beausoleil

2010 California Title 24 Updates

The new energy codes for California are out and are now being enforced throughout the state.  We recently took an update training class from our favorite Title 24 consultant and guru, Mark Madison of Energy Code Works, and thought we would share the information with you,  Below is our synopsis of the residential changes and requirements, for both lighting and ventilation.

I'm having trouble with importing and formatting my word document into TypePad, so forgive some of the misalignments below.  I've also attached the Word document if you prefer to download it.

Download Summary of Title 24 Changes

A.    New Residential Lighting Requirements
Applies to new construction, additions, alterations, replacement of light fixtures (not just bulbs).  Does not apply to loose lighting (ie. table lamps) or lighting integral to appliances.

Requirements by zone
1. Kitchens
“A room or area used for food storage and preparation of washing dishes, including associated countertops and cabinets, refrigerator, stove and floor areas”
    a. 50% of total wattage must be high efficacy
    b. High and low efficacy must be switched separately
    c. Fixtures on any light switches in the kitchen must be counted
    d. Internal cabinetry accent lighting allowance of 20 watts per linear foot (horizontal or         vertical) of illuminated cabinet
    e.Additional allowance of 50watts for homes ≤2500 sf, or 100 watts for homes >2500 s.f. if:
        1. manual on vacancy sensor or dimmer in kitchen
        2. high efficiency luminares and vacancy sensors are installed in garages, laundry, closets, utility rooms.
    f.  For fixtures that can accommodate a variety of lamp wattages, use average wattage

         or highest wattage  if lamp installed is highest allowable.
    g. Blank electrical boxes in kitchens are calculated at 80 watts low efficacy.
    h. If you are remodeling a kitchen and adding some new fixtures, some old fixtures may need to be replaced to meet 50% rule.

2. Other Rooms #1 (bathrooms, garages, laundry, closets (under 70s.f.), utility rooms
    a. All fixtures must be high efficacy or controlled by a vacancy sensor (manual on, auto off)

3. Other Rooms #2 all other rooms (larger closets, bedrooms, living rooms, attics, enclosed patio (even if not heated), etc.
    a. All fixtures must be high efficacy with regular switching OR
    b. All fixtures must be on vacancy sensors or dimmers

4. Outdoor Lighting
Applies to lighting attached to a building (not landscape or pool lighting)
    a.  All fixtures must be high efficacy with regular switching OR
    b. All fixtures must be on manual on/off switch with motion sensor (with no override) and one of the following  three methods to turn lights off during the day:
        1. Photocontrol with no override or bypass switch/
        2. Astronomical time clock with no override or bypass switch.
        3. Energy Management Conrol System with no override that allows light to always be on.
        4. Temporary override feature for up to six hours is acceptable (section 119)
    c. Address signs, Section 148
        1. Option 1 - must be high efficacy OR maximum of 12 watts per square foot of sign area (internally  illuminated)     
        2. Option 2 – no screw based socket and not more than 5 watts of power

Miscellaneous Lighting Notes:
1.    Form CF-6R-LTG-1 must be completed (by electrical contractor ideally) and given to the inspector at the end  of  construction.
2.    Definition of High Efficacy (Table 150C), Dedicated pin type lamps only, no screw in.  Electronic ballasts for 13W or higher. LED fixtures must be C.E.C. certified (Table 6-2)
3.    Recessed fixtures in insulated ceilings must have IC rating, certified air tight (2CFM max) sealed with gaskets or caulk between housing and ceiling. Rating label must be inside can.

B. New Residential Ventilation Requirements based on Ashrae 62.2

For new homes and additions greater than 1000 square feet

1. All habitable rooms (not closets, laundry garage, etc.)  must have windows with ventilation, openable area to be a minimum of 4% of floor area, or 5 s.f. minimum.

2. Kitchens
    a. Range hoods must be 100 CFM minimum and vent to outside OR
    b. Wall fan to provide 5 air changes per hour.

