beausoleil

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!