean or replace them regularly to ensure the unit gets free-flowing air and doesn't have to struggle to intake air which will increase the load on your unit.

2. Maintain the HVAC units twice yearly to ensure they are performing optimally. This also helps avert breakdowns during peak heating or cooling seasons which will be extra inconvenient.

3. Turn off lights and ceiling fans when not in the room. They use energy and output heat which can add to the cooling load in Summer. Studies have shown that the energy used by the fan plus the energy needed to get rid of its heat is greater than the energy saved through circulating air. Enjoy its cool breeze when in the room, but turn it off if you leave.

4. Unplug external power supplies (wall-warts) as much as possible. These have been estimated to add about 10% extra electricity load to the typical home.

5. If you have a heat pump take care to avoid sharp temperature increases in Winter. Stick to 3 degrees or less when you change the temperature. Greater increases will trigger an electric heating strip in most units that uses markedly more energy.

My Leaky Ducts Suck

We had been experiencing very dry air at home.  To the extent that we'd wake up with very dry noses and feel uncomfortable.  I should have done this a long time ago, since I know the issue and how to deal with it. But life can derail my best intentions. I finally got down into the crawlspace last week with a bucket of mastic and a can of great stuff. What a great way to spend an afternoon! I got back into the lowest craggiest parts of the crawlspace where I'd never yet gone, and I'm sure I'll never forget.

Basically, I applied mastic to every seam in the air handler and plenum, and I applied it to every part of the duct system that had anything that looked like a seam, right up to the boots. The boot is the part where the duct meets the vents above. The application is not exactly pretty (see photo of my air handler), but who's looking at it? The whole job took me about three hours. Be sure to wear knee pads, a mask and coveralls or very old clothes. One of the initial challenges that slowed me down was simply finding mastic. The big stores around here don't seem to carry it in stock. I eventually asked an HVAC guy where my nearest supply store is and got it sorted out.

While I was down in the crawlspace I found some nice big holes where pipes of one sort or another go up into the house. These were all plugged up nicely with great stuff insulating spray foam.  This will help reduce air leakage some more and keep pests out of the wall cavities.

The most easily accessible part of the floor area is insulated with fiberglass batt. I can only guess it was too much trouble for someone to bother with the rest of the area. Where the fiberglass came up against the duct boots it was badly darkened. This indicates that air was being sucked in and "filtered" by the fiberglass. And that just proves there were leaks where the ducts meet the boots.

The end result is, with a week of cold days to test the changes, we're experiencing much more comfortable air. And we're not waking up every morning with dry chapped noses.  There's a great description of this very same situation by Arnie Katz at Advanced Energy, here.

Achieving the 7.5 CFM per occupant venting standard

Chandler Design Build use timer delays on bathroom fans along with a few other clever tricks to achieve the balanced standard of 7.5 Cubic Feet per Minute (CFM) of air exchange in their homes. The goal is to provide balanced and filtered make-up air, with a designed exhaust and a balancing intake.

Another of their tricks I like is placing the intake vents in the laundry room since dryers draw out an average of 300 CFM and a nearby intake vent means the dryer won't consume much conditioned air. 

Read the full methodology and tips here.

Seal up the attic door and save energy

I saw this nifty product at the Energy Star event today and immediately wanted one for myself.

I would have made my own hatch cover out of foam board like some builders I know have done. But my attic is so low, with barely 2 feet of clearance above , that I have no place to raise and reposition such a thing.

The Attic Tent gets right around my problem. Plus it's much more professional looking as well as being a proper air barrier. That's important because air can be drawn into the house through that hatch affecting your air quality, or it can leak from the house into the attic losing energy.

[Addendum 1/10/08] I finally got round to installing my Attic Tent! Once I got the bead of caulk in, while I was still on the stairs, someone came into the house and I could literally feel the "puff" as it tried to leak into the attic but simply bowed the tent in then out a bit. That showed me it was doing its job. It fit in very quickly and easily too. I'm very pleased with it so far and along with all of my other house sealing tactics I'm sure my energy consumption will be much lower this winter.