3. Bathrooms (not powder rooms)
    a. Provide fan with 50 CFM minimum and vent to outside,

4. Laundry
    a. Clothes dryers must vent to outside

5. Garage
    a.    Walls between house and garage must be sealed

6. Equipment
    a. HVAC must use Merv 6 or higher filters
    b. For HVAC equipment in garages or ducts passing through a garage, entire duct system must be sealed and HERS tested and certified, CF-4R form completed by tester.
    c. Verify minimum duct sizes per Table 4-9 (calculate with diameter, length, elbows, type of duct)
    d. No more than 6% duct leakage.
    e. Air inlets for ventilation must be 9 feet minimum away from barbecues and other “dirty”sources.
    f. Combustion appliances and air systems are to be designed to prevent back drafting
    g. Continuously operating fans must have sound rating of 1 sone or less, intermittent fans, 3 sones or less.
    h. CF6R-MECH-05 Installation certificate must be completed.

7. Whole building mechanical ventilation
    a. Provide 1 CFM per 100 s.f. of floor area plus 7.5 CFM per occupant (# of bedrooms plus one person).                         Ventilation calculations must be provided and tested in field. There are three basic options:
        1.    Exhaust (generally the simplest and most cost effective) Continuously operating 50 CFM minimum (tends to negatively pressurize house and can lead to dust/bad IAQ)
        2.    Supply Provide outside air to plenum.  Tends to positively pressurize house, pushing conditioned air out.
        3.    Combination Supply/Exhaust (best solution, more expensive) Balanced system with heat exchanger to minimize energy losses.
    b. Provide override control for vacations, etc.
    c. Use continuous fans or intermittent fan with timer (intermittent fan will need to be upsized to provide same amount of exhaust).
    d. Verify air flow ratings for exhaust fans from manufacturer www.hvi.org

For further information and complete copy of code, see 
http://energy.ca.gov/title24/2008standards/index.html

Can green = cash?

We are very fortunate to be currently working with a developer on a new five bedroom, four bath home on prime real estate on the Peninsula not far from Stanford University.  While we try to encourage all of our clients to make green choices for environmental and health reasons, in this case, the decisions need to make sense on the bottom line from day 1. 

Contractors, real estate agents, material suppliers, green point raters, designers, green homeowners, we need your help!

Over the next few weeks, we would like to analyze the project using Build It Green's rating program for new homes and try to find areas where green features can be added with little or no additional costs.  We would love input from you in the building profession as to what has worked for you in the past, or where you are seeing good deals now in this competitive economy.  Designers and homeowners who have incorporated green features in past projects, where have you seen the most bang for your buck, either in initial savings or in operating costs?  What features have given you the most pleasure over the long term?

We'd like to hear from you real estate folks as to whether buyers in the Bay Area would pay a premium if they knew that the home was Green Point Rated with points in community, energy, indoor air quality/health, resources and water.  Has real local research been done?  How would you quantify the potential financial differences between traditional vs. green construction?

Especially given the current economy where real estate sales are sluggish and prices reduced, it is all the more important to build efficiently and to price a project properly.  We know green building is important environmentally, but can it also make sense economically, even in the short term?

Please feel free to leave your comments.  We are hoping our blog will bring an open dialogue and become a resource for all.

Here are a few links to published articles/research on the topic.  The first two require payment, but the website gives basic information about their research.  If anyone has purchased these in the past, perhaps you can share your thoughts with us.

The Green Home Consumer: Driving Demand for Green Homes by McGraw Hill Construction 11/08

Shelton Group - Energy Pulse 2009

Residential Green Building Report - A Market Engagement Framework for Developers and Builders, a thesis project from the University of Michigan, 2007.

Life long learning

Christine and I recently attended two educational events, and have some tidbits of wisdom to share.

The first was a general class in reducing moisture problems in new homes, taught at the PG&E Energy Center
by Steve Easley , a nationally renown building scientist. The Energy Center is a great resource, open to both laypeople and professionals. All the classes, which cover a range of energy and building science topics, are free, and the morning coffee and danish are great!

Highlights of Steve's class:

Keep it simple, stupid: Many roof leaks are exacerbated, if not caused, by overly complex roof design, with multiple intersecting hips, gables, ridges, and horizontal valleys.  He showed several examples of designs that would almost have to leak.

Don’t tuck your raincoat into your underwear: Many problems arise when layers of waterproofing materials are incorrectly lapped – like shingles, the lower rows of materials have to go on first, with the upper rows lapped on top.  Doing the reverse lets water in…like tucking your raincoat into your underwear.  Sounds obvious, but he showed numerous examples of builders doing it wrong.

Stucco is a reservoir: it doesn’t look like Lake Mead, but stucco (as well as concrete, wood and many types of insulation) act as water reservoirs.  They absorb moisture, whether from vapor in passing steamy air or from liquid rain water, and they need to be able to dry out to the exterior (not the inside) of structures.  If your exterior finish material acts as a reservoir, it is best to keep it separated from the interior layers of the building envelope with an air gap. Materials can take a long time to dry out, particularly in dark, cool areas.

Know your materials: There is a big difference between various house wraps and building papers. Steve explained one egregious example: there is a perforated polyethlene sheeting product, essentially plastic wrap with small punched holes meant to let vapor escape.  Instead, he described how moisture from wet exterior stucco would be sucked through the holes into the dry plywood sheathing inside the wall; the plastic (otherwise used as a vapor barrier) would then act to keep the water from evaporating. Products like Tyvek and good old traditional building paper do the opposite.  Their holes are microscopic - so small they don't allow large liquid water molecules to pass but do let smaller vapor molecules pass.

Don’t build your house in a hole:  Also sounds obvious, but again Steve showed several examples of grades and patios that sloped towards foundations instead of away from them.

Reduce air leaks: Between leaky ducts, gaps in finishes, ungasketed electrical boxes, and sagging insulation, houses are letting a lot of air movement happen that shouldn’t.  When the air is moist and the building materials are cold, the moisture will condense out and leave your walls and ceilings dripping. Steve seems to be a big fan of spray foam insulation, for its ability to thoroughly seal structures while providing excellent insulation and even structural rigidity.

One year solar anniversary! 616 dollars saved!

After one year of solar generation and data collection, the good news, particularly interesting to you San Franciscans worried about the effects of fog, is that solar does indeed work year round, even in our peculiar climate.

Below is a graph of kilowatt hours generated each month of the year, starting in November 2009 through October 2009.  As can be expected, the lowest month of generation is January with 260.59 kwh (not surprising given the short days of winter), the highest month April, with 500.84.  In most places on our hemisphere, this number would go up higher as the days lengthen in June, but our fog came a little early this year.

For those of you interested in the bottom line, I have to start by apologizing for an earlier omission to our monthly costs.  PG&E has been billing us monthly for the costs of energy distribution and other fees, but not our actual energy use, which accumulates every month until the true up period one year later (some months are positive, others negative).  We just paid our true up bill of $196.91, so I owe you a year's accounting.

I am comparing the total costs of pre-solar 2008 and solar 2009, including all payments to PG&E and  to Solar City for our monthly lease expense of approximately $30 per month.  The comparison is by cost only, and does not compare usage (which to our chagrin, even with our efforts to turn off more lights and replace lightbulbs, has increased by about 300kwh for the year).  The cost comparison also does not reflect the increase in PG&E rates for electricity, which are impossible to account for this year as PG&E has just switched to a time of day metering.  

Total savings for the year are $616.38 with almost 6,000 pounds of C0² offset!

San Francisco Green Business Awards

The award ceremony for the new green certified businesses in San Francisco took place last week in, appropriately, the Green Room at the War Memorial building across from City Hall.  Beausoleil was recognized as one of 60 newly certified businesses in the last year.  This brings the total to 160 green businesses in a city of over 10,000 total. 