Jochum Air expanding into the Raleigh-Durham area

In response to customer demand, Jochum Air is now installing the RGF Photohydroionization® (PHI) cells in the Triangle area as well as the Triad, where they are currently based.  It seems mold and mildew are an expanding problem thanks to the building practices of the past three decades. As air conditioning cools your house it can also draw moisture through crawlspace vents and breed molds in ducts, floors and other parts of the house causing numerous health problems for the residents.

The PHI Cell kills mold, bacteria and viruses in the air, leaving only fresh pure clean air that smells a bit like the air after a storm. Its proprietary technology has been used extensively in controlling the spread of SARS in China and more recently in combating avian flu. It's also used widely in commercial buildings and schools to reduce the spread of disease or combat sick building syndrome. Recently Jochum Air supplied several units to an organic cheese manufacturer who has had excellent results in controlling the growth of unwanted molds.

While good building practice should always include a tightly sealed envelope with a well designed ventilation and filtration system, a PHI cell can greatly improve air quality, reduce smells and eradicate virus, mold and bacteria in the air, leaving you with a healthier home.

The Conserv Membrane ERV

Indoor air quality is of increasing concern since we build houses tighter now. By cutting down on ventilation we're trapping countless contaminants in the home. One way to deal with that is to ventilate more, but you loose the energy you've put into conditioning your air whether warming or cooling.  That's where Energy Recovery Ventilators, or ERVs, come in.

The best one available is made by Dias under the brand ConsERV. It uses a patented membrane that utilizes nano-technology to achieve incredible results at reasonable prices. 

Employing an ERV as part of a good HVAC system design means you can typically afford to downsize your units because up to 30% of a typical system's load is used to condition the outside air. An ERV preconditions the outside air by transferring the heat from inside air as it gets exhausted out. So you can stop cooling, or heating, the great outdoors.

Whether for residential or commercial construction you should consider a ConsERV unit as part of any well considered Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning design.

crawlspaces breeding mold, rot and disease

For decades homes in the Southeast have been commonly built on crawlspace foundations. All the while the codes and general wisdom have said to ventilate these spaces to reduce moisture and its related problems such as mold. However more recent research and studies have shown that this actually makes matters worse for homes here in the humid Southeast of the country.

What we now know is that in the hot humid months these crawlspace vents are simply sucking moisture into the area and creating a wonderful environment for mold to grow wild. Common problems related to moisture in the crawlspace or home include mold damage, musty odors, condensation on air conditioning ductwork, buckled hardwood floors, insect infestations and rot in the home’s wooden framing members.

The latest evidence shows that a home with a fully sealed crawlspace perform better all year round, staying dry, saving energy and resisting mold. By ‘sealed’ what is meant is no vents and that both the ground and the walls are covered in thick poly that is properly joined to create a lasting effective moisture barrier. 

The website www.crawlspaces.org, offers extensive and detailed information on how to properly design a sealed crawlspace and the science behind the new thinking.  Though local building codes are changing, most new homes with crawlspaces continue to be built with vents. So if you're building a home or planning to this is a very important issue to be aware of as it can save you money on cooling and maintenance as well as protect your family's health.

If you already own a home on a crawlspace in a hot humid region, then the question has to be to seal or not to seal it. It's not an easy straight forward question to answer since any change you make to an older home will have impacts elsewhere in the system.  I just bought an older house with a crawlspace so look forward to further discussion on the subject as I assess whether to seal it and how.

Indoor Air Pollutants

I've been meaning to write on this subject for a while now, but I noticed The Green Guide just ran an article entitled Cleaning The Air: How To Avoid Indoor Air Pollutants.

It's an excellect summary of the risks we face today and I support what they say until they get to what you can do about it. While they make some good remedial suggestions, they've overlooked one outstanding technology for cleaning air. It's made by RGF and is a very sophisticated approach at the cutting edge of that science.  They call it Photohydroionization, or PHI, and it applies the same principals that nature uses to clean the air, a combinatio of UV, Ozone and Ions.

If you live in the States, RGF don't sell directly to customers, so Jochum Industries can help you choose the right solution and implement it. Their site also gives an understandable and brief description of the technology. Or, if you live in Europe you can contact me to find a supplier.