We are very proud of our award, seen above, printed with eco friendly soy based inks, using recycled pallets and glass from a hotel demolition for the frame, put together by ecoimprints, another fabulous San Francisco Green Business.

We encourage you business owners out there to check out the green business program in San Francisco  or the larger Bay Area.  Their process was incredibly helpful in finding new ways to save money and further green our business practices.  Besides the immediate environmental benefits, this could prove to be an even more important step in these difficult financial times to set your business apart from the competition!

Stained or Art Glass...

 

Well, the silver lining in this recession is that having more free time on your hands can sometimes lead to time for creative artistic pursuits.  I started doing stained glass (or art glass as the preferred terminology since there is nothing "stained" about it) at MIT of all places, not as a regular credit class as part of my architectural curriculum (the only art class offered at the time in the entire school was life drawing), but through their Student Art Association.

There I learned the basics of the craft and made a nice little Christmas present for my Mom.  Over the years, I experimented on and off, not quite sure it was the artistic medium for me as it takes a lot of patience (which I am sometimes short of) and skill, as well as a good artistic sense for colors, textures and composition.    As I tend to cut myself regularly on sharp edges,  I often wondered if the flow of blood was an indication I should stop and find a different pursuit.  But then when I go to a glass shop I can hardly control myself.  Think of the young child in their first candy store.  The colors, textures, pure art within each simple piece of glass excite me so.  At least for now, with a little more time on my hands, I will follow that excitement and see where it leads!  (And besides, in one of those same glass shops, Dan a very experienced glass artist and teacher, has a box of band-aids right at the front as he admits to cutting himself multiple times in one day!)

This piece was inspired by my winter magnolia, which is the first thing to bloom in my garden every spring.  The Chinese poem talks of the hope this blossom brings, descended to the earth (from heaven) quietly with a wave of cold. (Thank you again, Lena, for the poem.)

I was rereading  Genesis this week - the ultimate work of creation.  If we are really made in God's image, then each of us has that creative spark, wonderfully unique in each of us, that so wants to explore and create.  Go do it!  You never know what you might discover about yourself!

For more images of my glass projects, including commissions, click here.

We be stylin' now

I was thinking about style the other day, while working on a new remodeling project.  I was trying to create a sort of Hawaiian / country / mountain style house for clients whose house is on a forested hillside next to a creek. They wanted an informal plan that could be opened up to outdoor living areas but which would also shelter them from the heavy rainfall in the area.  The project is in Los Gatos, not Hawaii, but as I thought of the classical Hawaiian house – walls that can be opened to the breezes on all sides, wide eaves to protect from the sun and heavy rainfall, natural stone and wood walls, metal roofing – it seemed an appropriate choice, at least as a starting point, for thinking about the look the house might have. Of course, the owner’s Hawaiian shirts, shorts and sandals might have had something to do with my thought processes...

Why do we need to think about ‘style’ for houses? What is a style?  More often than not, our clients come to us with a desire to build a certain style house (and with many functional requirements also, to be sure), generally expressed by a well-known name and generally agreed upon characteristics.  Tuscan villa (stucco walls with stone trims, clay barrel tile roof, simple forms), Craftsman (fine wood detailing and other artistic elements built into the home, horizontal lines, big porches), Contemporary (sharp angles, flat roofs, lots of metal and glass, clean articulation of forms) are typical examples. I think people use style names for the same reason that we put names to many things – as a quick, commonly accepted way to identify the characteristics of something.  It saves a great deal of explaining.

We also use styles as a way to identify with places and times that have given us pleasure. I think most people, when they set out to create a new environment for themselves, think of places where they have felt happy, or relaxed, or particularly sheltered.  Many ‘styles’ are grounded in a region’s historical methods of construction, based originally in local availability of particular materials and construction methods, and local climatic conditions.  These local conditions ensure a certain consistency of design within the region; if these regions are heavily visited by tourists – think Tuscany, Province, the Sierras, Hawaii – the local style of architecture can become attractive to people who want to recreate the feeling they had while visiting.

On a more grandiose level, style can be used as a status symbol.  Early on, the ancient Greeks used elements from Egyptian architecture to make their temples grand. The Romans copied Greek elements because to them, the Greeks were the class act of their world. Then Rome adapted the plebian arch, developed by military engineers for bridges and aqueducts, into their buildings and a new style was born.  Starting in renaissance Italy, more recent Europeans re-created this ‘classical’ architecture in homage to the great Roman Empire, and it became the preferred architecture for the great and powerful for several centuries, eventually spreading everywhere European colonization went. A similar process took place in Asia.

Thus, some of our clients want classic Palladian villas, not because they enjoyed their stay in Florence, but because the rich and powerful have lived in such palaces since the time of the Medicis.

More later…

Christine is now a Green Point Rater!

I just wanted to let you know that I passed my three exams (one written, one plan check, one field exam) with flying colors.  I am now qualified and available to give green consulting and official ratings to new single or multi-family homes.  Many municipalities in California are adding Green Point Rated requirements to new or substantially remodeled residential projects, and Build It Green's programs, which allow for both entry level and extreme green makeovers, allow for all projects to fit under the same rating guidelines.

Congratulations so far to the Bay Area municipalities listed below (and many more found statewide on Build It Green's website) who have already adopted the standards:

Alameda County
Albany
Brisbane
Hayward
Los Altos
Los Altos Hills
Mill Valley
Novato
Palo Alto
Pleasanton
San Mateo County
San Rafael
Tiburon

And congratulations to many others who have programs in the works, or are using the ratings as suggestions to improve energy use, durability, air quality, etc. in the construction in their areas.  It is exciting to see the progress in residential construction over the past few years!

July Solar Update - SF fog vs. sun...

Forget June gloom, we actually had a nice June this year with over 455 kwh generated and a PG&E electric bill record low of only $3.04!

Now that the fog is really here for our typical cold San Francisco summer, I thought I would post the solar data from two back to back days, one sunny, one foggy.

The first is from this Tuesday, July 14, a glorious clear summer day with 19.42 kilowatts generated.

The second is from Wednesday, July 15, a thick foggy summer day with 8.58 kilowatts generated.

The fog definitely puts a damper on solar generation, but it still generates a respectable amount.  We'll let you know how it averages out when the bill comes a the end of the month.

If you haven't yet seen it, pick up a copy of the local paper, the Ingleside Light, with a prominent story on our system, our savings, and our first solar party!

San Francisco Solar Map

The City of San Francisco has a goal of 10,000 solar photovoltaic installations by 2010.  To track these installations and to give businesses, nonprofits and homeowners a place to see what has already been installed in their neighborhood, they have developed a website called the  San Francisco Solar Map.  Here you can get an idea of the size and annual savings of systems in your own microclimate.  To also help you determine if going solar might be right for your property, the website includes an interactive tab "What can solar do for you" that will give you a quick analysis of potential savings based on your address and roof size.  Links to local solar installers, tax credits and the fabulously generous  San Francisco Solar Initiative, which currently gives immediate credits of  $2000-10,000 for installing a system, can be found on their site. 

The solar map has just been updated for the first time in over 6 months (sadly budget cuts have affected their ability to keep up to date more regularly with new installations).  Our own installation is finally listed on the map, which helps bring the total to 1311 documented installations - a good start, but still very short of the 10,000 goal.  We know that not all systems are on the map as we have one neighbor in Westwood Park not listed.  We encourage you to contact the organization if you don't find your installation listed, and if you haven't yet considered solar for your property, contact any local installer for a free site specific estimate.  They will look at your PG&E bills and your roof layout and give you a much more accurate assessment for no charge.  The credits are great right now, but with the budget cuts our governments are facing, there is no guarantee of how long they might be available.